Remember when I told you I had a second recipe in mind for The National Maple Syrup Festival’s Sweet Victory Challenge? Yup. This is it. Pancakes in muffin form, with maple syrup both baked into the muffins and on the side as a dipping sauce. This is a new twist on pancakes that we here at the Keller house are digging.
You can make these muffins using any pancake batter recipe, but I recommend the version below. They’re light and fluffy — just like a good pancake should be — and you can customize them with any kind of topping you prefer (baked right in!).
Topping-wise, I went with three variations of these. I just split the plain batter into three bowls and added toppings accordingly, so a single batch can make a collection of flavors. For the first, I sliced half an apple into very small pieces, then added several dashes of cinnamon to the batter. In the second bowl, I mixed a sliced banana and some walnuts into the batter. Finally, for the third kind, I topped the batter (once in the pan) with a few blueberries. I think the banana walnut is my favorite, but it really is a toss up. All of these are solid.
Without further ado, breakfast is served:
Maple Syrup Pancake Muffins
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup 100% pure maple syrup
- 1/4 cup melted butter
- Desired toppings (I used 1.) frozen blueberries, 2.) a sliced banana and chopped walnuts, and 3.) sliced apple and cinnamon)
- Maple syrup for dipping
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees and spray muffin tins with non-stick spray. (You can use any size muffin pan. I went with my baby bundt pan for this batch!)
- Sift dry ingredients together and set aside.
- Place the eggs, vanilla, whipping cream, and 1/4 cup maple syrup into the mixing bowl of a stand mixer and beat on high speed for a few minutes (until the liquid becomes frothy).
- Turn the mixer speed to low and add the flour mixer, blending until the large lumps in the batter disappear.
- Mix in melted butter.
- Add in toppings as desired. (If you’re making several different flavors of muffin, as I did, first split the plain batter into separate bowls and add toppings to individual bowls.)
- Spoon batter into prepared muffin pan, filling each muffin about 2/3 full.
- Baking time differs depending on what size muffin pan you used, so keep an eye on these after about 9 minutes. You want to bake until the muffins become golden brown around the edges.
- Cool slightly, then remove from pan and serve warm, with maple syrup on the side as a dipping sauce.
