Wee Feast

I’m still sort of recovering from my last bout of oral surgery, and part of that recovery means I’m off my usual crunchy breakfast foods. Cereal? No way. Muffins, with a knife and fork? Oh yes. But what flavor of muffin to use?

I always try to explain to people that I’m obsessed with the “savory” sweet flavors, like cinnamon, coffee, and ginger. (Of course, chocolate and caramel are pretty amazing flavors too, but that’s fodder for another post.) I think those who hear me say this assume I’m crazy. Bear with me. I’m trying to convey that these are flavors that aren’t inherantly sweet. They can easily be sweetened, but I think it’s really interesting to realize you can use cinnamon, coffee, and ginger with sweet things as sort of compliments to the sweetness. For example, Cinnamon compliments sugar. Coffee compliments chocolate. Ginger compliments fruit. Or you can use them as sort of a pure flavor with savory things. Cinnamon with roasted squash. Coffee as a non-alcoholic digestif. Ginger with sushi. Anyone else given this any thought?

So that’s how I arrived at these muffins. They’re the little muffins that look like the ones you make at home, not like the ones you buy at Starbucks. I had two for breakfast, for example, and my coworkers each had one as a mid-morning snack.

The recipe is from the delighful Sugarlaws blog. Here’s my version:

1. Heat your oven to 350F.
2. Mix 1 cup sugar with 1/2 cup of applesauce and 2 tbs oil.
3. Combine with 2 eggs.
4. Stir in 1 1/2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder, a little salt, 1 tbs of cinnamon (yup, it’s a lot, but it’s the main flavor), a tiny amount of nutmeg.
5. Stir in 1/2 cup of milk.
6. Pour into a greased 12-muffin muffin pan (I use a silicone pan), and bake for 23 to 24 minutes, or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

I didn’t do this, but these muffins would be great with a streuesel topping or with an icing glaze. I would vote for maple, orange, chocolate, or caramel, if you are in the mood for flavor suggestions. To glaze just mix up some powdered sugar with a liquid. For chocolate or caramel, just melt some down and drizzle over.