A couple weeks ago, I played basketball in a friendly moms vs. daughters game (moms won ;)), and the next day I was feeeeeeling it in a few aging muscles! Playing basketball on our little backyard pad is one thing, running up and down a court with multiple other slightly aggressive people in your space is quite another.
I don’t actually remember ever touching the ball in high school PE class, but I was also out of PE class the second curriculum requirements allowed. Which is not to say I never attended another basketball game – I was a dedicated scorekeeper and #1 fan of the arms of men in tank tops Carl during his illustrious high school career.
In the spirit of doing fun things I haven’t done since high school, it seemed appropriate to recreate the cinnamon muffins that haunt my dreams thanks to high school cooking class. I did track down the actual recipe we used in that class at one point, but the muffins were small, and I felt the texture could be fluffier, with more generous amounts of cinnamon and sugar.
Finally, an improved recreation of the cinnamon muffins I’ve been thinking about since the first time I ever made muffins! (And probably the last time I made muffins for at least another 5 years; my mom remains astounded that I have a food blog ;))
I made these twice in one week, after the kids discovered the joy of fluffycinnamon muffins. These are a perfect after-school snack, making the whole house smell like welcoming, comforting cinnamon and being both reasonably filling and unreasonably delicious.
And is there anything better than biting into something that looks delicious and finding even more delicious cinnamon sugar inside?
It’s pretty great, and well worth the extra layering step. I hope you’ll try ’em!
- MUFFIN BATTER
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup canola oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk mixed with 1 Tbsp lemon juice or vinegar)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- STREUSEL FILLING/TOPPING:
- 3 Tbsp butter at room temperature
- ⅓ cup lightly packed brown sugar
- 3 tsp cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees and spray a 12-cup muffin pan with baking spray or line with paper liners.
- First, prepare streusel: In a small bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon with a fork or your fingers until it resembles coarse, pasty crumbs. Set aside.
- For muffin batter, in medium bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar.
- In a separate large bowl, whisk together oil, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.
- Add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
- Divide half the batter over 12 muffins (about a generous Tablespoon per muffin). Use half of the streusel topping to divide over top of the muffins, then add remaining batter on top and sprinkle with remaining streusel.
- Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake another 12 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
- Let cool 5-10 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely.
Adapted from Tastes of Lizzy T.
Just made these and I think they’re like 10 times better than they were from high school cooking class!!! They were so fluffy!! Yum!
Oh I totally remember these from high school! Yum, I’m going to have to make some soon!