French Breakfast Puffs

One Saturday morning, I had a craving for something sweet.  (Yeah, ok, I get these cravings almost every morning.  Moving on...)  I wanted some kind of muffin, preferably with cinnamon sugar on top, and I wanted it right away.  I had seen some similar recipes around the internet in the preceding weeks, but I was working with only the things I already had in my cupboards.  I went to trusty old allrecipes.com, found a recipe, changed a couple things, and this was the result.  They definitely filled my craving!  They were light and fluffy and just what I wanted.  Between Paul and I, we finished off all 12 muffins well before lunchtime.

French Breakfast Puffs

adapted from allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

Muffins:

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 cup milk

Topping:

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

6 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 12 muffin cups with paper liners (or grease 12 muffin cups).

Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Add baking soda, salt, and nutmeg and mix to combine.  Alternately mix in flour and milk by adding half the flour, then half the milk, followed by the other half of flour, and then the other half of milk.

Spoon batter into muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes, until cooked through.

When the muffins are almost done, melt the 6 tablespoons of butter in the microwave in a small bowl (cereal size works well).  Combine sugar and cinnamon in another small bowl.  

As soon as the muffins are done, remove them carefully from the muffin pan.  Immediately (or as soon as they are cool enough to handle without burning yourself) dip the top of each one into the melted butter and then the cinnamon sugar mixture.  Serve warm.

Notes:

--The nutmeg really gives these little muffins a nice taste.  It makes them just a little different than you may expect, but it's unexpected in a good way. :)

--Make sure you dip the butter all the way down to the top of the wrapper.  The cinnamon and sugar will only stick where the butter covers.

Enjoy!

-Jennie