Dirt Bombs

I LOVED these little cinnamon sugary buttery muffins, however, I HATE the name!

"Dirt Bombs"? Really?
The name comes from the original dirt bomb confection made at Bantam Bread Bakery in Connecticut.

There is a bakery in my town, Summit, NJ that also makes these, but they call them "duffins", much cuter than "dirt bombs", don't you think?

Dirt Bombs were derelict teens in my high school back in the 80's, who wore long denim coats and smoked cigarettes out back in the smoking lounge (can you believe my high school had a smoking lounge?).

Come to think of it, we actually had 2 different cafeterias in my school, one for the "jocks", and one for the "dirt bombs".

My, how things have changed.
Political correctness was not in vogue back in 1980.

Well, despite the goofy name, these are the BOMB! So easy to make, and truly amazing.

I had to give them away for fear of eating them all.

Duffins or Dirt Bombs, whatever you want to call them: (adapted from Oui Chef & Bon Appetit)

For the muffins:

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup whole milk

Topping:

1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt & nutmeg in a large bowl.

In another bowl, mix the butter, sugar and egg together until fluffy. Gradually add in the milk in 3 additions.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix to make a nice yellow batter.

I like to use an ice cream scoop these days for plopping batter into muffin tins, it makes it neater and each muffin comes out the same size (and I don't use the scoop for ice cream anyway, I just eat it out of the container!).

Spray a 12 cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray (PAM), and plop the batter into the tins.

Bake for 23-25 minutes in a 375F oven.
The original recipe calls for 35 minutes, but mine were done at 23.

Mix the cinnamon sugar topping in a bowl and set aside.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter on low heat.

Once the muffins are cool enough to handle (I have iron hands, so did it right away), dip each muffin top in the butter, then roll in the cinnamon sugar.

Set on a rack to cool.

These are best the day you bake them (like a fresh donut), however, you can plop them in the microwave for 15 seconds the next day and they will be nice and fresh again.

DIVINE.