This is a guest post from my wife, whose January recipe for baked potato soup garnered rave reviews.
March in our part of Oregon means rain, rain, rain. I'd like to be out working in the yard, but the cold and wind keep me inside where I work off my frustration by baking.
This easy and frugal recipe is nice for a brunch or family breakfast. Cinnamon Spice Muffins don't call for any exotic ingredients or fancy equipment, but they disappear in a flash. Reminiscent of warm doughnuts and drenched in butter and cinnamon-sugar, they're anything but healthy. But what the heck, fill out the rest of your brunch with lowfat yogurt, turkey bacon and fresh fruit and you'll survive the splurge.
Be sure to use real butter, not margarine, and don't overbeat the batter or they'll turn out tough. I've also made these as mini-muffins for a donut-hole-type treat. If you don't have nutmeg on hand, you can substitute cinnamon in the batter; either way is nice. The ingredients for one 12-muffin batch run about $4.
Cinnamon Spice Muffins
Muffins
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 2/3 cup butter at room temperature
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup milk
Sugar & spice coating
- 1/3 cup butter, melted
- 1 cup granulated sugar mixed with
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 12-cup muffin tin (or coat with non-stick spray).
Sift together flour, salt, nutmeg & baking powder. Set aside. Beat together 2/3 cup butter and 1 cup sugar, about 2 minutes on medium speed. Add eggs one at a time and beat in. Add dry ingredients in three portions, alternately with milk, combining just until well mixed. Divide batter among 12 muffin cups. Bake 25-30 minutes until lightly golden. Cool about 3 minutes, then remove from pan.
While still warm, use a pastry brush to brush muffins with melted butter and then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture until the muffins are well coated on all sides.
Save any extra cinnamon-sugar for toast later in the week. These muffins are best served warm. You can make them a day ahead and reheat them in the oven, in a dish covered with foil.
J.D.'s note: Uh, having these muffins around is not going to help me get fit! Kris is right — they are vaguely like donuts. Yum.
I haven’t had my breakfast yet and those look GOOD! You can never go wrong with cinnamon, butter and sugar.
more frugal recipes! eating healthy on a budget is a frustrating endeavor.
That does look good lol
I’m usually a Pancake and/or Waffles cook on the weekends. I make a HUGE deal over home cooked meals on the weekends. Since I hadn’t already made breakfast this morning when I read this, I gave it a shot.
I’m not quite sure what “Nom nom nom nom” really means.. but that’s the sound they made between bites when I asked how they liked the muffins. YOU WIN!
Thanks for sharing.
Momma
My mother used to make these for a rare dinner treat – what a break from boiled potatoes! glad to have a recipe, thanks.
Mmmm, those look good. I wish I didn’t already have lemon olive oil cookie dough waiting in the fridge! But that will be yummy, too, and also rolled in sugar. Isn’t that the most important part?
These are baking in the oven right now! The only difference is that I subbed buttermilk for milk, and added 1 tsp of baking soda to offset the acid in the buttermilk. 10 minutes of baking to go and they have already risen really high, and are filling up the kitchen with the smell of fresh baked goods…
THANK YOU!!
Oh my goodness. I used to buy a boxed mixed from a certain direct sales company that looks EXACTLY like this recipe. It’s a wee bit expensive though…this looks amazing!
Sadly I have been bullied into playing tennis this morning (in the rain!) but I am so indulging in these tomorrow morning. Thanks Kris! Can this be a regular feature?
Those sound SO good!
I thought folks in Seattle and Portland all had head-to-toe rain gear that made being outside more comfortable. Not so?
These sound really good – I think I’ll surprise the family with some tomorrow morning (I’ll have to bake quietly!). Thanks for sharing.
These look really good, I will have to try them when I get a chance. By the way true Oregonians mow the lawn in the rain :)
Thanks for this yummy recipe! From a fellow Oregonian who is at the moment enjoying SUN (although I’m sure the rain will start up in again in a few minutes LOL!)
We were honored to have the author of this entry hand deliver a batch of these tasty treats to our door this morning. What a great way to start the day. Super duper yum!
These look terrific! I think we’ll try this with our brood tomorrow morning! They’ll go great with our homemade yogurt.
Half a pound of butter is frugal?
Kim @#16
You’re right that butter is downright expensive! In fact, it accounts for about 1/2 the cost of this recipe. I calculated $1.75-worth of butter because at my regular grocery store, I usually find one brand or another on sale for $3.50/pound. But I still consider this a frugal recipe because it doesn’t require you to purchase any ingredients you probably don’t have on hand anyway, so nothing goes to waste afterwards. To me, the flavor and texture from real butter is worth the price.
If I’m making a trip to Costco, I always pick up a pack of 4 1-pound boxes of butter. I stick three boxes in the freezer for later use. Their price is around $1.75/pound, or about 88-cents-worth for this recipe.
Either way, to my mind, it’s hard to beat homemade muffins fresh from the oven. :)
I also made these for breakfast this morning! I was trying to surprise my significant other, but the sounds of baking drew her from the bed. They are very very tasty, and i think that the muffin base would be a good jumping off point for other types of breakfast muffins. Thanks!
Thank you!!! The Inn I used to work at would make these in “mini-muffin” form for Sunday brunch. We would sit in the kitchen during our down time and scarf them like maniacs! I completely forgot about them until now but I’ll be making them again soon, and scarfing!!
Thanks for the awesome and easy recipe. I made them today and they are absolutely heavenly.
Thanks for sharing your recipe , I am looking forward to bake & get back to you soon ,
Tracy Ho
wisdomgettingloaded
Therese are remarkably similar to those of The Pioneer Woman, on The Pioneer Woman Cooks.
http://thepioneerwomancooks.com/2007/12/french_breakfast_puffs.html
Thanks Kris & JD – I just made a batch of the getfatquickly muffins and they are awesome!!
I just tried these this morning b/c I was out of bread and couldn’t face cheerios again for breakfast, lol. Very, very yummy, they do taste like donuts! But I did a big frugal/calorie no-no… I don’t have a pastry brush at the moment so I just DUNKED the muffins in butter… ummm, delicious but they suck up a lot of butter, probably shouldn’t do that again!
Big hit with my 2 yo & 4 yo, I have half the batter left, will make them for Saturday breakfast so my dh can enjoy them as well. :)
My 4 year old son and I made these together. They were a big hit in our house. SO DELISCIOUS! Even the one that got lost in the bread cupboard for a week was yumm-hay!! And not even that stale! LOL!
This recipe is going into my “favourites” recipe book right away!
i *finally* got around to making these, and they are really fantastic! very easy to make and so, so tasty – like moist, delicious donuts. i might try to substitute apple sauce for some of the butter, which might help make them more economical (and slightly healthier!). thanks for posting!
I tasted these this morning and they were delicious! The cook called them donut hole muffins though- and once I tasted them I agreed- they did tast like donut holes!
These tasted DELICIOUS. I’m kind of a bad baker but these were so easy to make and amazing.
Oh these look yum! :)