Breakfast for Supper

I've always loved breakfast food - French toast, pancakes, muffins, waffles, bacon, eggs, sausage, cinnamon rolls . . . You name it, and I probably love it! I could eat it any time of day. That's probably why I love restaurants like Perkins and IHOP. I can order breakfast food no matter what time we go.

I also love that breakfast food is often so easy to make. Scrambled eggs? No problem. These pancake muffins? Total cinch! Seriously, these little gems were easy and delicious. And they really do taste like pancakes, right down to that light, fluffy, pancake-y texture I love.

These would be wonderful if you're serving brunch and don't want to stand at a griddle flipping pancakes. I bet you could even bake them up ahead of time, then just pop them in a warm oven a few minutes before you're ready to serve them. Or, prepare the batter the night before and keep it in the fridge until you need it the next morning to save time. They're so fun, too, because you can serve them a variety of ways - traditional maple syrup, just some powdered sugar, or maybe even a fruit topping with a dab of whipped cream. Yum.

Give them a try this weekend if you get the chance!

Cinnamon and Sugar Swirled Pancake Muffins (original recipe here)
1 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tbls. sugar
2/3 c. milk plus 1 tsp. lemon juice (or 2/3 c. buttermilk)
1 egg
2 Tbls. melted butter
1/4 c. light brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1. Heat oven to 350 and lightly grease 6 muffin cups.
2. Mix cinnamon and brown sugar and set aside.
3. Whisk milk, egg, melted butter, salt, sugar, soda and baking powder until thoroughly combined.
4. Whisk in flour until just combined.
5. Put two Tbls. batter into each muffin cup, and top with 1 tsp. of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Cover with remaining batter (about 1 1/2 Tbls.) and use a toothpick to gently swirl the cinnamon-sugar.
6. Bake 12-14 minutes, then allow to cool about 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Serve with your favorite syrup.
*Instead of brown sugar and cinnamon, I used the leftover cinnamon-sugar mixture I had from these.

Muffin cups are about 1/3 to 1/2 full after first batter goes in.

Sprinkle on cinnamon-sugar (you can certainly use less
or omit it if you want, but it adds a nice "something extra").

Muffin cups are close to full after the second addition of batter

Look how nicely they puff up - just like fluffy pancakes!

They hold up nicely, too, when you remove them from the pan. 

A drizzle of syrup was plenty for us since the batter itself has a little
sweetness to it, but by all means use as much as you want!

Tender and delicious . . . and devoured.

Hugs and cookies,

Amanda