Let's Bake Breakfast Muffins

When I read books, I tend to mark them up. I underline things, write notes in the margins, and use the blank pages at the front of books to make indexes of my notes. Sometimes I even mark up the introduction and the footnotes.

Tyler Florence's new cookbook, "Inside the Test Kitchen", taught me that cookbooks even call for this kind of interaction! His unique style really came through with this book that is bound like a moleskine journal and features pictures that were only taken with an iPad.

The book begins with a brief summary of Tyler's kitchen history as well as an introduction that featured some words that took me right back to the wisdom my Mom shared with me all the way through elementary school.

I have another habit...Whenever I eat food that I didn't make, I immediately start trying to figure out what flavors I'm tasting. If I love the food, I start making mental notes about what it will take to recreate it in my own kitchen.

Tyler's recipe for "5-in-1 Baking Mix" was the push that I needed to finally give my friend Julie's breakfast muffins a try. I'm excited to be able to tell you that the muffins were a complete success!

"Inside the Test Kitchen" is loaded with pictures that are super helpful. Before I started messing with things, I poured over the whole section related to the "5-in-1 Baking Mix" recipe. Tyler explained why it works and added extra notes in the margin, which happen to be written with a sharpie. Grab a copy for your kitchen HERE.

I combined my adaption of Tyler's "5-in-1 Baking Mix" with grated cheddar cheese, breakfast sausage, butter, milk, and egg. I gave it a stir and spooned it into muffin tins...20 minutes later, I had 20 of these gorgeous muffins! I have to mention that it also happened to be January 20th. I'm so tempted to call these things "20-20-20 Muffins" or "20 in 20 on 20 Muffins".

Enough about me and my strange habits...Here's the muffin recipe!

Breakfast Muffins

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons butter, melted

1 egg

1 cup milk

1 lb. breakfast sausage, browned and cooled
8 ounces medium cheddar cheese, grated

Steps:
After you've got your sausage browned and cooled and your cheese grated, make sure your oven rack is in the middle of your oven. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease your muffin tins.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine the butter, egg, and milk.

Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients, and stir until combined.

Mix in your cooled sausage and grated cheddar cheese. If the mixture is especially difficult to stir, feel free to add a touch more milk.

Spoon batter into muffin tins. Fill any empty slots with some water (about halfway will do).

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes. Remove muffins from tins and let rest on a rack until ready to serve or until completely cool. Store in the refrigerator in a ziplock bag. Makes 20 muffins.

I should mention that these muffins started flying off the cooling rack as soon as I removed them from the muffin tins! I have a feeling that I'll be making quite a lot of these in the years to come and I hope you will too.

Do you mark up your books?

Do you try to recreate recipes?

What was your latest kitchen success?

* I was provided with a review copy of this book by Blogging for Books. All thoughts are my own honest opinion.