French Toast Muffins (★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆)

Before I get to the good stuff in this post, I have to rave about this awesome apron my brother and sister got me for Christmas!  Isn't it the cutest thing ever!  I never wear an apron, but now that I have this I can't help but wear one.  If feel like a 1950's, perfectly coiffed housewife.  Sigh.

Okay now on to your regularly scheduled baking entry.  Let the drooling commence.  Although, if you already felt the need to drool over my cupcake apron, I totally understand.

I love french toast!  Especially when it's actually a "Frenched" croissant or covered in apples and whipped cream.  I got the idea for these when our church cafe was trying to get a baking team together.  I knew that if I was going to bring something that it had to be irresistible.  And what's more enticing than french toast?      

I found a recipe that had sort of bread pudding/french toast topping that I just couldn't resist: French Toast Muffins

It called for a loaf of cinnamon bread, so I bought, what I thought was the mother of all cinnamon loaves...Cinnabon.  If we are going by fat and sugar content, it definitely takes the cake.  But if we are going by blissful deliciousness...it fails miserably.  It was just like plain toast with a cinnamon swirl, AND it was dry.  It actually needed butter!  Goodbye calories.  It was worth the try, but I would have done just as well with a generic cinnamon bread and would've been $4 richer.  

Cinnabon Loaf.  Teeny tiny slices.

Thankfully it didn't really matter how wonderful the loaf was since I had to soak the cut up pieces in a bath of eggs and milk.  

The "french toast" topping.  Yummy!

I spooned a little bit of the french toast mix on to the top of each muffin.  Then when they were finished cooking I brushed the tops with a maple syrup and cinnamon glaze.  Sooooo goooood.

I've always loved the size and shape of Starbucks muffins.  So I went to Michael's Craft Store and purchased a large "cone" shaped muffin pan.  It only cooks eight at a time so I had to make several batches, but it was worth it.  I also didn't want to pay for specialized muffin liners so I fashioned these out of parchment paper.  Not my favorite part of the night, but it was doable.  The problem is if you don't spoon the batter perfectly, the little remnants burn and leave ugly marks while the batter is cooking in the oven.  

The tops of these were amazing!  Since the muffins were pretty "long" the bottoms were more dry than I would have liked.  I would suggest adding some pudding or vanilla yogurt to the batter...even using half and half instead of milk if you are feeding these to your friends, but don't plan on eating them yourself...jk, jk.  

Besides adding some vanilla yogurt, next time I would make twice the amount of french toast topping and just shove more down into the middle.  Because if you're eating a french toast muffin for breakfast you obviously aren't too concerned about nutrition so make it count!