¼ cup butter, softened
¾ teaspoon baking powder
¾ teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 ½ cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups flour

¼ cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ cup chopped pecans

1. Oven 350 degrees.
2. Grease well a 12 cup muffin tin or line with paper cup cake liners.
3. In a bowl beat butter, sugar, buttermilk, egg and vanilla. In a separate bowl sift flour, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the bowl, mixing thoroughly. Mix well with a wooden spoon.
4. In a small bowl mix the ½ teaspoon cinnamon with the brown sugar and pecans.
5. Fill muffin cups ½ way up with batter. Spoon some sugar pecan mixture, and repeat with a little more batter to make up ¾ filling the muffin cup. Sprinkle top with the sugar pecan mixture.
6. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 8 to 12 large muffins. Can be frozen after baking.
7. ENJOY! – Sunday morning never smelled so good!…..

Buttermilk is such a great addition when baking muffins and cakes. Buttermilk is usually sold in quart containers only. This is 4 cups. It would be very rare if you use the whole container when baking this recipe. Even when I double or triple this recipe I have leftover buttermilk. That is when I start baking buttermilk biscuits or buttermilk bread. For me it is fun to figure out how to use up the leftover buttermilk. I usually start searching through my very large recipe collection. I have dozens of books and loose paper recipes.

For my Japanese readers, I understand in Japan buttermilk is not common. I found an American company that sells powdered buttermilk packets and I have sent them to my friends in Japan. Also if you check your substitute charts in your cookbooks you may find a way to make buttermilk from adding lemon juice to regular milk. Then you let it sit for a few minutes before using. I have used this method in a pinch when needed, but truthfully I would run out to the store to buy the buttermilk.

I have substituted walnuts for pecans if I have no pecans in the house. My daughter, Marisa, says I am a nut because I always need to have a large supply of pecans, walnuts and almonds in the house, just in case I need them. If heaven forbid I run out of nuts, I have to go the store and buy some immediately. It drives my kids crazy. I put nuts in everything. When you love to cook and bake like I do, you have to have a fully stocked kitchen. So, I replenish all my baking supplies whenever I notice something is running low.

This recipe was originally called Noreen’s muffins because of course, my friend, Noreen gave me the recipe. Noreen lived next door to us in our old neighborhood. Noreen was very pretty, very fit and trim. Noreen never really baked; she lifted weights for fun. However, one day she was watching a television show that showed how to make strawberry buttermilk muffins and she made them. She gave me the recipe. I changed it to cinnamon pecan muffins. That was probably the first and last time Noreen baked. Fast forward 18 years later, Noreen is still pretty and still fit and trim. She didn’t even remember giving me the recipe for the muffins. I did try to make the muffins with the strawberries but they didn’t seem to come out right for me. That’s when I started to experiment with, what else, nuts.

Experiment with recipes; don’t be afraid to change something. Cooking should be fun and interesting. The greatest mistakes I have made have turned into some of my greatest triumphs. Unfortunately, I don’t always remember what I did wrong!