French Breakfast Puffs

Found on page 66 of The PW's cookbook is the recipe for French Breakfast Puffs. Where do I start with this one...

First of all whatever you do, DO NOT lightly spray your muffin tins. You're going to need to spray heavy or butter/grease and then flour your tin, because my first batch all I got were muffin TOPS. Not cute on people and not fun when you are trying to get whole muffins out of tins. Yuck and irritating.

There is 2/3 cup of shortening in the batter and then you roll the warm muffins in melted butter and then roll again in a sugar/cinnamon combo. I let mine cool overnight and we ate them the next morning before church. While they ARE good, they left my teeth feeling slick with butter, sort of oily feeling. (Hello all that butter and shortening!) John thought the same thing, and didn't eat nearly as many as I guessed he would have. While I didn't ask him to rate them on a scale of 1-10, I'm guessing because he didn't really eat very many that they were a 5 or a 6.

I will make them again at some point because they were good, but next time I'll remember to not "lightly spray" my muffin tin!

The PW's Skillet Cornbread

OK...can I just say, I've wanted to recreate my Arkansas Grandma's cornbread since...forever and now...ta da...I have! Thank you Ree. The recipe calls for buttermilk, but come on who buys buttermilk?! Her directions say you can make your own buttermilk (which apparently is a known fact to everyone but me.) With a little added vinegar to milk, I did indeed make my own buttermilk. The recipe calls for "shortening" I'm telling you, since recreating the PW's recipes I've never used so much shortening in my life. Not only do you melt it and add it to the batter, but you also melt some in the pan prior to pouring the batter in. Ree's recipes are not for the slim of hip, but SO good! It isn't a very sweet cornbread (which I don't like anyway) but it is full of great texture. My husband told me I could make it everyday and he would be happy, I'd say that's a 10.

*This recipe can be found on page 102 of The Pioneer Woman's new cookbook.