Morning Bun Muffins are here to save us all from boring breakfasts.
One bite of these orange-y, cinnamon-y, sugary treats, and you’ll be up and at ’em for the rest of the day.
Why are Morning Bun Muffins the book-inspired recipe for Relative Strangers?
Morning Buns are main character Amelia’s favorite pastry. They sound so delicious in the story, and I was super excited to make them as a book-inspired recipe for Relative Strangers.
Until I looked up what a Morning Bun actually is.
Dude, a morning bun is a laminated, yeasted pastry. Kind of like a croissant meets a cinnamon roll.
For those of you who don’t obsessively watch The Great British Baking Show (what are you doing with your lives???), “laminated” means you’re rolling and folding bricks of butter into sheets of homemade pastry dough to create delicate, flaky layers. (See “croissant”.)
Making laminated dough takes awhile. It also takes precision.
And, we all know that yeasted dough takes time to prove, or to poof up and become bake-able. Like, we’re talking a few hours here. (See “cinnamon rolls”.)
Umm, I don’t know who’s getting up at the ass crack of dawn to make yeasted, laminated Morning Buns, but it’s definitely not me.
Since muffins are also a breakfast favorite in Relative Strangers¸ I decided to cheat a bit and bake Morning Bun Muffins as an homage to Amelia’s favorite pastry.
What is a Morning Bun Muffin?
Key ingredients for Morning Buns seem to be brown sugar, cinnamon, orange, and butter. Oh, and more butter. Because we’re trying to evoke the essence of a laminated pastry.
My muffinized (did I just make a word??) version of Amelia’s favorite treats evokes their signature flavors without all the extra time or the hassle of working with dough.
To mimic the buttery sweet decadence of morning buns, the muffins are rolled in a mixture of melted butter and fresh orange juice.
Then, I dipped them in (a.k.a., attacked them with) a crunchy, shimmery blend of cinnamon and brown sugar.
Why do I love Morning Bun Muffins?
The base for Morning Bun Muffins is my Orange Blueberry Muffin recipe. I love that recipe since it always makes a batch of twelve perfectly risen, perfectly domed muffins. It’s basically fail-proof.
I adjusted that recipe to accommodate as much Morning Bun flavor as possible. I’m a sucker for anything orange and cinnamon together; that flavor combo just makes me think of cozy mornings spent sipping from hot beverages.
Despite being rolled in brown sugar, Morning Bun Muffins aren’t overly sweet.
Like, you’re not eating cake for breakfast. These are clearly muffins, and they’re just sweet enough to count as a breakfast treat instead of a dessert.
Confession time: I baked these muffins on the fly. And they still turned out delicious.
Even though I plan my blog bakes in advance, making these Morning Bun Muffins was a slightly half-assed attempt.
My oranges had been lingering in the fridge for weeks (maybe a month?); the brown sugar was the very last dusting in my container; and I realized that I’d run out of cupcake liners right after I started mixing together my ingredients.
I didn’t have time to run to the store. So, I took a deep breath and made do with what I had.
The oranges, while a little dry, thankfully yielded enough juice and zest to add the flavor I wanted. Then, I scraped every. last. granule. of sugar into that batter.
Finally, I sprayed the buhjeezus outta my muffin tin with PAM Baking spray, and crossed my fingers, toes, and eyes that the muffins would pop out of the tin once they baked.
AND THEY DID! Easily. So easily. The caramelized brown of the sides was an unexpected bonus.
This is why Morning Bun Muffins are a great breakfast idea.
They’re simple to make, you probably already have most of the ingredients in your pantry (or dying a slow death in your fridge), and you only need to wake up about 20 minutes before everyone else to whip up these babies.
Way better than a breakfast that takes 3+ hours to make, amirite??
What do you serve with Morning Bun Muffins?
Morning Bun Muffins obviously are great with coffee or tea in the morning. You can eat them on their own or serve them as a breakfast appetizer (yes, that is a thing) for Anniversary French Toast.
These muffins are a delicious mid-afternoon treat after a healthy lunch of Chicken Caesar Pasta Salad or Chickpea Burgers with Mint Tahini Carrot Slaw.
If you’re putting out a brunch spread, Morning Bun Muffins will look gorgeous on a platter next to some Chocolate Chip Cherry Scones, Curry Chicken Salad Sandwiches, and Homemade Fruit and Nut Granola.
Morning Bun Muffins
Ingredients
MORNING BUN MUFFIN INGREDIENTS
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- zest of one orange
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 egg
- 1 cup Greek Yogurt
- 1 tbsp fresh orange juice
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
MUFFIN TOPPING INGREDIENTS
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/2 tsp fresh orange juice
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
Instructions
PREP INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Line a 12-cavity muffin tin with paper liners and place on a baking sheet, or spray the heck out of your muffin tin cavities with baking spray. Set aside.
- Melt butter in microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.
- Zest, then juice your orange.
BAKING INSTRUCTIONS
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, orange zest, baking soda, salt, and 2 tsp ground cinnamon until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the 6 tbsp melted butter, yogurt, 1 tbsp orange juice, egg, and vanilla extract.
- Pour wet ingredients into dry, then mix with a spatula until just combined. Batter will be relatively thick and sticky, almost like biscuit dough.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin; you should have exactly enough batter to fill each cavity to the top.
- Bake Morning Bun Muffins at 400F for 13-15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Remove muffin tin to a wire rack and let cool 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the Morning Bun Muffin topping.
TOPPING INSTRUCTIONS
- In a small bowl (that’s big enough to fit a muffin), melt 2 tbsp butter and stir in 1 ½ tsp orange juice.
- In another similarly sized bowl, stir together the brown sugar and the 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon.
- While Morning Bun Muffins are still warm, dip the tops in the melted butter and orange mixture, then press into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Since the muffins are still warm, you can press some extra cinnamon sugar onto the sides and bottoms of the muffins, too, and it will stick.
- Serve Morning Bun Muffins while still warm or after they have cooled completely.
