Holiday Spiced Squash & Cranberry Muffins with Crumble Topping

Warm spices, squash, and cranberries are significant flavors during the holidays. In light of the season, I created a recipe using my winter garden squash, warm spices, a sweet crunchy crumble topping, and cranberries for color, freshness, and tartness. You can't go wrong with your holiday breakfast table topped with these muffins.

Prep Time30

Cook Time25

Total Time55

Course: Breakfast, Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: squash and cranberry muffins, holiday muffins, Thanksgiving muffins, Christmas muffins, crumble topping, spiced muffins

Author: Summer

Ingredients

Muffin Batter:

240 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
8 g (2 tsp) baking powder
1 g (¼ tsp) baking soda
3 g (½ tsp) salt
6 g (2 tsp) ground cinnamon
3 g (1 tsp) ground ginger
1 g (½ tsp) ground nutmeg
210 g (1 cup) squash, cooked and mashed = 1 small whole squash (~560 g / 1.5 lbs) acorn, delicata, butternut, pumpkin, etc.)
2 large eggs at room temperature and beaten
110 g (½ cup packed) brown sugar
100 g (½ cup) granulated sugar
157 ml (⅔ cup) whole milk or other milk
87 g (6 tbsp/3 oz) butter melted
100 g (1 cup) fresh cranberries halved

Crumble Topping:

60 g (½ cup) all-purpose flour
3 g (1 tsp) ground cinnamon
55 g (¼ cup packed) brown sugar
50 g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
58 g (4 tbsp/2 oz) butter melted

Instructions

Make the Muffin Batter:

Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
TIP: This recipe makes 16-20 muffins so you can line another muffin pan or use the same one after the first batch is baked.
In a large bowl, sift together the first 7 dry ingredients from flour through nutmeg. Stir until well combined.
In medium bowl, stir together squash, eggs, and both sugars. Measure out milk and pour it into the squash mixture and stir.
Dice butter and melt it (~30 seconds in microwave) just until melted.
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, pour in squash mixture and melted butter. Stir just until combined; careful not to overmix.
Slice each cranberry in half. Fold cranberries into the muffin batter just until dispersed.
TIP: Slicing the cranberries disperses the tartness throughout each muffin and ensures they cook through during baking.

Prepare the Crumble Topping:

In a small bowl, combine flour and cinnamon and mix well. Add both sugars and mix. Pour in butter and use a fork to combine just until the mixture crumbles; avoid a cohesive/doughy mixture.
Spoon ~⅓ cup of batter in each muffin cup (⅔-¾ to the top). Add remaining batter to another muffin pan or set batter aside and bake another batch when the first is done. Distribute the crumble topping evening over each muffin. Gently press the crumble into the batter.
Bake for 25-30 minutes until brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Allow the muffins to cool just enough to remove them from the muffin cups. Serve warm with butter and enjoy.

Video

Notes

Storage Suggestions:

You can store these muffins are room temperature for a few days. I prefer to freeze them as soon as they cool and remove them from the freezer and heat in the microwave when ready.