french breakfast muffins (a.k.a. donut muffins)

Another weekend, another full house at our place. We had a spur of the moment overnight guest last night and tonight our girls have a couple of friends spending the night.

This morning I was up at 5:30, thanks in part to a pacing dog and a partner who was flopping around in his sleep like a dying fish, so I decided to make some muffins for breakfast. I remember my mom making a muffin similar to this and took a look around for a recipe to suit. They definitely aren’t a healthy breakfast muffin – they are a treat.

This is my take on the recipes that I found. These are slightly denser muffins – like a donut or maybe pound cake. It’s nearly impossible to mess up this recipe. If, like me the first time, you use cold milk and it curdles the solids in the butter, just add a little extra milk, but you should still have a relatively thick batter. I’ve also increased the nutmeg and I added a little vanilla.

I’ve made the muffins twice so far today – I made 6 extra-large muffins for breakfast, then I made 24 mini-muffins for an afternoon snack for the kids. They are all gone.

French Breakfast Muffins (Donut Muffins)

• 1  1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1  1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup room temperature milk
• 1/3 cup butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt.  Make a well in the center of the mixture. Stir together egg, milk, vanilla and melted butter.  Add egg mixture to flour mixture; stir until just moistened (batter may be lumpy).  Spoon batter into well-greased muffin tins.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes for large muffins, 15 to 20 minutes for mini-muffins.

For sugar topping:

Melt 2-3 tbsp of butter and brush over warm muffins. Sprinkle tops with a cinnamon-sugar mixture (2 tbsp sugar & 1/2 tsp cinnamon). Serve warm.

Linked to Six Sister’s Stuff, Frugally Sustainable, A Pinch of Joy, Homestead Simple