Cinnamon and Butter Muffins

As usual on a weekend, I wake up pondering the possibilities of what to have for breakfast. On weekends like these then the cupboards look emptier than they usually do as we draw nearer to shopping day. After a spot of researching on Google for some inspiration, I stumbled on something that sounded so delicious that I had to send Gavin out to the shops to get some more butter so that I could make Cinnamon and Butter Muffins. Luckily, everything we had everything else on the list!

Ingredients:
Coating:
4oz Sugar
1/2 tbsp Cinnamon
7oz Butter
Muffins:
10oz Plain Flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
6oz Butter
6oz Sugar
1 egg
200ml Milk

It's personal preference as to whether you want to start the muffin making first or prepare the coating. I started with a bit of both whilst I was waiting for the butter to arrive. 

The oven was preheated to 175°C.

I combined the Sugar and the Cinnamon together in a bowl and left it until later.

I was waiting for my butter at this point, so I started mixing together the dry ingredients for the muffins. I combined the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and nutmeg in a bowl and put to one side. 

Arrival of butter - Yay! Thank you Gavin!!

Now that I had butter, in a separate bowl (still making the muffins), I added the butter and sugar and mixed until fluffy, then I added the egg and mixed it in.The milk and the dry mix of flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt, was added gradually until it was combined.

The mixture was then divided into silicone cases and went into the oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, whilst the muffins were baking, I melted 7oz butter in a saucepan on a medium heat. The butter needed to go beyond just melting though, it needed to simmer for a bit and become transparent. Once we had got to that stage, it was set aside until the muffins were ready to come out of the oven.

When the muffins were ready, they were left to cool slightly, until I was able to pick them up without burning my fingers. I have built up a fairly high tolerance to picking up hot things over the years, so it was not too long until I was able to pick them up.

Holding onto the bottom half of the muffin, they were dunked into the butter, lightly shaken to get rid of excess butter and then rolled in the cinnamon and sugar mix.

As soon as the entire batch had undergone the process, they were ready to be served, they are best served warm, but I did read that you can bake them and pop them into the oven to refresh them if you need to make them a day ahead before adding the topping.

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They were delicious. They are like a cross between doughnuts and muffins, because of the cinnamon taste, they remind me of Christmas, so much so that I am considering serving them on Christmas morning.

We served them with Bacon drizzled in maple syrup, which was suggested during my Google research, but the general consensus was that the taste of the bacon jarred with the cinnamon. Perhaps they are best served by themselves with a nice cup of tea, that's my future plan anyway.