Celebrating Cinnamon

I guess now is the time I should include music by Neil Young: "I wanna live with a Cinnamon Girl. I could happy the rest of my life with a Cinnamon Girl." Okay... we all know he's referring to redheads, right? Ginger and cinnamon. My two favorite spices. Well... there's also nutmeg. I could make a case for nutmeg looking quite auburn as well, so I'm still in the clear.

This week we're going to celebrate cinnamon. And we start off with my favorite Snickerdoodle Muffins.

If you look at these muffins directly from above, you'd think you were looking at Snickerdoodle cookies. The first time I made these, I left them on the counter. My daughter came in, took one look at them and said, "Wow, Mom, these look like Snickerdoodle cookies." Mission accomplished.


Snickerdoodle Muffins
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp cream of tarter
pinch of salt
3/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg (or ground if you don't have fresh)
1 1/4 cups sour cream
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 pkg cinnamon chips (optional)
1/2 cup sugar and 1 Tbsp cinnamon mixed together for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease muffin tins or use paper muffin cups. Fill a small bowl with the cinnamon/sugar mixture.

Cream the butter and sugar until soft about 3 to 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides. Add in the vanilla. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until each is well incorporated. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar and nutmeg. Add the flour mixture and the sour cream alternately to the egg-butter mixture. Start with the flour and end with the flour, beating after each addition. If you want to include cinnamon chips, gently fold them into the batter.

Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out muffin batter one at a time and drop into the bowl filled with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll the muffin around until it is covered completely in cinnamon sugar. Place muffin into prepared muffin tin. Bake them for 20-22 minutes or until golden brown. Depending on the size of your tins, you should get about 14 to 18 muffins.

The wonderful thing about these muffins is that the cinnamon/sugar coating is all over the muffin. When you pull away the paper, you still get that Snickerdoodle-like outer coating.

Note: Tomorrow I will post some flavored butters, including a Cinnamon Butter. It is very good on these muffins, especially when they are still warm.