A sprinkle of cinnamon and sugar makes any baked treat better. This version uses whole unrefined sugar and extra cinnamon to easily make it healthier.

It’s hard to make a good muffin without some cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top, in my humble opinion. I happen to like cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on a lot of thing that come out of the oven, actually.

Now, you can buy cinnamon and sugar mixed and in it’s own specially labeled shaker in the spice aisle, but I’ve always thought that was kind of silly. Most of us have cinnamon in our cupboards, and we all have sugar, so buying a premade blend has never made sense to me.

If you opt to be a serious DIYer and make your own (because cinnamon and sugar is serious business) look through many typical cookbooks, and you’ll probably find a recipe similar to 1 cup of sugar to 2 tablespoons cinnamon.

Two. Paltry. Tablespoons.

That’s not enough cinnamon, friends, and a whole lot of sugar. Instead of using a ratio like that, I like to make my own cinnamon sugar blend with a generous portion of cinnamon. Subbing out white sugar for whole unrefined cane sugar makes this blend a bit healthier, too. It’s a staple in my cupboard!

Cinnamon not only adds extra flavor, but it allows you to use less sugar in a recipe. It kind of tricks our minds into thinking something is sweeter without using more sugar!

Using whole unrefined cane sugar over standard white sugar adds trace amounts of minerals to the blend, too. Clearly, this isn’t like taking a multivitamin or eating a bowl of kale. (Mmm… kale…) But those minerals aren’t hurting anything, and the natural chromium in the dried sugar cane crystals may help the body process the sugar better, too.

Healthier Cinnamon Sugar Mix

Ingredients

• Whole cane sugar, typically called Rapadura or Sucanat (found here)
• Ground cinnamon
• Nutmeg, ginger, clove, or cardamom, optional 

You’ll also need some sort of shaker. Since the whole cane sugar is much coarser than typical granulated sugar, the opening(s) in your shaker need to be a little more generous. I use a glass sugar dispenser that you can either get online or find at a local big box type of store.

Instructions

1. Add 3 generous tablespoons sugar to your shaker, then 2 tablespoons cinnamon, and a pinch of any other spice you’d like to add. I love adding a bit of cardamom!
2. Continue layering 3 T sugar and 2 T cinnamon (with pinch optional spice, if using) until your shaker is almost filled, then gently stir with a long spoon or fork.
3. Top off with any additional sugar and cinnamon and stir again to fully mix.

Of course you could very easily mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, then scoop into your shaker. But I never remember how much my shaker holds, and if I use a bowl, that’s an extra dish that’s been dirtied. Who needs that? Not me, even if I’m not hand washing all of our dishes anymore.

If you want something really deluxe to sprinkle on your buttered toast while you enjoy some yummy homemade hot chocolate at night when the littles are in bed (I’m not the only one, right?), be sure to check out my recipe for Spiced Vanilla Sugar!

Do you mix up your own cinnamon sugar blend?