A New Muffin for Your Mornings, Butterscotch Cinnamon Chip Muffins

I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea for butterscotch cinnamon chip muffins. The idea has been brewing for a while now, but only as cinnamon muffins, because I really like Caribou Coffee’s cinnamon chip muffins and I wanted to make them at home.

My mother-in-law, Marie, stayed overnight with us last week. In the wee hours of the morning, I decided I wanted to send her on her road trip to North Dakota with something freshly baked. I thought about how good butterscotch and cinnamon would be together, so I decided to combine our family-favorite butterscotch muffin recipe with cinnamon and cinnamon chips. Good thing I did because with all the tiny pockets of warm, butterscotchy cinnamon, they are delightful!

In addition to adding cinnamon and cinnamon chips to the muffins, I knew I wanted to omit the brown sugar pecan topping for two reasons:

1. I didn’t want the brown sugar to overpower the deep cinnamon flavor.

2. The brown sugar topping is too messy to eat in Marie’s new car.

But I did use the trick my sister Kalli taught me from the restaurant industry—spray the tops of the batter with cooking spray before baking to get a nice crunch on top. I think next time I might lightly dust the tops with cinnamon and sugar before I spray them.

This was my first time using cinnamon chips. I used a bag of HERSHEY’S and was pleasantly surprised. I thought they’d be as large as chocolate chips and they maybe wouldn’t melt into the muffin batter. But…they are smaller than traditional chocolate chips, and within these little gems, they pack robust flavor with slight earthy spiciness from real cinnamon.

Using Pudding Mixes

These muffins get their butterscotch flavor from a package of instant butterscotch pudding mix. I use pudding mix in several of my favorite recipes so I keep the following on hand: instant pistachio, instant and cook-and-serve vanilla, instant and cook-and-serve butterscotch, instant chocolate, and sometimes instant white chocolate and instant cheesecake. Here’s how you can use them:

• Amaretto Pistachio Cake
• Butterscotch Monkey Bread
• Maple Nut Bars
• Triple Butterscotch Cupcakes with Butterscotch Maple Frosting
• White Chocolate Amaretto Cake
• Amaretto Pistachio Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
• Two Tone Dessert
• Butterscotch Cheesecake Muffins
• Snickers Apple Salad
• Butterfinger Apple Coconut Salad

One batch makes 18 butterscotch cinnamon chip muffins, and of course you can make them and store them in the freezer. It doesn’t take long for one to thaw, infuse a little warmth from the microwave and enjoy for breakfast.

Sweet rise & shine wishes,