hot cross muffins!

I know - it's sleeting and snowing outside, but Easter will be upon us in no time. One of my favorite holidays, Easter is the long sigh that winter is over , in spite of some pretty quirky weather. For a cook and gardener, what better celebration - baskets of pansies and colorful eggs, the Easter Dinner, the egg hunt ( and the more children around, the better).

I came across this recipe in a tiny little book and had to try it - while I love Hot Cross buns, I've never actually made them. This seemed like a quick short-cut, and how cute would these be as mini-muffins for the kids? I used the standard dried fruit mixture for fruitcake, but if you prefer to use just one or two fruits (cherries and citron?), by all means do.

Adapted from Muffins: Perfectly Simple

Preheat oven to 350F

Grease muffin tins, whatever size you prefer

(I used Texas size, which made 6 enormous muffins)

* * * *

2 cups King Arthur flour, all-purpose

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. kosher salt

2 t. cinnamon

a few scrapings of nutmeg

1 t. fresh lemon zest

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup canola oil

1 cup milk plus 1 T milk

1 cup mixed candied fruit

Mix flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon zest, and sugar in mixer bowl.

Add the egg, canola oil, and milk and stir, then mix in the candied fruit.

Using an ice cream scoop for large muffins, or a teaspoon for mini muffins, fill muffin cups to 3/4 full.

Bake for 25 minutes (large muffins) and 15-20 minutes for smaller ones.

Remove to cooling rack, then pop out of tins to completely cool.

* * * *

Icing:

1 cup confectioner's sugar, sifted

2 T. milk

1 T. melted butter

1/2 t. vanilla

Whisk in a bowl, then scrape into pastry bag fitted with a plain, round tip.

Pipe a cross on top of each muffin.

Enjoy!