French Breakfast Muffins

My older daughter just turned five. I can barely believe how quickly time is passing by. It seems like just last week that she was a teeny weeny little baby. She's now a sweet, loving, smart, talented and beautiful five year old teenager. Oh and did I mention drama queen? She had a fun, small birthday party and got the pink bicycle she has always wanted and prayed for. 

She also loves to help me when I cook or bake. She always has. I remember her helping me shell peas when she was as little as 17 months old. She loves looking through cookbooks with pictures and picking out recipes for us to make. And she picked this recipe out from the cookbook based on Disney's animated flick 'Ratatouille'. She loves this book and was contemplating asking me to make the dirt cake - complete with plastic rats and gummy worms - from this book for her birthday. But finally, she decided on a Barbie cake which we had fun baking together. 

This morning she asked me to make these breakfast muffins from the cookbook and we had a good time making them together. 

I modified the recipe slightly to make it a little healthier and reduced a little of the sugar in the recipe.

French Breakfast Muffins

Adapted from Disney's Ratatouille Cookbook

Ingredients 

1 1/3 cup all purpose flour

2/3 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg 

3 tbsp flaxseed powder

1 large egg

90g/6tbsp butter, melted

1 cup milk

3 tbsp yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla 

1/2 cup of dried, chopped cranberries 

Topping:

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1 tbsp butter, melted 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/180C and prepare a 12 cup muffin tin with liners or lightly grease and flour each cup. 

2. In a large bowl, combine the flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, nutmeg powder and flaxseed powder. Stir well to combine. 

3. In a small bowl, whisk the egg lightly. Add the melted butter, milk, vanilla and yoghurt and whisk well to combine. 

4. Add this liquid mixture into the bowl with the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. 

5. Stir in the cranberries. 

6. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin cups and bake for about 20-25 minutes until the muffins just start turning lightly golden and the tops spring back when touched. 

7. Remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool slightly in the tin. 

8. While they are cooling, in a small bowl, stir together the sugar and the cinnamon powder. In another bowl, pour in the melted butter. 

9. When the muffins are cool enough to handle, remove each muffin from the tin, dip the tops lightly in the melted butter and then roll the tops in the cinnamon sugar. 

10. Shake off the excess sugar and place on your serving plate. 

These muffins were really lovely in texture and flavor. Considering I am big fan of the flavors of nutmeg and cinnamon, I was in heaven. The tart cranberries cut through the sweetness nicely and were a great addition, if I do say so myself. 

 

My husband and I both felt the sugary topping was a little too much for us. The kids didn't complain of course. Us grown ups just brushed off some of the sugar just before we dug in.

I was glad to be able to get in the berries, flaxseed and the whole wheat flour without any complaints. Next time we make this recipes, I'm going to add some oatmeal and maybe some seeds or nuts, too. This one is a keeper!

 

Until next time :)