These Christmas morning muffins are made with Greek yogurt, filled with rosemary, dried cranberries, nutmeg and vanilla bean. Topped with a cinnamon crumble and vanilla nutmeg glaze they’re the perfect festive bite for Christmas morning.
Christmas morning has always meant pandoro in my family.
If you’re not familiar, it’s basically panettone’s simpler cousin. There’s no dried fruit in it, just sweet buttery (omg, so.much.butter) Italian cake/bread doused in powdered sugar.
Every year since we were little, my grandmother would source about 15 of them from some legit Italian deli or Arthur Avenue in the Bronx (they come in a box, imported from Italy) and pass them out to all the family members on Christmas Eve.
This way we’d all get to wake up to deliciousness the next morning.
Now that grandma is gone, my mom has dutifully taken over this responsibility and my Christmas pandoro is already sitting on the sideboard in my dining room just waiting for Christmas morning.
That said, if you try to eat just pandoro for breakfast, you’ll either:
A – eat about 2,500 calories worth of butter and sugar in about 5 minutes or,
B – be hungry about 10 seconds later because there’s absolutely no satiety to pandoro. Trust me on this one, after 33 years, I’ve learned.
Christmas morning is no time for eggs and other practical breakfast things though.
No, no, no.
It’s Christmas, it’s a magical day, it requires magical food (like this apricot brandy pound cake later on for dessert).
So, while I totally encourage you to try pandoro if you’ve never had it, I’m also going to suggest these Greek yogurt Christmas morning muffins.
Also check out this Cranberry Mascarpone English Muffin Casserole – another great option for Christmas morning!
Filled with dried cranberries, rosemary, nutmeg, vanilla bean paste, topped with a cinnamon sugar crumble and then glazed with a nutmeg vanilla bean icing, there’s no questioning their Christmas morning worthiness.
And unlike pandoro, Christmas morning muffins won’t set you back a days worth of calories and fat either.
They smell absolutely amazing as they bake and fill your entire house with the nostalgic aroma of the holiday.
They’re a wonderful way to start the most festive day of the year and set the tone for all the goodies to come later on like Christmas tree cookies, chocolate chunk molasses gingerbread cookies and vegan thumbprints!
MORE CHRISTMAS MORNING BREAKFAST RECIPES:
Gingerbread Oatmeal
Cranberry Mascarpone English Muffin Casserole
Cheesy Potato Breakfast Casserole with Turkey Sausage and Eggs
Gingerbread Granola
Eggnog Breakfast Bake
Greek Yogurt Christmas Morning Muffins
Ingredients
Muffins
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat white flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon freshly chopped rosemary
- 1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup 2% plain Greek yogurt
- 1/3 cup milk
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste
Crumble topping
- 1 tablespoon cold butter, diced
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- pinch kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Glaze
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- milk to thin
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease a muffin tin with baking spray and set aside.
- Combine the flours, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, sugar, rosemary and cranberries in a large bowl.
- Whisk together the eggs, Greek yogurt, milk, butter and vanilla bean paste in a medium bowl until smooth.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until incorporated.
- Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin tins.
- Make the crumble topping by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and working the diced butter into the mixture using your fingers or a fork until the texture of coarse meal. Sprinkle the crumble mixture on top of the muffin batter in the tins.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes until set.
- Remove from oven, let cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.
- Make the glaze by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and stirring. Add milk as you go until desired consistency.
- Drizzle the glaze over completely cooled muffins and serve.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
*This post is sponsored by the ADADC. All content and opinions are my own.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
These were so delicious and a big hit on Thanksgiving morning and I am making them again for Christmas!
easy!
Wow, these muffins looks so delicious. I never get tired of baking so adding this recipe to my favorites.
Wow, such an amazing recipe. Looking forward to making this oncoming Christmas.
I’ll definitely be baking these tomorrow! I was thinking about doing some simple french toast for Christmas breakfast, but these look too good not to try, and what better to use as an excuse to bake something fancy than Christmas day? :)
These look wonderful and I look forward to making them. What is vanilla bean paste and/or how does person make it?
It’s an alternative to vanilla extract. If you don’t have any on hand or can’t find it in the store (it’s usually in the spice section where you’d find vanilla extract) just use the same amount of vanilla extract, it’s a 1 to 1 substitution.
Baking breakfast for Christmas morning ahead of time is essential! And these are perfect!
These muffins look so good! They are packed full of all the things I LOVE! Pass a few my way :)
A friend makes a similar version each year and delivers them fresh as her gift to us..
I’m a huge fan of greek yogurt in breakfast breads. I love the addition of rosemary into an otherwise sweet muffin – such a great flavor combo. Now I want four or five! :)