Sugar Donut Muffins

Buck Bannister

I was looking around for something to bake this afternoon while Michael was teaching his music students. Cakes came to mind but, honestly, I wasn’t up to doing a cake today. The past week or so with back pain has left me still feeling drained. (Note: diagnosis is several compressed disks.)

I thought about Beignets but would have to wait for the dough to rise and chill before I could do it. I could also tell by the time I did that the mood would have passed and I’d just want to lie down and rest. So, what to do?

A few days ago I ran across a recipe thanks to Stumbleupon for a donut inspired muffin. It seemed pretty easy and quick so thought I’d try it out.

The end result was very good. It has a very light taste and texture and when combined with a sugared topping takes similar to a cake donut. The perfect treat on a cool day.

I can see this base recipe lending itself to some other experimentation and maybe even combining it with a sugar glaze like on Krispy-Kreme donuts.

The only real tweaks I made to this recipe was utilizing 1/2 cup of Almond milk with 1/4 cup of cream instead of the milk called for in the recipe. I also added cinnamon to the sugar mixture for the topping because, well… I love cinnamon sugar!

I think you’ll enjoy this one. It’s easy and quick so makes a great compliment to morning or evening coffee.

Sugar Donut Muffins

Recipe from Nicole at Baking Bites

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking power
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup milk (low fat is fine)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Topping:
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 Tblsp. Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.

In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.

In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.

Divide batter evenly into muffin cups or tins, filling each about 3/4 full.

Bake for 15-18 minutes for standard-sized muffins or 11-12 minutes for mini-muffins, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. (Note: I used my jumbo muffin tins and found I had enough batter for about 5 total.)

While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl.

When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.

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