It's hot. Yes, yes, I know it's summer. Yes, I'm on a tropical island. Yes, it's supposed to be hot. I just don't think it's supposed to be this hot. I didn't grow up with air conditioning. On the hottest of days, I'd think about using a fan. These days if I move away from the fan for a minute, I feel like I want to die. It gets hard to breathe. I have started researching air conditioning options. Electricity is extremely expensive here but air conditioning is becoming a basic amenity. I guess this is global warming?
That has nothing to do with the muffins in this post - just in case you were wondering. We could pretend though. I could tell you that I dread turning on the oven because of just how hot the kitchen gets. Then I could tell you that these muffins were worth it. I'd be lying though. Wait. Let me explain. The muffins are good. That's true. But I used the toaster oven instead of the large oven. Sorry, muffins, you just weren't worth that much.
I have not been the best blogger lately. It's partly a lack of inspiration and mostly forgetting that I need to do something. We could bring things full circle and blame the heat but it's way more complicated than that. For this month's Muffin Monday, I decided to keep things simple. A simple vanilla muffin with some cinnamon swirled in. Cinnamon is my comfort zone. When I need to bake but can't think of a new thing to bake, I go for cinnamon rolls. These cinnamon swirled muffins bring me a similar comfort in much less time.
As usual, you will find links to the other Muffin Monday recipes below. Happy Monday!
Cinnamon Swirled Muffins
Yield ~9
Ingredients
Cinnamon Swirl
3 tablespoons butter, melted and still warm
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
Muffin Base
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F and grease a muffin pan.
Whisk together the cinnamon swirl ingredients and set aside. If the mixture becomes too thick, you will need to warm it in the microwave for just a coupe seconds.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. In a separate container, whisk together egg, milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients - mixing until just combined. There may be lumps.
Fill each muffin well half full. Add about a teaspoon of the cinnamon mixture and gently swirl it into the batter. Add more batter on top top to fill the wells to about two thirds. You can fill a plastic bag with the cinnamon mixture and pipe it in a swirl pattern on top of each muffin. Or you can drop some of the cinnamon mixture on each and then use a toothpick to gently swirl the cinnamon into the batter. Be careful not to mix it too much. If the cinnamon mixture is hardening or difficult to swirl, warm for just a couple seconds in the microwave.
Place the muffins in the preheated oven. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Apple Blackberry Muffins by sew you think you can cook
- Cappuccino Chip Muffins by Palatable Pastime
- Cheesy Chile Corn Muffins (Gluten Free) by Farm Fresh Feasts
- Cinnamon Swirled Muffins by Passion Kneaded
- Fresh Peach Muffins by Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Lemon Meringue Muffins by Making Miracles
- Phase 3 Muffins by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Raspberry Mini Muffins by Food Lust People Love
Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday, can be found on our home page.
