Spiced Marble Muffins | Lebkuchen Marmorkuchen

A fall twist on the classic marble cake, these spiced marble muffins are the perfect easy fall breakfast treat.

What type of spice is in these muffins?

Rather than making pumpkin spice muffins, I decided to give these a German twist. Lebkuchen are traditional cookies in Germany with a very distinct spice blend. This spice blend is mixed into half of the batter for these muffins to give them a warm fall flavor.

How do I keep my muffins from drying out?

To make moist marmorkuchen muffins, it comes down to two things. The first is to use yogurt or sour cream in the batter, this helps to add richness and moisture to the batter. The second is to not over bake it. After 20 minutes check the muffins, they should be golden brown and a toothpick should come out clean when inserted in the center.

How do I get a muffin top?

This recipe will make 24 regular muffins, but if you want to have a nice tall top, add 5 tablespoon scoops of batter into each muffin liner rather than 4 and bake for 2 extra minutes. This will make a total of 19 muffins rather than 24.

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Tips for making Spiced Marble Muffins

1. Prep the ingredients for the chocolate batter and mix the lebkuchen spices before starting the rest of the muffin batter.
2. Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature – this will help get a smooth and fluffy muffin batter.
3. These muffins work well when baked on convection because they are heated more evenly. However, if baking on a traditional oven setting, rotate and switch the muffin pans to make sure they bake evenly.
4. Let them cool for 5 minutes before turning them out.
5. Drizzle the muffins with melted chocolate for something a little extra but it is optional.

Ingredients

• All Purpose Flour: Any all purpose flour will work for these muffins! I have not yet tried any other flours with this recipe.
• Baking Soda & Baking Powder: These both help make the muffins rise – make sure to check the expiration date! If they are expired, they won’t be very effective.
• Cocoa Powder: Both dutch processed and natural cocoa powder will work here.
• Vanilla Extract: Vanilla adds flavor and enhances the chocolate.
• Eggs: I use standard large eggs from the store.
• Sugar: These muffins only use granulated sugar in the batter.
• Yogurt: I like to use greek yogurt in this recipe, but sour cream or full fat unsweetened yogurt will work too!
• Butter: Butter adds moisture and richness to these muffins.
• Dark Chocolate: The dark chocolate is for the chocolate cake portion as well as the optional chocolate drizzle. Make sure that it is at least semi-sweet or dark chocolate rather than milk chocolate.
• Milk: Any milk or non-dairy milk will work for this recipe.
• Cinnamon, Ginger, Cloves, Nutmeg, Allspice: These ground spices create the lebkuchen spice mixture.

How to make Spiced Marble Muffins

• Preheat the oven to 350 F or 325 F if baking on convection.
• Arrange two racks so that they divide the oven into thirds.

Prepare Chocolate and Spice additions

• Melt the chocolate for the chocolate batter and stir in the cocoa powder.
• Mix the lebkuchen spices in a small bowl.

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Make the muffin batter

• In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Then add in the sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, and yogurt. Using a paddle attachment beat the ingredients on high for two minutes until light and fluffy.
• Pour 600 grams of the batter into a second mixing bowl. Then add the melted chocolate with cocoa powder, and milk into the bowl of the stand mixer with the remaining cake batter. Mix again until fully combined – scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
• Pour the mixed spices into the second mixing bowl and stir together with a spatula.

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Bake the Muffins

• Place muffin liners into 2, 12 cup muffin pans.
• Use a tablespoon scoop to scoop alternating spiced and chocolate batter into the muffin liners. For 24 muffins scoop 4 total scoops of batter into each muffin liner. For more mounded top muffins, scoop 5 scoops into each muffin liner – this will result in 19 muffins.
• Use a skewer or knife to gently spread the batter around each muffin cup.
• Bake the muffins for 20 minutes, rotating after 12 minutes to make sure they bake evenly. If making the larger, 5 scooped muffins, bake for 22 minutes.
• The muffins should be golden brown when finished baking. Remove the muffins from the oven and set on cooling racks to cool for at least 5 minutes before tipping them out.
• Leave the muffins to cool fully before drizzling with extra melted chocolate.

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