Day 166 - Cinnamon Roll Muffins

Funny moment this morning.
My son went up to the front door and exclaimed, "Hey!  I'm tall enough to see through the peep hole!"
He turned around to look at me, beaming.
Yes, it's the little things in life.
Then this afternoon, my daughter gets into the car to go shopping and the battery is dead.  I was going to go out and do a MAJOR grocery shop, too.  I knew it was going to be dead when I had a slight problem starting it yesterday while running errands, but then I forgot about it.
Oh well, guess we're improvising for dinner.
The boys have gone golfing about 45 minutes away and we do have a golf cart, but I am certainly NOT taking that to the store in this 105º and humid weather, thank you very much.  I'll be leaving a trail of ice cream behind the cart.

I found this recipe at Joy the Baker.  If you haven't been over to her site yet, I strongly encourage you to do so.  Her recipes are awesome, her writing is very real and she cracks me up!!  I think you'll enjoy her, too!
Thank you, Joy for sharing this with us!!

Cinnamon Roll Muffins - makes 12 muffins


1½ cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons active dry yeast or rapid rise yeast
2/3 cup milk warmed to 100-110ºF
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 large egg

Topping
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
2/3 cup brown sugar (WHOOPS!! - I just realized I used granulated)
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of freshly ground nutmeg

Icing
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon milk plus more if needed

Generously butter a 12-cup muffin tin; set aside.
In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar and salt together.
In a liquid measuring cup, combine warmed milk and yeast.  Stir until yeast is dissolved.
In a medium bowl, lightly beat egg.
To egg add milk mixture, vegetable oil, vanilla extract; stir.
Add milk/egg mixture to flour and mix well until very smooth.
Put batter into prepared muffin tins, filling about halfway to two-thirds full.  Let rest for 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar.  Add butter with a fork and combine til topping is crumbly.
Place an equal amount of topping in each muffin tin, spreading evenly.
Press topping into rested dough with fingers or use a spatula to incorporate.

I used a spatula, can you tell?

Place muffin tray into a cold oven and heat oven to 350ºF.
Bake for 20 minutes (this includes the time for the oven to heat to 350ºF).  Muffins should be lightly browned around edges and will spring back when the centers are gently pressed.

Cool for 30 minutes before combining confectioners' sugar and milk in a small bowl.
Drizzle onto the muffins.

I think something went wrong with my yeast.  See how dense they are in the last picture?  I don't think they are supposed to look like that.  They also smelled very yeasty.  I think next time that maybe I'll use one less teaspoon.

Everyone really liked them despite my critique.

Everything I bake I rate on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best and it was unanimous that these Cinnamon Roll Muffins earned 3 rolling pins.

They were quite tasty and I think they would have been even better had I used brown sugar instead of the granulated for the topping.  Silly girl.

The family was clueless, so that'll be our little secret.

Happy baking!