Cinnamon Roll Muffins

I've been into cinnamon lately. And Joy the Baker. I was drooling over her recipe for cinnamon rolls, and lamenting that I didn't have the time, patience or skill to make them, when she referenced this recipe for people just like me. Hurray! They smell like cinnamon rolls. They look a little like cinnamon rolls. Best of all, they taste like cinnamon rolls! But they are much easier and faster to make. These cinnamon roll muffins were sooo delicious. We finished off all 12 in just two days. (Okay it was mostly me.) And I'm already planning on making them again.

Cinnamon Roll Muffins

1 ½ cups all purpose flour
⅓ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons active dry or rapid rise yeast
⅔ cup warm milk (100-110F, low fat is fine)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg

Filling/Topping:
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
⅔ cup brown sugar
¾ teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch ground cardamom {I think this is optional. I've never heard of it and it's only a pinch.}

Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoon milk or cream

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Dissolve the yeast in a measuring cup filled with the warmed milk, then stir milk mixture, vegetable oil, vanilla extract and egg into the flour mixture. Mix well, until very smooth. Pour into prepared pan and let rest for 15 minutes.
While the dough rests, mix together butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl using a fork until all the butter has been incorporated into the sugar and mixture is crumbly. Divide the batter between 12 greased muffin cups. Sprinkle evenly on top of rested dough and press the mixture down into the dough with your fingertips (or swirl in with a spatula or fork.)

{Okay, important note here from Angie. I did not realize that you really have to mix most of the topping into the muffin batter. If you leave it just crumbled on top, it will melt and then boil in the oven, and it will boil over, and it will stick to the pan and get hard as soon as you remove it from the oven. So. Just mix it in more, like the picture below, and you should be fine.}

Place pan into a cold oven, then set the oven temperature to 350F.
Bake for about 20 minutes, until bread is lightly browned at the edges and the center of the bread springs back when lightly pressed. Some of the sugar mixture on top may still be bubbling.
Cool for at least 30 minutes before whisking the powdered sugar and milk together to form an icing and drizzling it onto the bread. {Or if you're me, you can't wait and you drizzle it after 5 minutes. It just melted the icing and made it drip over the sides. Still tasted amazing!!) Serve warm. They're also delicious reheated in the microwave.

Makes 12 muffins.

Recipe and photos by Joy the Baker. (Next time I will take my own photos. My muffins weren't as pretty as hers.)