Cinnamon Bun Muffins

If you love cinnamon buns, but don't want to make dough and wait for it to rise, these are a great alternative. Very similar in taste, you get the lovely aroma when cooking too.

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Brush or wipe a little oil inside the 12 holes of a standard muffin tin.
   Squeeze the lemon juice into the milk.
   Put the brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract and salt in a bowl, add the milk and beat together with a spoon or electric whisk. Sift in 400 g flour along with the baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and mix together. with a spoon until it starts to form a dough. Add more sifted flour if needed (I tend to use 430g with the rest for dusting). Generously dust the worktop with flour, tip the dough onto it, dust the top with a little more flour and gently knead just for a minute or two.
   Dust your rolling pin with a little flour and roll out into a rectangle which is about 4mm thick and twice as long as it is wide (approx. 25 cm X 50 cm).
   Mix the additional sugar with the cinnamon.
   With your fingers or a spatula, spread the soft butter all over the rectangle of dough, then sprinkle the cinnamon sugar all over the top.
   Roll the dough into a log shape, from the long edge. Cut it in half, then cut each of these logs in half, and cut each smaller log into 3 equal pieces.
   Put them in the prepared tin. Sprinkle a little demerera sugar over the tops.
   Bake for 12 - 15 minutes until they are well risen and golden, and a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre of one of the muffins.
   Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack or to a plate to serve.
   They can be served as they are, dusted with icing sugar, or drizzled with a little lemon or vanilla icing. To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a small bowl, add a little icing sugar or vanilla extract and mix until you get a smooth icing that can be drizzled. You may need to add a drop of milk or water to the vanilla icing.