French toast muffins

One way I'm looking to start off my week is by baking something, likely breakfast-related, such as muffins or scones. While putting me in a good mood, it will also hopefully enable us to have baked goods for breakfasts in the morning, so we're not starving come lunch time. This is my first attempt, and it combines two of my favourite breakfast foods: french toast and muffins.

Recipe

from 750 Best Muffin RecipesMakes 12 muffinsTopping3 tbsp milk1 egg3½ cups cubed white breadMuffins2 cups all purpose flour2 tsp baking powder2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided½ tsp salt¾ cup packed light brown sugar1 egg1 tsp vanilla extract1 cup milk¼ cup pure maple syrup2 tbsp granulated sugarTopping: In a medium bowl, whisk together milk and egg until blended. Stir in bread, tossing to coat. Set aside.Muffins: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, 1½ tsp of the cinnamon and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg, brown sugar, butter and vanilla until well blended. Whisk in milk until blended. Add the egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just blended. Divide batter equally among cups. Spoon topping equally over batter and press lightly into batter.Bake in preheated oven for 21 to 26 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Immediately brush the warm muffins with maple syrup. In a small bowl, combine remaining cinnamon and granulated sugar and sprinkle over muffins Let cool in pan for 3 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool slightly. Serve warm.

Musings

A few notes on preparation: We don't buy white bread, so we only had whole grain bread on hand. In our oven, they took 18 minutes to bake.I wasn't really sure how the bread topping was going to turn out, but it crisped up nicely and lent a nice dimension of texture to the muffins. They were sweet and pleasant, though David noted that they weren't terribly complex (i.e. didn't have interesting gooey pockets such as blueberries or cheese). Despite that, I think they turned out relatively well--the maple syrup-cinnamon sugar glaze was a particularly nice touch. It would be interesting to try this with white bread, as the multigrain nature of our bread likely contributed a certain amount of density to the muffin relative to what would be contributed by plain white bread.