Cinnamon Brown Sugar Muffins

August. The month of the summer where you stop pretending summer is still beginning and acknowledge that it's reaching its end. The light changes in August in Boston and I've been noting it since I was a child and this August I'm noting it for the first time with two children who don't know yet that August means something ending. They'll learn. For now Liam just knows it's hot and the tomatoes are good and Marco is always available.

Nora is sitting unassisted. She sat on the living room rug on Sunday morning and looked at the room from the new perspective of someone who has just been granted a promotion. She sat for thirty seconds and then toppled sideways into the pillows Sean had arranged around her and looked up at the ceiling from the pillow with the philosophical expression of someone deciding whether this outcome was satisfactory. She sat up again.

Back to regular shifts at work—no more modified schedule, I'm at full capacity again—and the floor continues to manage the ongoing reality of COVID in oncology. It is a sustained effort now, not a crisis mode but a permanent adjustment. We have gotten very good at the adjustment. I want to keep saying this: we have gotten very good at this. It matters to say it.

Peach galette again, the same as last year but better because I have the recipe memorized now and because the peaches are exceptional this August. Liam ate a large piece. Nora sat on the kitchen floor and watched me assemble it with both hands in the air, which is her current posture for sustained observation. The annual peach galette. Next year Nora will be old enough to eat it too.

The galette is the annual ritual, the one I’ve written about and will keep writing about, but August baking doesn’t stop there—it never does when there are two kids in the house and mornings that still need to feel like summer. These cinnamon brown sugar muffins are what I make the day after, partly because Liam asks and partly because standing at the counter measuring flour and brown sugar while Nora watches from the floor with both hands in the air is, I’ve decided, exactly the kind of ordinary moment worth keeping. They’re warm and simple and smell like the season finally agreeing to turn.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 18 minutes | Total Time: 28 minutes | Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Topping: 2 tablespoons brown sugar mixed with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Heat your oven to 375°F. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners or grease each cup well.
Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until no lumps of brown sugar remain.
Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter, and vanilla until smooth and combined.
Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold gently with a spatula until just combined—a few small streaks of flour are fine. Do not overmix or the muffins will be tough.
Fill and top. Divide the batter evenly among the 12 muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Sprinkle the cinnamon–brown sugar topping evenly over each muffin.
Bake. Bake for 16–18 minutes, until the tops are golden and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Cool. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Muffins — The Other August Baking