After gathering your ingredients, get a bowl out to start mixing. First off, put your yeast into the lukewarm water and let sit for about 10 minutes. While it's sitting, mix your shortening with the sugar until well blended:

Now, add the yeast/water mixture into your shortening/sugar.

Add the eggs and the salt into the mixture as well, then add 1 cup of flour at a time until well incorporated.

When the mixture is still liquidy, you could experiment with adding different food colorings. If you wait until the dough is firming up, the food coloring will not mix in evenly.

1 more cup...(remember just one at a time!) STIR STIR STIR!!!

T this is the mixture with 3 cups of flour...

Finally, the 4th cup of flour has been added and the mixture feels more like a dough! Kneed it a few times on a well floured surface, and let it sit in a warm place (covered) for 45 minutes.

After the dough has risen, divide it up into little poffin shapes (just a round ball shape is fine) They need to rise for another hour, so don't make them too big!

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Now, you can either add the colored sugar topping to achieve this type of an effect, or you can simply pop them into the oven at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. The Poffins should look lightly golden brown. If you want little seeds on top for texture, put an egg wash over the poffins before you put them in the oven and sprinkle sesame seeds on top!

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Please note, that if you add the topping onto the poffins, it will naturally crackle as the dough expands in the oven. I think it tastes great with the extra topping, but it doesn't look as much like a Poffin anymore with it. It's really up to you! Make a few with and without topping to see which you like best. Good luck :3

~ Ingredients for sugar topping ~
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup flour
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
optional - food coloring

Mix ingredients until well combined, then place on top of poffins before going into the oven.