These Mini French Breakfast Puffs are soft and fluffy breakfast muffins that are coated in warm, melted butter, then rolled in sweet cinnamon sugar. They take less than 15 minutes to bake, taste absolutely wonderful, and are the perfect go-to, quick breakfast treat!
Table of Contents
About the Recipe
I have a growing number of breakfast sweets here on Beyond the Butter, and next to my chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake and 5 ingredient butterscotch bundt roll recipes, these mini french breakfast puffs are probably the easiest to make!
This recipe yields approximately 18 mini breakfast muffins using a medium size cookie scoop, takes roughly 10-15 minutes to prep, and 13-15 minutes to bake! Fresh and warm from the oven, roll them in the melted butter, coat them with the cinnamon sugar, then enjoy!
That’s it—easy peasy!
It’s a recipe I got from my Aunt Deb, who got it from her Mom (a.k.a. my Grammy) years ago, and now I’m sharing it with all of you!
One small change I made from my Aunt’s recipe—I made these minis because who doesn’t like mini treats?
Ingredients Needed
You’ll need the following ingredients to make these miniature size french breakfast puffs:
- All-Purpose Flour
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Nutmeg. If you don’t have nutmeg on hand, you can use cinnamon in its place.
- Vegetable Shortening. You can substitute softened, room-temperature unsalted butter (1:1 ratio).
- Granulated Sugar
- Large-size Egg. Just one is needed, and it’s good to have it at room temperature.
- Milk. I used 1%, but 2%, whole, and fat-free are fine as a substitute.
- Unsalted Butter. Used for rolling the just-baked breakfast puffs in.
- Cinnamon + Granulated Sugar. The coating that gets added after you’ve dipped the muffins in the melted butter
What Baking Tools Are Needed?
To make these mini french breakfast puffs, I recommend using either your hand or stand mixer to make the muffin batter. You will also need:
- 24-cup mini muffin or cupcake tin
- Flour-based baking spray
- Spatula
- Medium cookie scoop – used to divide the muffin batter into each cavity
- Mixing bowls
Cinnamon Sugar Mix
To make the cinnamon sugar mix that you’ll dip the buttery breakfast muffins in, you’ll need 1/2 cup of granulated sugar plus one teaspoon of cinnamon.
You can easily double this amount if needed.
I recommend making more than needed and then saving it in a container to use later!
Other Beyond the Butter recipes that use this same cinnamon sugar mix are my chocolate chip sour cream coffee cake and my super easy blueberry bundt cake!
Standard Size French Breakfast Puffs
If you don’t have mini muffin tins, you can make these as regular-size breakfast muffins using a standard muffin tin.
The oven temp is the same at 350ºF, but the bake time changes to 23-25 minutes. Fill them 2/3 of the way full, which should yield 12 medium-size muffins.
Quick Recipe Tips Before Starting
- This recipe yields approximately 18 mini french breakfast puffs, so you will not use all 24 mini muffin cavities.
- I inverted my just-baked breakfast muffins onto a wire cooling rack with a few sheets of paper towels underneath. Then got the melted butter and the cinnamon sugar bowls ready.
- I used my left hand to dip the breakfast muffins into the melted butter. Then I used my right hand to coat them in cinnamon sugar. You can also use mini tongs to do this or whatever setup works best for you!
- These are best eaten the same day, but also keep well at room temperature in a tightly sealed container for up two days. You can reheat them in the microwave for 15 seconds to warm them up.
More Breakfast Sweets from Beyond the Butter®!
Mini French Breakfast Puffs
Ingredients
cinnamon sugar mix
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
french breakfast puffs muffin batter
- 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- 1/3 cup Vegetable Shortening, room temperature
- 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Large Egg, room temperature
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, melted – for dipping the muffins in after they are baked. DO NOT ADD TO THE BATTER.
Instructions
- Adjust the oven rack to the 2nd level position (just above center), and preheat the oven to 350ºF. Generously spray a 24 cavity mini muffin pan with a flour-based baking spray.
- To make the cinnamon sugar mix, whisk together the 1/2 cup of granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in a small bowl. Set to the side.1/2 cup Granulated Sugar, 1 tsp Cinnamon
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set the dry mixture to the side.1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour, 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder, 1/2 tsp Salt, 1/4 tsp Nutmeg
- Using a hand-held mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat together the vegetable shortening and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and mix until well combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.1/3 cup Vegetable Shortening, 1/2 cup Granulated Sugar, 1 Large Egg
- Reduce the mixer speed to low, then alternatively add in the milk with the whisked dry mixture. Mix until just combined. The batter will be on the thicker side, but easily scoopable.1/2 cup Milk
- Using a medium-size cookie scoop, evenly divide the batter into the mini muffin cavities.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes at 350ºF or until a light golden brown.
- Immediately roll the breakfast puffs in the melted butter, then coat with the cinnamon sugar mix. Serve and enjoy!1/2 cup Unsalted Butter
Video
Notes
- To make these mini french breakfast puffs regular size, follow the same instructions, but bake them for 23-25 minutes at the same oven temperature of 350ºF.
Nutrition
Nutritional information provided above is an estimate only and will vary based on specific ingredients used. See Nutritional Disclaimer for more info.
AMAZING!!! I didnt have any muffin trays, so i used a small rectangular cake pan instead. Instead of shortening, which I also didn’t have, I used olive oil since I didn’t feel like putting butter. It was the fluffiest and best thing I have ever baked in my entire life. 100% recommend!
Make these all of the time. Everyone that has tried them loves them. I get numerous requests to make them.
I bake all the time, including muffins. Every once in a while, I like trying someone’s random recipe… And even though the taste was there, they were so heavy and dense and crumblay. Definitely a one time make on this recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for your feedback. Sorry they didn’t work out for you!
what can I replace vegetable shortening with?
Referencing the Ingredients Needed section above, you can substitute softened, room-temperature unsalted butter as a 1:1 ratio.
I don’t know what I did wrong but they were so crumbly when I put them into butter and cinnamon. Maybe they needed to cook longer or maybe they needed to stand a minute or two before dumping them?!? Other than that .. they were light, fluffy and oh so good! My kids devoured them quickly!! Crumbles and all!
Hi Kimberly! If they were crumbly and kind of falling apart like that, it sounds like they just needed to stand or cool just a smidge more before coating them in the butter and cinnamon sugar. Hope this helps! And glad they were still enjoyed by the kids!
Made these this morning I used butter instead of shortening added cinnamon to the muffins 1/2 t. I also used buttermilk. They turned out amazing!! Thank you