These Clementine and Pomegranate Muffins are the perfect way to get your Christmas fix in the mornings, full of festive flavours and totally delicious!
Bye Bye Thanksgving, Hello Christmas! I figured it made sense to start off my Christmas themed recipes with a breakfast recipe! Because what better way to get yourself in the festive spirit than tucking into a yummy muffin full of Christmassy fruits and flavours in the morning? Of course, you can eat these any time of the day, don’t limit yourself to just breakfast time!
(the problem with taking photos with shiny baubles is you can’t avoid including yourself in the photos!)
Pomegranates are such a great Christmas fruit, those red jewels are just so festive and they taste their best in the winter. I can’t really place why clementines are festive, but they are aren’t they? Maybe it’s because it’s customary in many places to include a clementine in Christmas stockings, did you get one in yours? Or will you be popping one in your kids stockings this year? Personally, I prefer a chocolate orange in mine, that’s fruit too right?!
But wherever these traditions come from, you can’t deny the yumminess of the combination of these two and they taste like elves dancing on your tongue – or something less weird sounding! My brain is too fried to think of a better metaphor so I’m afraid you’re stuck with that one! They’re not just festive, they’re beautifully moist with a chewy top, so delicious! Just the way a muffin should be. The trick to getting that classic muffin top is to fill your cases almost to top and bake at a high heat for 10 minutes, before reducing it down to bake all the way through. That way the muffins puff up on the top and retain the moisture throughout.
Getting the pomegranate seeds to evenly disperse is a little trickier. I like to toss them in a little of the flour mixture, which definitely helps, but since the batter is a bit on the thinner side for these muffins a lot of them are still going to sink. But you’ll have a few up at the top and they still taste wonderful, so who cares! There’s no muffin police here!
These muffins are beautifully moist because they’re fully of lovely clementine juice, I also used kefir milk in them because it’s my new favourite thing, but also because they also keep them moist and rich tasting.
If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter, you may already have seen me post about the semi break I am taking from blogging at the moment. It’s not a full break because I enjoy it too much for that, but as I’ve mentioned before I have a few health issues and right now I really need to take care of myself. Those of you who blog know how much effort can go into it, it’s so much more than just writing a few posts, and as much as I do enjoy doing it I need the rest more right now! I’m not going away completely, my next post will be sometime next week (Wednesday at the earliest) and hopefully after then I’ll be back on a regular schedule (or at least most of the time). Over the next week there won’t be much activity on my Twitter or Facebook accounts either – but there will still be a little posting on my Instagram, I’m heading to Atlanta on Monday so come follow me on there if you wanna see what I get up to or just my general ramblings, I’d love to chat with you on there!
I hope this recipe will tide you over for a little while anyway, it is a good one! I’m gonna bring these muffins along to Fiesta Friday, in the hopes they get you all in a nice, festive mood! Come party with us, it’s always a lot of fun and along with our fab host Angie, we have two wonderful co hosts to party with this week – Prudy and Jess. And I’ll be back with a post in time for next week’s FF, I’m never one to miss a good party 😉
Keep safe guys, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving if you celebrate it and have fun getting ready for whatever holidays you may celebrate this winter!
- 220g plain flour (all purpose flour)
- 170g caster sugar (super fine granulated sugar)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 clementines, peeled
- 240ml kefir milk*
- 1 large egg
- 115g unsalted butter
- 1 pomegranate - seeds only
- Preheat the oven to 230C/450F and line a muffin tin with papers
- Combine the sugar, flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt in a bowl and set aside.
- Put the clementines in a food processor, and blitz until you have a puree. Stir in the kefir milk.
- Put the egg and butter in a large bowl and beat.
- Stir in the clementine mixture.
- Put one tbsp of the flour mixture in a small, and add the remaining to the muffin mixture. Stir to combine.
- Put the pomegranate seeds in the bowl with the 1 tbsp flour and stir to coat.
- Stir the pomegranate seeds into the muffin mixture gently, until evenly dispersed.
- Spoon the mixture into the cases, filling almost to the top. Sprinkle a little caster sugar on top if desired.
- Bake at 230C/450F for 10 minutes. Leaving the muffins in the oven, turn the temperature down to 200C/400F and bake for another 10 minutes, or until they're a light golden brown and springy to touch.
- Remove from the oven, leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely
- *If you don't have kefir milk, you can use greek yogurt instead.
- Will keep in an air tight container for 3 days
Sharing with…
Fiesta Friday, Super Saturdays, Show Me Saturdays, Scraptastic Saturday, Sweet and Savoury Sunday, Motivation Monday, Inspiration Monday, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Foodie Fridays, Bewitchin’ Projects, Frugal Crafty Home, Project Parade, Inspire Me Wednesday, Create It Thursday, Cook It! Craft It! Share It!, Time to Sparkle
Those are festive muffins indeed – and lovely pictures. I think the cold weather has got me thinking about Christmas baking much earlier than usual and these look like a good start now that the cake and plum pudding have been taken care of. I do hope you get a good rest and find the time to take care of yourself.
