Grandma's French Breakfast Puffs

It's fitting that the first post in this blog is a recipe from my grandmother, the woman responsible for my baking obsession. Passion. Infatuation. Whatever you want to call it. After obsessively following countless food blogs for far too long, I decided I may as well start one of my own. So here I am.



Yesterday, I got an email from my grandma saying if I want to psych my mom out, make these and see if she notices. Attached was the recipe for French breakfast puffs: simple, seemingly delicious and (the part that really sold me) I already had all the ingredients needed. Game on.

When I told my mom I was going to make breakfast, she was kind of surprised: "Why?" I guess her concern is valid—most days I don't even make it out of bed for lunch. And she wasn't pleased when I wouldn't tell her what I planned to make.
Now, if Grandma's the queen of baking, Mom is the princess (she's just as competent, but obviously there can't be two queens). Whenever it's my turn in the kitchen, you can tell she's just dying to make a suggestion or a correction, to get involved in some little way. Which I let her do because even if I act annoyed, it's usually helpful (but for god's sake don't tell her that).

Fast forward to this morning. My mom is super skeptical about this whole endeavor, my dad is rushing me, saying he doesn't want to waste such a beautiful day (because we all know that the sun going away at 8 am is a completely valid concern), and my sister is extremely angry that I awoke her with my high-decibel appliance usage.
That all changed when they tried these delicious puffs of goodness. I'm telling you, they're magical.

French Breakfast Puffs

1/3 cup shortening (part butter)
½ cup sugar
1 egg
1 ½ cups sifted flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ cup milk

1/3 cup butter, melted
½ cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon



Heat oven to 350. Grease bottoms of medium muffin cups or use paper (this isn’t as good. In fact, it's a total pain because you'll have to take them all out of their papers to roll them in the butter and sugar).
Mix shortening, sugar, and egg thoroughly. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
Stir in flour mixture alternating with milk.


Fill greased muffin cups 2/3 full.


Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.



Immediately roll in melted butter, then in the cinnamon sugar mixture.


Serve hot. Makes 12 medium muffins.