French Breakfast Puffs: A Sugary Mess

You know the feeling when you just want to eat straight sugar for breakfast but you know it's going to be bad for you? I found a way to do just that but in a sneaky way.

Meet the French Breakfast Puff.

Two parts muffin, one part sugar.

Totally awesome.

These are the ingredients you need to make the puffs. Flour, milk, salt, butter (preferably sticks but I didn't have any at the time), baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, one egg, shortening, and sugar.

Set your oven to 350 to make these little muffins and let it preheat so it's nice and hot when you get finished making the batter.

Measure out 1/3 cup of shortening. You can use a regular measuring cup but we have this contraption for measuring sticky substances like peanut butter and shortening so I used it.

Throw it into a medium or large sized bowl.

It's going to look pretty awkward all by itself but we'll add more.

Next, pour in 1/2 cup of granulated white sugar. We use generic brand white sugar, even if it's not the best quality. It's sugar. It tastes sweet and I like it.



Pour it in slowly for dramatic effect.

Crack one large egg, yolk and all, into the bowl with the sugar and shortening.

Mix it all up and try to smash some of the big shortening chunks if you can. If it gets difficult, just leave them be. They'll mix in better once the rest of the ingredients are added in.

Now might be a good time to mention my baking savior, Namaste Foods. They make the best gluten-free flour mixture I've tasted yet and I use it for all of my recipes that require normal flour. There isn't a considerable difference between this flour and wheat flour when generally compared. The "Perfect Flour Blend," has a nuttier scent to it and creates slightly denser products but the texture is fairly unchanged and the taste is delicious. I would recommend this to anyone who still enjoys baking and doesn't want to be stuck making baked goods out of a box like most gluten-free options.

Add 1 1/2 cups of gluten-free flour to the egg mixture. I like to go 1/2 cup at a time to avoid making a mess when measuring. I can also stir in between intervals to avoid major clumping.

Next, add 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder to the bowl. Any brand is fine. We use generic brand baking powder. It's all the same to me at this point. Kroger does just fine for me.

After adding the baking powder, toss in 1/2 of salt. Don't use a grinder. Let's not be silly. You need normal salt for this.

Last but not least of the dry ingredients, add 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg. Nutmeg enhances the flavors of the muffin since it doesn't have any special additions like fruit or nuts like a normal muffin. Nutmeg gives it just enough spice to have a hint of warm flavor.

Add 1/2 milk or a milk alternative like soy milk to the mixture and stir while pouring it in.

When you're done mixing, it should look similar to this. This isn't a large amount of batter, so if you are making these for a large group of people, you might want to double the recipe.

Spray muffin tins with non-stick spray or line the trays with muffin baking cups.

I like to use some butter spray to keep the muffins from sticking.

Another thing I like to do is cook the batter in mini muffin tins instead of regular sized tins because there are more and they are portable and easier to eat if they are small.

Once you've placed dollops of batter in each of the muffin cups, place the trays in the oven.

They should take about 15-20 minutes because they are smaller than normal muffins.

Just keep an eye on them.

While the muffins are cooking, mix sugar and cinnamon to make a sugar topping for the muffins. I like to make a personal mixture of the two and just taste for the right amount of cinnamon. It's up to you. You should probably avoid making too much at one time, as the sugar will clump with the butter when the muffins are being dipped in.

Also, melt a stick of butter to dip the muffins in.

When the muffins are done, they should be relatively the same size. They don't really rise, no matter what type of flour is used. Set up the trays and bowls in an assembly line fashion in order to avoid cross contamination of sugar and muffins.

Dip one muffin the butter.

Roll in cinnamon sugar.

Place, and repeat.

When you're done, they should look like this or similar. This was about half a batch because I kept the remainder of them sugar free until I was ready to eat them. Only coat the ones you want to eat on the spot because they can get soggy or stale if left for too long.

Grab something to drink, a serving of fruit or protein, and enjoy some old-fashioned sugary madness.

Keep in mind, these shouldn't be eaten on a regular basis but they are a nice treat on a Sunday morning or on a holiday.

People tend to enjoy these little treats no matter what age.

Who complains about a sugary muffin though?

Hopefully you'll get some morning motivation and try out these messy mini muffins some day soon.

Who thought being gluten-free could taste so sweet?



Cross your fingers for another healthy day,
Kiki