Monday, March 12, 2012

Cinnamon Sugar Pull Apart Muffins

Ahhhh, cinnamon sugar!!  The perfect combination of spicy sweet.  Doesn't it just scream childhood memories?  I am pretty sure everyone was treated with a cinnamon sugar something when they were a kid.  For me, it was cinnamon sugar toast.  My mom used to slather lightly toasted bread with lots of salty butter and then top it with a heaping amount of cinnamon sugar.  The spice mixture just perked me up and made me smile!  It still does today!!
Don't be intimated by this recipe.  It is quick, easy and super delicious.  What is my secret weapon, you ask?  Store-bought bread dough!  Have you ever used this stuff?  I love it!!  Use it to make a loaf of tasty french bread, roll it out to make a thick pizza crust OR pull apart muffins!!  YEAH BABY!!



CINNAMON SUGAR PULL APART MUFFINS
Makes 6 muffins

Ingredients
  • Pillsbury Simply Rustic French Bread dough
  • 1/2 stick of butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF.
  2. In a small skillet, brown butter over medium-low heat, about 5 minutes.  You know the butter is browned when it turns a light caramel color and smells slightly nutty.  ((Be careful not to burn the butter!))  Once browned, set the butter aside to cool.
  3. Remove bread dough from tube and place on a cutting board.  Starting in the middle, divide the dough with a small slit.  The divide again and again until you have 31 slits.  Using a very sharp knife, slice the dough.  You should end up with 32 slices.  Flatten each slice with you hands or a rolling pin and place on a sheet of parchment or wax paper. 
  4. In a bowl, combine the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
  5. To assemble the muffins, brush each dough slice with the brown butter.  Then sprinkle with the entire sugar mixture.  (Yes, ALL of the cinnamon sugar!)  Stack the dough slice on top of each other. (some stacks will have five slices and some will have six.)  Using a sharp knife, slice the stacks down the middle.
  6. Place two of the sliced stacks, side by side, cut side down into a greased muffin tin.  Repeat with the rest of the stacks.
  7. **This step is very important!!**  Before you put the muffin tin in the oven place it on a larger, rimmed baking sheet.  This will catch any butter/sugar overflow and avoid a very smokey oven.
  8. Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes until tops are golden brown.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes.  Gently remove.  Enjoy!!

34 comments:

  1. this looks yummy! I had something similar from Tim Hortons the other day.

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    1. Mmmmmmmm. I miss Tim's !!!! Are you from Canada???

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  2. What an amazing idea! They look delicious too... So happy I got to your blog through Pintrest, going off to take a look at your posts now. :)

    Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Yummy, I'd like one right now. I'm going to dream about pull apart cinnamon rolls :)

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    1. Absoulutley agree!! They look sooo good!!

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  4. It's like mini monkey bread!!!

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    1. That's what I was thinking! I think I may try it with the same store bought biscuits I use for monkey bread...

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    2. What is monkey bread??? Tim's I know well....monkey bread,...not.
      I,too am now a follower,,,mmmmm!

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    3. Monkey Bread is a pull-apart bread which can be sweet or savory. It is easier than you can imagine to make but (made right) is yeasty, light, flaky and delicious! However, made wrong it is doughy, tough and blah. There are recipes all over the internet for monkey bread and some are better than others.

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    4. These are great for breakfast with friends with a good cup of coffee!

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  5. YUM! i found this on Pintrest. this looks amazing! i know a few people in my house that would LOVE this!
    ps how much dough is in the pillsbury package? (oz or lbs?)

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  6. I made a variation of these using mini muffin tins, they turned out awesome!!

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  7. I wonder if this would work with biscuit dough..

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    1. I am making them with Pilsbury Grands biscuit dough right now! I'll let you know how they come out..

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    2. Aaaand, they're delicious!

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  8. Lovely blog... delicious photographs. It was so nice meeting you today at Marge's memorial service. Good luck with all your creative endeavors and have a very happy wedding!

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  9. what if i don't have that french bread stuff??

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    1. Biscuit dough worked REALLY well for me! I got both, and you can't taste much of a difference!

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  10. These were great and quite easy to make. I'll make them again soon. Here are a few thoughts I have to "improve", although they're great just as is. Surprisingly, they were slightly bland. I added a very slight amount of salt to one of the finished muffins and it seemed to work well. There was excess sugar/cinnamon/nutmeg from the preparation, and next time I'm thinking of using that to make a syrup that could be drizzled over the muffins once they've been baked. Again, without any modifications, they still are great. Thanks for the recipe.

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    1. Good idea. I too, had lots of cinnamon/sugar mixture left over from prep....the syrup is a good idea. Especially since that's my favorite part :)

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  11. I just made these for Easter breakfast and they were a big hit! I had a hard time cutting the dough after I made my cut marks (I don't have quality knives) so I used kitchen scissors and that worked well. And I only used half of the cinnamon sugar mixture and it was still super sweet. They make a gorgeous presentation on the plate and give a fun twist to traditional cinnamon toast! Thank you for sharing!

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  12. I made these for a large group breakfast, and they were a hit! In order to make the dough go further, I used stacks of 4 instead of 5-6, and it helped a lot! Delicious!

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  13. Reminds me of something my grandmother and me used to makes when I was a kid.
    I'll have to get the recipe from her now because this just made me want some right away.
    Gorgeous pictures. I'm getting hungry now.

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  14. yummmmmmmmmmmmmm thanks for the inspiration :)

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  15. This sounds absolutely delicious! I am going to reccomend this website to my mom-she'll love it! Thanks for the recipe!

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  16. Looks ***delicious**!! I can't wait to try it, thanks for the recipe!

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  17. These look & sound Wonderful!! Thanks for the recipe!

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  18. Sounds great,thinking of adding some cooked apples like an apple fritter! I love apple fritters and this way they are baked and not fried! Thanks for the recipe!

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  19. Hi,

    I found this recipe over on Pinterest and it looks Amazing! I would love for you to share this, and any other recipes you would like to, at my Creative Thursday Link Party (open thru Monday each week) at www.michellestastycreations.blogspot.com. Have a great day.

    Michelle

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  20. I just made them with some bread dough I had in the freezer! I pinched the dough into balls then rolled them out. They were delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!

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  21. Just finished making these for the first time after finding recipe on Pinterest. My family said less "juice" (aka butter) but I disagree. They are really good, but maybe I'd keep the nutmeg out next time because I personally found it to make the cinnamon/sugar mixture too spicy. It seemed to take about 30/45 mins to fully prepare/put in the oven, using a roller was more effective with flattening the dough, and I actually ran out of the cinnamon/sugar mixture while making these. I was really liberal with the sugar topping, so I added a 1/4 more of the recipe.

    Thanks for the treat!

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  22. I Love Monkey bread and these looked so fantastic that I made them for an appreciation breakfast we had for the ladies in our church. They were gone so fast and everyone raved. Since I was making them for a crowd, I doubled the dough but left the sugar mixture the same and there was plenty. Doubling the dough made 18 muffins, I think I must have cut them skinnier than you did because I got about 40 or so slices out of each loaf. Thanks so much for sharing.

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  23. This was an awesome, easy recipe! Like, Andrea ^, I doubled the bread recipe and the cinnamon/sugar mixture was plenty for both. Thanks for the recipe!! -Angela

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  24. I am so anxious to try this! It will be desert for after dinner this evening, Oh I can hardly wait !! Breakfast tomorrow is too far away ! Thank you for sharing !!

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