Mini cinnamon muffins

I swear, these Mini Cinnamon Muffins taste just like doughnuts! Except, well, you know. They’re baked, not deep fried. 🙂 And the inside is plusher and more buttery. I challenge you to stop at one!

These mini cinnamon muffins are an easy, bake-now treat made with pantry staples – butter, sugar, flour, eggs, and cinnamon. No store runs for buttermilk, no overpriced out-of-season blueberries, no frustration because someone’s raided the chocolate chips!

I made them mini rather than regular muffin size for extra cute factor (think – popping in your mouth) and you’ll love how plush the crumb is. Noticeably softer and more delicate than regular muffins.

Honestly, these little bites of joy taste just like mini cinnamon doughnuts and will vanish by the handful! Make them for breakfast, lunchboxes, afternoon tea… or simply when you need a bit of mini muffin happiness. Which is – always, no?😃

Proof of extra plush soft crumb

Here’s a close up of the inside. Notice how the crumb looks more like soft Vanilla Cupcakes – tighter with smaller holes – rather than regular muffins which tend to have larger more irregular holes and are not quite as soft inside. This extra plush crumb is borrowed from Madeleines, the little French butter cakes. Apparently the French know a thing or two about baking….?. 😉

Ingredients in Mini Cinnamon Muffins

Here’s what you need to make these. Tell me you have everything you need! 🙂

Flour – Just plain / all-purpose flour. Wholemeal flour can be used but will make the crumb less soft and it will probably puff up a bit more because the batter will be a bit thicker.
Caster sugar (superfine sugar) – Used in two ways: some goes into the batter, and the rest for coating the mini muffins. While regular granulated sugar can be substituted in the batter, you’ll need the finer caster sugar for the coating so it sticks (the regular sugar grains are too large).
Baking powder – The leavening agent that makes these mini muffins rise. You can substitute the flour plus baking powder with self raising flour, but the crumb won’t be as soft and it won’t rise as much, simply because the built in baking powder is not as fresh.

Check – If your baking powder has been hiding in your cupboard unused for months, check it’s still active!
Eggs – Large eggs – which are sold in cartons labelled “large eggs”, 600 – 660g for a dozen (21-23 oz) or 50 – 55g each in shell (~2oz). Don’t need to be pedantic about exact size in this recipe, just don’t use say, giant ostrich eggs. 🙂 If you’ve only got mega eggs, use the conversion here to figure out how much to use in this recipe.

Best at room temperature but will still work if they’re fridge cold in this recipe (give it an extra vigorous whisk with the sugar before adding everything else).
Unsalted butter – For beautiful buttery flavour! I rarely use butter as the dominant oil in muffins as they tend to dry the crumb out. But for these muffins, it doesn’t – thanks to the different order in which the ingredients are mixed into the batter. The French are so clever!

I almost always used unsalted butter so I can control the amount of salt in recipes, bearing in mind that the amount of salt in salted butter varies from brand to brand.
Oil (tiny amount) – Any neutral flavoured oil (vegetable, canola, grapeseed). Just 2 teaspoons improves the shelf life of these muffins. The general rule of thumb with fat in baked goods is – butter adds flavour, oil keeps things moist – because oil stays liquid at room temperature.
Milk – This is to loosen the batter a little bit, rather than using more oil (too greasy, weighs it down).
Vanilla – Extract rather than artificial essence, which is imitation so doesn’t taste as good.
Salt – Standard baking practice these days, to bring out the flavours.
Oil spray – For easy greasing of the many little holes of mini muffin tins. If you don’t have oil spray, brush with plain oil. I know it’s tempting to use butter, but it’s not as good for ensuring it doesn’t get stuck – as I found out myself first hand – because butter is ~15% water.

How to make Mini Cinnamon Muffins

Note to experienced bakers: the batter is looser than regular muffin batters, and the order in which ingredients are added isn’t typical for Western muffins because, as mentioned above, this recipe borrows from French Madeleines. And that is why they are softer and more plush inside compared to regular muffins!

Wet – Whisk the egg and sugar vigorously using a handheld whisk for 20 seconds until it becomes pale yellow. Then add the oil, vanilla, milk and whisk to incorporate.
Dry – Whisk the dry ingredients in a medium bowl (flour, baking powder and salt) then gently whisk into the egg mixture in two batches (ie add half, whisk, add rest, whisk).

Add butter last – Lastly, gently whisk in the butter until it’s incorporated.
Batter thickness – You have a smooth, fairly loose batter than can be poured rather than scooped like in a mound like ice cream into the muffin tin. When you fill the muffin tin, the surface should level out.

Is yours a little thicker? That’s ok! It will still work, your muffins will mound a bit more, it’s not a big deal. Thicker batters can happen because your eggs or milk were not at room temperature (cold liquids make stiffer batters).

Fill – Grease the muffin tin with oil spray generously. Doing it immediately prior helps the muffins release easily – don’t do this ahead and don’t grease with butter (it’s ~15% water!). Fill the holes 3/4 full. If you do too much, they will overflow and will not rise as much as they could. If you have a little leftover batter, use a paper liner in a regular muffin tin and bake it on the floor of the oven (this way it won’t get in the way of the heat circulation of the mini muffin tin.
Bake for 12 minutes at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced) until the mini muffins on the outer edge have golden tops, the ones in the middle are pale golden and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, no raw batter.

Bang out – Leave in the muffin tin for 2 minutes, then invert and bang out the mini muffins. They’re too fragile to pick out one by one.
Coat in cinnamon sugar – As soon as they’re cool enough to handle, toss the muffins in cinnamon sugar to coat all over. The sugar clings best to the tops while hot, but it sticks to the sides and base just as well whether warm or cooled. If you are having trouble getting the sugar to stick to the top, brush lightly with melted butter.

Pile the Mini Cinnamon Muffins into bowls and serve right away. They’re at their absolute best warm, but still taste wonderful for a couple of hours after baking, even without reheating.

For the next day – and the one after – I can’t stress enough how much better they are lightly warmed! Just 20 seconds in the microwave makes them extra soft and brings out their gorgeous buttery flavour.

And once again, impossible to stop popping in your mouth, one by one, until – gasp, shock, horror – who ate all the Cinnamon Muffs??!!! – Nagi x