Breakfast goodies

Is it fall where you live yet??

It's not even close here, although I could almost feel the beginnings Friday night at the football game.  2 hours after sunset, but still, it was almost there.  :)

I think fall may be my favorite time of the year.  You can go outside without sweating.  You can wear sweaters and scarves and boots.  There's football and bonfires and you know--the whole not sweating thing. :)  Fall brings apple and pumpkin desserts along with lots of cinnamon and spices.  The colors darken and even my aqua-loving self finds comfort in mustard and burgandy and even, gasp! dark purple!

My point to all of this is I started my fall baking!  Well, actually, our PTO hosted the first coffee bar yesterday and a friend and I were in charge of bringing muffins.  We serve coffee to the teachers twice a month to help brighten their Mondays and usually, another group sells breakfast goodies alongside.  But they're not up and going yet, so PTO footed the bill and fed the teachers this time.

So--what do you make for teachers??  Something with apples of course!  I scoured my fall and breakfast boards and decided on these winners right here.

Apple Cinnamon Roll Muffins!

YUM!

You know, I'm not sure I'd ever made cinnamon rolls from scratch before.  I don't know why not, because they're really easy to do.  Yes, there's a time commitment with the rising process, but the actual hands-on work isn't bad at all.

I would recommend this recipe for sure.  I ended up taking about 20 muffins and they were gone in an hour with other goodies available too.  But, I will also say that next time I make them, I'll bump up the flavor a little more.  These were definitely tasty, but if I'm going to invest in the calories inside a cinnamon roll, I really want those calories to be worth it, you know?  ;)  I'd also add that it might be best to not add the apples to the mixture but just sprinkle them on the dough before rolling.  I had them filling mixture sitting for 5ish minutes and it was already juicy and messy on my counter during the cutting step.  Delicious and the smell--oh my!  But still messy.

I will also add that I didn't remove these from the pan after baking.  I got busy quilting and waited a few hours and I did have a few stick (why I only took 20) to the pan.  Actually, it was just the liner that stuck, the muffin was in great shape, but I can't really serve someone with only half a cupcake liner, you know??  So, I would remove these after 10-20 minutes and let them cool on a wire rack.

If you're ready to start your fall baking, this is a great place to start.  Or check out my pinterest boards for more inspiration.  I've got a bunch there for you.  Pinning recipes is almost as good as eating them, right??