These French Breakfast Puffs are truly amazing! A tender muffin drenched in melted butter and dipped in cinnamon sugar for a sweet and crunchy coating. You’re going to love these!
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. Unfortunately 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. But honestly, there’s really nothing French about these.
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, so 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 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!
Print
French Breakfast Puffs
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 9 muffins 1x
Description
Tender vanilla muffins are drenched in melted butter and then rolled in cinnamon & sugar for a sweet and crunchy coating that makes these muffins out of this world!
Ingredients
- 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 nutmeg)
- 1/2 cup milk
Topping:
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray (only spray 9 of 12 the cups).
- 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.
- 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.
Topping:
- Combine the 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.
Notes
- I pour a little water into the empty muffin tins before I put the pan in the oven. This helps ensure even baking, and can help keep the tin from warping as the muffins bakes. Maybe it’s an old myth, but that’s what I was taught years ago. (lol)
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Muffins
Recipe Source: Gold Medal Century of Success Cookbook (A super, super old cookbook of my mom’s)
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.
Could you make these ahead of time and freeze them? Thanks
Hi Amanda! I haven’t ever frozen these, so I’m not sure how well they will freeze. Muffins usually freeze really well, and I’m sure these will too, but I’m just not sure how the cinnamon sugar coating will be when they thaw. It might be just fine, or it might be a little sticky. You could certainly give it a try.
Why would you not just make extra batches of muffins, freeze those and when you want some then do the last step, just warm thawed muffins and dip them in the melted butter and roll in sugar/cinnamon. — truly a no brainer?!!
Hi!
Try this: Freeze before dipping them in butter.
When you reheat them dip them in butter and cinnamon sugar- should be good as freshly baked.
★★★★★
Hello,
I would like to make these french breakfast puffs but I wonder why you call them ‘tender vanilla muffins’ because I do not see any vanilla mentioned in the recipe?
And, do you think that using coconut oil instead of shortening would maintain the tenderness of the muffin?
Thank you for sharing all these delicious recipes with us!
Hi Yvonne, I think you could use coconut oil in these and they would still be tender and delicious. Let me know if you give it a try.
Made this yesterday morning and my kids gobbled them up! Will definitely be baking these up again!
★★★★★
So glad they loved them. They are soooo good!
How many does the recipe make?
Hey Kathy, this makes 9 puffs, just like the recipe says. You’re going to love these.
Perfect. 9 muffins. I baked at 350 for 20 minutes but I have a new stove and takes less time then my old one did so that’s on me. My husband loved them! Recipe was easy to follow. My muffin tin bakes 9 so it worked perfect. ❤️
★★★★★
Thanks Juli! So happy you gave these a try and loved them.
Thank you for posting these. This has been a favorite lost recipe
from high school! I’m looking forward to making them.. and better
yet, eating them! Thank you! Thank you!
Yay! So glad you found the recipe. I love these!
have you tried making them in mini muffin pans?
Hi Ann! I haven’t tried these in mini muffin pans, but I am sure it would work just fine.
I have and they were very good!
Can you use butter in place of shortening?
Hi Betty! I never have, but you certainly can. Just keep in mind that shortening will give you a more tender and softer breakfast buff.
In your notes you said you add a little water to your pan. I didn’t quite understand that after you spay your pan or after you fill the pan with the dough.
Hi Deborah! You don’t use all of the 12 cups in the muffin tin, so I have always put a couple tablespoons of water in the empty cups to ensure even baking. Who knows if it really even helps, it’s just what I was taught years ago and always still do it (lol).
Ahhhhh makes more sense now. It sounded like you put the water then the batter on top of water.
Have you ever tried adding apples to the batter?
I haven’t tried adding apples to the batter, let me know if you give it a try.
I will have give these a try! I tried the link to see the cookbook but the link is broken. I wanted to see which cookbook this recipe is in.
Hey Theresa, the link was actually for another food blog where this recipe was shared in one of her posts. If you want to see what the cookbook looks like just google “Gold Medal Century of Success Cookbook”. You can find some copies on ebay and used thrift book stores.
My mother used to make these for breakfast when I was a kid. Loved them! Thank you for posting!!
What “shortening” do you use?
Hi Nancy, I use Crisco shortening.