It’s back to reality after a fun-filled, relaxing Spring Break. The weather was beautiful down in St. George and it’s been beautiful the last two days since we’ve been home, and then it snowed yesterday and is supposed to snow more today. . . figures! Baseball season started this week for my boys and two days into the season, games have already been cancelled. You gotta love Utah weather!
So let’s talk about these French Breakfast Puffs. I’ve been making these things since I was a teenager. If my memory serves me right, I think I actually made them once for my French class in 9th grade. It was the perfect thing to make right? “French” breakfast puffs for a “French” class. . . it totally works.
The recipe comes from a really, really old Gold Medal cookbook that my aunt gave my mom years ago. It was one of my favorite cookbooks to bake out of growing up and my mom’s too. You should see the thing— pages are torn, the binding is shot so my mom three-hole punched through the pages and now has it in a three-ring binder, stuff is spilled on the pages, my mom has things written off to the sides of some recipes, put check marks by the ones we loved, etc. If you can ever get your hands on one of these, you really should!
This cookbook holds a lot of childhood memories for me. Well, I temporarily “borrowed” that cookbook from my mom a few months ago and I have had a blast looking through it’s worn pages. These French Breakfast puffs are one of our favorite recipes from that book, they even made it into our family cookbook. These things are amazing! After I inhaled one in about 5.7 seconds the other day, I was scolding myself for waiting waaaay too long to make these beauties. My son Taylor came home from school and took one bite and said “Why have you never made these before?!?!” Apparently I have deprived my children of one of my favorite childhood muffins, shame on me! Yes, it’s been far too long since I’ve made these.
These are so simple to make and so freaking delicious! The entire muffin is dipped in melted butter and then rolled in cinnamon & sugar. Trust me when I tell you they aren’t just for breakfast, I could eat them morning, noon and night!
One more thing, I am the only one who always seems to wait until the last minute to get taxes done? I vow every year that I’ll have ours filed way before April 15th and then every year we are scrambling to get them done. So if you’re wondering about this year . . . filed them electronically last night, with one day to spare, woo hoo!
- 1/3 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (I use fresh)
- 1/2 cup milk
- Topping:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup melted butter
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray (only spray 9 of the cups).
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In a small bowl, beat shortening, 1/2 cup sugar and egg until smooth. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; add to the sugar mixture alternately with milk.
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Fill greased muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake at 350° for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
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Meanwhile, combine cinnamon and sugar in a shallow bowl, set aside. Melt butter in a shallow bowl. Roll hot muffins immediately in melted butter, then in sugar-cinnamon mixture. Serve warm.
I pour a little water into the empty muffin tins before I put the pan in the oven.
Recipe Source: A really, really old Gold Medal Century of Success Cookbook
Could you use butter in place of shortening?
Yes you can, but butter does change the texture. It shouldn’t be too noticeable, shortening just makes a more tender muffin. Let me know how they turn out.