Sunday, January 27, 2013

Tasty Little Treats Cinnamon-Sugar Minis










Cinnamon-Sugar Mini Muffins



These bite-sized muffins are light and fluffy with a delicious coating of cinnamon sugar.











These little muffins are delicious and super easy to make. They require ingredients that you probably already have in your kitchen so that saves a trip to the grocery store, which is always a bonus in my mind. Not that I don't like going to the store, just well I'd rather the food and ingredients magically appear in my pantry, fridge or freezer. So I was sitting around today reading probably the 7th book in 3 weeks, taking a break from my computer and browsing Pinterest to find some new ideas, and I remembered I had this recipe tucked away in one of my Taste of Home cookbooks. I knew I already had everything to make them. So I grabbed my butter from my fridge and set it out to soften before going back to my book to pass the time until the butter was ready.

It's been raining all weekend here in Phoenix, which I love, so really I've been wanting to make soup. I found a delicious looking recipe for chicken and dumpling soup...yeah I don't have all the ingredients so that didn't happen. But muffins, muffins happened. Not quite the same, maybe I'll get my butt to the grocery store tomorrow after work and get the stuff for some soup...or brownies...or cupcakes. Ahhh I need people to come eat all the goodies I make so I don't eat them all myself!

Let's get started, here's what you need.

5 Tablespoons butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I used a little closer to half...probably about 3/8 of a teaspoon)
Melted butter
Cinnamon-sugar



Fairly simple ingredients right? I've been getting in the habit of getting everything together before I start making the batter. It's much easier doing this than running back and forth in the kitchen to get the flour, then the sugar, then the salt, then the egg...etc. etc. Yep this way it's all laid out, pre-measured, and ready to go. Yup took me a while to realize this was easier. I'm so smart sometimes...

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.






First things first, in a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy.











Then beat in the egg...







And now the milk...


First time I made these I completely botched the batter the first time around. I read 1-1/2 cups of milk instead of 1/2 a cup. Started to add in the flour and realized it. Too late to do anything but trash what I had and start all over. This is why I now read and re-read a recipe probably 5 times before I start...even then sometimes I still mess up and have to start over. I think I did that with my Wasabi Beef Fajitas. Mistakes happen, just gotta roll with them and remind yourself to read carefully next time. Anyways...




Take the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg and mix it all together. Then add it into the liquid mixture. I added about 2/3 of the flour combo in and used my hand mixer to get it all mixed in. Then I added the remaining third and mixed it by hand so I wouldn't over-mix the batter. Didn't want to end up with too-tough muffins. I also added a smidgen of extra milk because my batter felt just a tab bit too thick.



Line a mini-muffin tray with paper liners, or you don't have to if you don't want to. I've started lining mine muffin and mini-muffin trays because that was I don't have to worry about my muffins/cupcakes sticking even though I have really good non-stick bakeware.


Now you're going to fill the muffin cups about two-thirds full. The batter will be really thick so it might be a little difficult to spoon into the muffin cups. I just used a spoon and tried my best to make the muffin cups evenly full. If anyone has a better method for scooping muffin batter into the trays, please let me know. I keep trying different things and they work...sometimes depending on the thickness of the batter.





Bake the muffins for about 14-16 minutes. Mine baked perfectly in 14 minutes so I suggest baking them for 10 then judging how much longer they need in the oven. Everyone's oven runs different so watch your muffins carefully! They're done when a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean and the muffins are just slightly browned.

Let them cool in the muffin tray for about 5 minutes before transferring them to wire rack to cool. While that's going on melt some butter in a small bowl and get some cinnamon-sugar in another small bowl.


Now take the muffins one at a time...duh...and dip the top part into the melted butter, like so...


Then immediately roll the butter coated muffin in the cinnamon-sugar. Repeat with all the muffins!





See the difference between the cinnamon-sugar coated muffins and the non-coated ones? That wonderful sugared look makes these little muffins look absolutely delectable!!


These muffins are best eaten warm. If you're not going to serve them or devour them all right when you're done baking them that's OK too. They're still awesome when they're not warm, but if you want to heat them up after they've cooled or maybe the next day, just put them in the microwave for about 7-10 seconds. That's all you need with these little guys. That's 7-10 seconds if you're only heating up 2. Probably need more time if you're heating up more.




But there you go! Your muffins are done and ready to eat! Here's a few more pics to help entice you to make these yourself!



Hope you enjoy these!!
Thanks for stopping by,
'Til Next Time!!

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