Cinnamon-Sugar Muffins

One of the great things about my parents' house (in terms of blogging) is that their kitchen has great light for photos. Take, for instance, this fantastic photo of this Cinnamon-Sugar muffin. I made these for brunch on the day after Christmas. They are easy to make and really good.

The recipe is actually called "Doughnut Muffins." And of course, it's a King Arthur Flour recipe. I renamed them "Cinnamon-Sugar Muffins" because they didn't taste like doughnuts to me (of course it's been awhile since I've eaten a doughnut). At any rate, they are tasty. I pretty much followed the recipe exactly, but I did make a slight change to the spices. The original recipe can be found here.


Note: I weighed a lot of the ingredients on a kitchen scale so I didn't have to wash a lot of measuring cups. Visit the KAF website if you want the volume measurements :-).

Cinnamon-Sugar Muffins (makes 12 muffins)
Batter
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3.5 ounces granulated sugar
2.5 ounces brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
11.25 oz. all-purpose flour
1 cup milk

Topping
3 Tbsp. melted butter
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 Tbsp. cinnamon

Heat your oven to 425 degrees and prepare your muffin tins. I lined the cups with paper liners and sprayed the liners with cooking spray.

This is a cakey batter, and it differs from standard muffin recipes because you cream together the butter and sugars, and then alternate adding the dry ingredients and milk when incorporating everything.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, vegetable oil, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until smooth.

Check out this high-tech mixer! This is the first one I've seen with an electronic "shifter."

Add the eggs, one at a time. Beat until well combined.

Stir (using a spatula or spoon) in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla extract.

Stir in 1/3 of the flour until fully incorporated. Then add in 1/2 milk, another 1/3 of the flour, the rest of the milk, then the rest of the flour. Make sure to mix thoroughly after each addition. Be sure to start and end with the flour.

This batter's ready!

Time to fill the muffin cups. You will want to fill them pretty full.

Whoops! Spilled batter...

All cleaned up and ready to go!

Bake 15-17 minutes (it took 17 minutes in my parents' oven). Be sure to test the muffins with a toothpick.

Allow the muffins to cool for a couple of minutes before you apply the topping. For the topping, mix the cinnamon and sugar in a bowl. Then, melt the butter in another bowl. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of melted butter, but you could probably get away with only using 2.

Use a pastry brush to brush melted butter on top of each muffin, and then dip the muffin top in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Set the muffins on a rack to cool (or you can eat them warm).