Cinnamon Top Muffins

C is for cinnamon and canela! Images from Baking ABC - English / Portuguese.

Cinnamon often appears in my baking, recipes, and classes. Maybe I'm inspired by all the canela in Portuguese cuisine! 

This recipe in particular is lovely, not just because cinnamon is the star, but also because it's fun to make with little hands helping in the kitchen. Here are some tips that help make this a fun project for my 4-year-old and for me:

• I measure out all the ingredients before my daughter joins me in the kitchen, otherwise she gets impatient waiting for things to get measured. It's a few more bowls to clean up afterward, but she likes to pour each ingredient into the larger mixing bowls. 
• She enjoys putting the paper cups in the muffin tins, and because scooping can be hard for her, we wait to put in the muffin cups until right before we bake. She puts in one muffin cup at a time while I scoop into each muffin. 
• I mentally prepare for a little bit of a mess. She is four-years-old after all! :)

Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family and I do! 

Ingredients - Batter

• 1 cup milk
• ⅔ cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 340 g (about 2 ½ cups) all purpose flour, sifted
• 85 g (about ½ cup) granulated sugar
• 3 tsp baking powder, sifted
• 1 tsp table salt

Ingredients - Topping

• ¼ to ½ cup of melted butter
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare muffin tin by lining with paper muffin cups or greasing with baking spray.
2. In a large bowl, beat together milk, oil, egg, and vanilla. Set aside
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix until the flour is just moistened. Batter will be lumpy.
5. Scoop batter into muffin tin and bake until golden brown for 18-20 minutes. The muffins are done when a toothpick comes out clean and/or the internal temperature once baked is 200 degrees F.
6. Immediately remove muffins from the pan and allow to cool on the cooling rack for at least 30 minutes.
7. Once muffins have cooled, prepare ingredients for the topping. Put melted butter in a small bowl and whisk sugar and cinnamon in another small bowl.
8. Dip each muffin in the butter and then in the cinnamon/sugar mixture (depending on the height of your muffins, it may be easier to take the paper cups off before dipping in the butter and cinnamon mixture).
9. Serve and enjoy!