Foodie Favorite: Donut Muffins

This is not your basic muffin … and it’s definitely not your basic donut. It’s an amazing muffin-meets-cake donut twist. Using a standard muffin pan with household baking ingredients, create a sweet cake donut at home. It’s a perfect treat the entire family will love for breakfast or for dessert. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Batter

• 4 Tbsp (57g) butter
• 1/4 cup (50g) vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup (99g) granulated sugar*
• 1/3 cup (71g) light brown sugar or dark brown sugar, packed*
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 to 1 1/4 tsp nutmeg to taste
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups (320g) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (227g) milk

Topping

• 3 Tbsp (43g) butter, melted
• 3 Tbsp (39g) sugar and cinnamon mixture
• *Make your own cinnamon sugar by mixing 3 tablespoons (37g) granulated sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin. Or line with 12 paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups with non-stick vegetable oil spray; this will ensure that they peel off the muffins nicely.
• In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.
• Add the eggs, beating to combine.
• Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla.
• Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.
• Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.
• Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they’re a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
• Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes, or until you can handle them. While they’re cooling, melt the butter for the topping (this is easily done in the microwave).
• Use a pastry brush to paint the top of each muffin with the butter, then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Or simply dip the tops of muffins into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon sugar.
• Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight. Store for a day or so at room temperature.

Tips!

• Want to make “real” doughnuts — but baked, not fried? These are simply scrumptious. Spoon the batter into a lightly greased donut pan, filling the  wells to about 1/4″ shy of the rim. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 10 minutes; remove from the oven, and shake warm doughnuts in a bag of cinnamon sugar (no dipping in butter necessary). The recipe makes 12 to 14 doughnuts, depending on how full you fill the wells in the pan, so you’ll have to bake in at least two batches (unless you have two pans).
• For mini muffins, reduce the baking time to 12 to 13 minutes. Yield: about 30.
• Want gluten-free muffins? Use a 1 to 1 gluten-free all-purpose flour.
• Looking for a lower calorie and carb option? Use a baking sugar alternative. Make sure in this case to measure by volume, not by weight.