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Hi Bold Bakers!
NOTE FROM GEMMA: Welcome back Vedika! She’s here again with another one of her fabulous recipes for us — Cinnamon Roll Brownies. Make sure to check out her Salted Caramel Fudge & Dirty Chai Brownies, too.
I love cinnamon rolls. Warm dough, oozing with buttery cinnamon sugar, finished with a sticky, sweet glaze. But I make them so rarely- the process requires time and patience, two things I usually don’t have. As a full-time student, I rarely get a chance to bake and do so sparingly.
So this recipe for cinnamon roll muffins has the best qualities of a cinnamon roll. The muffin batter is light, fluffy, and not overly sweet. Then there are two layers of cinnamon sugar. One that goes in the middle, and one on top. I add pecans or walnuts to the mixture because it adds a nice crunch. You can also throw in some chocolate chips (not classic for a cinnamon roll but still tasty), or even diced apples.
And finally, these muffins are drizzled with a simple glaze- the cherry on top, so to speak.
Cinnamon Roll Muffins vs. Cinnamon Rolls
Like a cinnamon roll, these muffins are layered with cinnamon sugar and drizzled with a sugar glaze. But unlike a cinnamon roll, there is no yeast or waiting time for these muffins, so you can have them ready in under an hour from start to finish.
You will notice most ingredients that go into this recipe are virtually the same as the ones that go into a cinnamon roll. However, muffins are what we call “quick bread” and leaven with the help of baking powder. A lower protein content yields more of a cake-like texture than bread: this is the main difference.
Now I’ve made this recipe several times to perfect it. My first few attempts resulted in muffins that were nice but had a layer of butter that pooled beneath the liners, as I tried to make the filling as close to a cinnamon roll as possible. To remedy this, I reduced the butter in the cinnamon mixture and added flour so that it would blend nicely into the muffins. I ended up with a tender muffin, with a surprise layer of cinnamon sugar inside, topped off with a crunchy streusel-like cinnamon topping. A hybrid between a coffee cake and a cinnamon roll.
This is a delicious muffin recipe, that has the best qualities of a cinnamon roll, and the best qualities of a coffee cake.
What You Need To Make Cinnamon Roll Muffins
Nothing too extravagant here! The muffin batter contains basic ingredients you most likely already have on hand: flour, sugar, milk, eggs, baking powder, and oil. As a side note, this muffin batter is a great staple recipe I use for any muffin base and can be customized however you like.
The cinnamon mixture comprises cinnamon, butter, sugar, flour, and nuts. It’s essentially a streusel.
If you’re feeling extra fancy and wish to stray slightly from this recipe, you can throw some coconut into the cinnamon-sugar mixture, or fold in some apples or blueberries in the muffin batter.
Here are the tools you’ll need:
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Muffin Tin
- Muffin Liners
- Mixing Bowls
How To Make Cinnamon Roll Muffins
You don’t need any fancy equipment to make this recipe: a bowl, whisk and cupcake tray suffices. Once the batter and cinnamon mixture are prepared, you’ll layer them up, and when they come out of the oven, you’ll drizzle them with the glaze.
These are delicious warm, with a cup of morning coffee or tea.
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Make Some Of Gemma’s Cinnamon Rolls!
- Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls
- 1-Hour No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls
- Best-Ever Cinnamon Rolls (No-Knead, No-Machine)
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Cinnamon Roll Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
- ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (3.5oz/100g) dark brown sugar
- ½ cup (2.5oz/71g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ cup (2oz/57g) walnuts or pecans, finely chopped
- ¼ cup (2oz/57g) cold butter, cut into small cubes
Muffin Batter
- 2 cups (9.5oz/275g) all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup (5oz/150g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup (8.5floz/250ml) whole milk
- ¼ cup (2floz/60ml) vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla Glaze
- ¾ cup (3.5 oz/100g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1½ tablespoons whole milk (plus a few drops more if needed)
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C), and line a 12 cup muffin tray with paper liners. If you don't have liners you can grease the wells with butter.
- For the cinnamon-sugar mixture: Stir together the brown sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and nuts.
- Next, add in the butter, and cut it into the mixture using a pastry cutter, fork or fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Set aside.
- To make the muffin batter: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.
- Make a well in the center, and add the egg, milk, oil, and vanilla. Roughly mix the ingredients together until just combined (there may be a few lumps, that’s fine).
- Add a heaping tablespoon of the batter to each paper liner, then top with a tablespoon of the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Divide the remaining batter between the liners, and top with the remaining cinnamon-sugar mixture.
- Bake for 20-25 min or until the tops have risen and formed a dome, and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. The muffins should be golden. Let the muffins cool for 5 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack.
- For the vanilla glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, milk and vanilla until smooth and runny.
- Generously drizzle the glaze over the muffins and allow it to set.
- These are delicious warm, with a cup of coffee. Store leftovers in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.
I made these this morning for my kids. They were a hit! Very delicious. The recipe was easy to follow and turned it quite well. Thank you Gemma for another great recipe!
These muffins are DELICIOUS!!!! Fluffy muffin, perfectly cinnamony filling, and a superb vanilla glaze; they taste exactly like cinnamon rolls but more effortless! Thank you for sharing, Gemma and Vedika! ❤️
Hi Gemma. I love your recipes and I save all my favourites but I can’t find anywhere to save them any more on your site. I’m going to make this one tomorrow. There used to be an icon on the side to save to favourites, but it seems to have disappeared and I can’t locate it now. Help!!
I’m curious on the conversion for the flour, isn’t 1 cup 120 grams? Why are we using more than 2 cups?
Could be replace the oil for butter? If so how much would we replace it with?
Dear Gemma. Love your recipes, you never disappoint. I have a big family so when I bake its usually big batches of everything. Can I double this recipe?
I have company coming and I would like to do breakfast and desserts ahead. Would the muffins freeze well?
I made these yesterday. I’ve made similar muffins with streusel, however, these fell short. The cake bit is bland and the rest is too sweet. They did rise nicely and are not dense.
Can you substitute the milk with buttermilk?
Can I use buttermilk instead of regular milk