Thank you Hilda! The weather has been pretty mild here, but I’ve been in the festive baking mood ever since I had to break out the santa hat and tinsel to have my photo taken for my work’s christmas card, which was beginning of this month haha!
Hi, Michelle! What a great recipe! I must admit that I never thought of clementines as festive or out of season, BUT maybe the reason we think they seem festive is that they remind us of the orange individuals place in the bottom of the stocking. (Or, maybe that’s just a weird tradition and you have no idea what I’m talking about). Love the pomegranate as well. Have a wonderful weekend!
Thank you Kaila!
I’m not 100% sure of your tradition, but it’s pretty customary to put a clementine or satsuma at the bottom of the stocking here!
You got me feeling the Christmas Mood, Michelle!
Great idea to start with breakfast 😀
I love your muffins ^^ Awesome combination.
The pictures look so festive as well 😀 Haha I kind of like the fact that we can see you taking the picture in the baubles :p
Thank you Sarah, glad I could help get you in the christmas mood even if it’s not even December yet!
Haha, I wonder if anybody will be able to tell what case I have on my phone from the baubles haha!
This muffin is definitely ready to party! Happy FF Michelle.
Thank you Julie! Happy FF to you too x
Hmm, pomegranate and clementine muffins sound great. Be safe, Michelle. <3
Thank you Jhuls xx <3
What a great muffin recipe for the holidays, love the clementine and pomegranate flavour together, yum!
Thank you 🙂 x
Hey Michelle, is kefir milk thick, just wondering if I can use regular plain yogurt instead of Greek?
Yep, greek yogurt would be a good substitute. It’s the same consistency and has a very similar taste.
Sorry just read your comment again and realised I misread it! But yes, plain yogurt should work fine too.
Happy Fiesta Friday Michelle! I am loving everything about this recipe… Your photos are so pretty..so festive and happy! Absolutely perfect for the festive combination of clementines and pomegranates in these gorgeous muffins!
Please take care of yourself… I hope that you’re feeling better, and back to normal in no time! I’ll be thinking of you..
Thank you so much for sharing! <3
Thank you Prudy <3
Yummy! These muffins look wonderful! Great combination of flavors for the holidays 🙂
Thank you! x
How is it Christmas already!? Anyway, these muffins look amazing – even though I have to admit that I’ve never tried a clementine or a pomegranate (weird, I know!!)
I know! It’s snuck up on us! Oh wow, I can’t believe you’ve never had a pomegranate, when it gets to winter around there you should definitely try them (they’re not worth eating in the summer), so yummy!
I love poms. Why didn’t I ever think to use them in baking?!! I love the pomegranate surprise inside the muffins. Yum 🙂
I definitely don’t take advantage of them while they’re in season, baking or otherwise! Thank you Anjana 🙂 x
That’s one combination I would never have thought of. Very interesting Michelle
Thank you 😀 x
thanks for the heads up on pom in baking will definitely have to try them in my recipes visiting from sweet and savory have a great week
Thanks Lorraine, I hope you have fun baking with some pomegranate, it’s definitely yummy!
This is a perfect way to kick off Christmas!! 🙂 The Combination sounds incredible!
Thank you Dini x
Wow, even the name sounds yummy. Hopefully you arrived in Atlanta safely. Safe travels to you. Thank you for sharing and linking up to Scraptastic Saturdays. This post has been shared via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Have a wonderful week.
Thank you Andrea! x
Michelle, would you be willing to co-host FF45? I sent to a message via your contact page yesterday, not sure it went thru. Let me know, please. XOXO
I didn’t get the email, no 🙁 I’ve sent you an email via your contact page just now 🙂
Send me an email, hon!
Clementine and pomegranate couldn’t be more Christmassy, such a great idea and they look like fabulous muffins!
Thank you anna 🙂 x
I only learned about the clementine tradition in France, but it’s a nice one. I think things are so dreary in the winter that a little citric fruit makes everything brighter! I love when I click on your images every week at the #FoodieFridays party…your ideas are always so creative!
I think you might be right there, I like that idea anyway! In my house it kind of changed from a clementine to a chocolate orange… which brightens my day much more haha!
Aww thank you Christine 😀 x
Thank you for posting on Motivation Monday!
These muffins look like so much fun! I love the idea of using clementines–very festive and uplifting! I just bought some clementines, so I will have to give these muffins a try.
Thank you Jenny. I hope you like them if you give them a go 🙂
Clementines are a favourite of mine this time of year, I always have to have them in the house. Those muffins look delicious! Thanks for linking up to Sweet and Savoury Sunday, stop by and link up again. Have a great day!!
Thank you! x
Love this and can’t wait to try it! Visiting from Create It Thursday.
Thank you! x
I didn’t have kefir milk or Greek yoghurt when I made these, so I used 20% cream once, and soy milk another time, and it worked fine. Definitely going to make them again. SO GOOD
So glad you liked them! And really good to know that cream and soy works too, thanks so much!!