Orange Marmalade Muffins
Perfect mornings begin with tantalizing breakfast muffins like these sweet, orange marmalade muffins. These marmalade muffins are moist, fragrant, and have the most delectable crumble topping.
In an ideal world, most mornings would begin with me waking up to the smell of fresh coffee and fresh viennoiserie with a gorgeous view of the sparkling Seine river. It’s a luxurious morning full of simple pleasures.
While waking up in an apartment overlooking the Seine is still a dream, there’s no reason I can’t find other ways to indulge and make my mornings special. One way of doing this is by whipping up this breakfast muffins recipe.
While breakfast muffins are not a novel thing and can range anywhere from egg muffins to classic blueberry muffins, I think these marmalade muffins are a rare and often understated treat.
As a fan of orange marmalade jam, I can’t help but swoon over this easy muffin recipe. Similar to your basic muffin recipe, these marmalade muffins are made with basic baking ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, and eggs.
The ingredient that makes these muffins the best muffin recipe yet is the orange marmalade. While strawberry jam and raspberry jam are often used in various baked goods, the same isn’t always said for orange marmalade, which is a shame.
The orange marmalade provides incredible fragrance and flavor to these breakfast muffins, making them irresistible in a way blueberry or banana muffins will find hard to compete with.
These marmalade breakfast muffins are sweet, buttery, and full of orange flavor. They’re also really beautiful for a brunch spread because they’re a bit unexpected and yet completely compatible with most brunch foods.
To make the most out of these breakfast muffins, I recommend the following:
- Use orange marmalade that has a chunky shredded quality rather than a smooth, jelly-like version. The orange shreds add a little bit of desired texture.
- If you don’t want to squeeze oranges to make the orange juice, use a better quality carton of orange juice (none of the super fake, orange-flavored stuff).
- Don’t skip the imitation butter extract – this adds a lovely bakery touch to the muffins.
- Make sure to follow the oven temperature instructions by starting off at a high temperature for 5 minutes, then lowering the temperature without opening the oven door. This is what gives the muffins their bakery-style, high tops.
Honestly, these marmalade muffins just feel and taste so luxurious to me, and that in itself makes it a suitable choice for my preferred kind of morning.

Breakfast Marmalade Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp granulated white sugar
- 1 tbsp grated orange zest
- 2/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
- 9 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1/2 cup marmalade, shredded consistency
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp imitation butter flavoring
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- small pinch of ground nutmeg
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Line 8 muffin tins with paper cupcake/muffin liners. In a large bowl, combine the marmalade, grated orange zest, orange juice, vanilla extract, butter flavoring, 8 tablespoons of the butter (melted), and the beaten eggs together using a rubber spatula.
- Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and granulated sugar into a separate bowl, then whisk them all together. Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until it's all combined and the flour is no longer apparent. Try not to over-mix the batter; over-mixing makes muffins dense.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tins, filling the paper cups all the way to the top. In a small bowl, combine the remaining tablespoon of butter (melted) with the brown sugar and nutmeg. Lightly sprinkle the tops of the muffins with this mixture before baking the muffins at 425°F for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375°F, without opening the oven door, and continue letting the muffins bake for another 15 minutes.
- Insert a toothpick in the center to test for readiness; the toothpick should come out clean. Let the muffins rest in their pan for about 10 minutes before removing and serving.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 8 muffinsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 333
I’ve loved the first two times I’ve made this recipe, so convenient as a teacher needing quick and easy meal preps!
I wanna try making them with a different kind of chunky textured jam.. have you tried it with fig jam instead of orange marmalade?? looking for a orange/fig flavor!
Hi Diana! I haven’t done this particular recipe with other jams, but I think as long as it’s equally sweet and chunky, it should work! 🙂