Doughnut Muffins

Since I was dangerously close to eating cupcakes for breakfast this week, I figured I should make something that I could actually justify eating at 8 am. 

Enter: Doughnut Muffins. The bastard love child of a cake doughnut and a coffee cake muffin. So wrong, they're right.

These have been on my To Bake list for a while now and I'd collected three different recipes to try out. Although each recipe was different, they all had two things in common: nutmeg in the batter, and the essential final step of rolling the baked muffins in melted butter and cinnamon-sugar. 

Doughnut Muffin #1

This recipe was butter-based with lots of brown sugar. I love cookies that use a lot of brown sugar, so I had really high hopes for this recipe. And flavor-wise, of the three recipes I tested, these tasted most like a doughnut. But they came out with flat tops and looking too brown with a tough outer crust and a somewhat dense texture. It's possible that I overbaked them even though I used the minimum baking time suggested.

Doughnut Muffin #2

This recipe was also butter-based and was your basic plain muffin batter. Of the three, these muffins had the best texture. They were super light and fluffy, and were a pretty light golden color. But the tops of the muffins were still flat, and with so little flavoring in the batter, I thought it tasted a little egg-y. Dan likened them to coffee cake, which sounds about right. In the end, I dubbed these the best of the three and dropped some off at our neighbors.

Doughnut Muffin #3

Unlike the other two, these were oil-based with no butter in the batter. They crowned nicely, with high tops but the batter never really smoothed out so the tops were uneven. They took much longer to bake than the recipe suggested, and had a crunchy exterior, but the interior stayed a little gummy. I could also really taste the difference the oil made. These were my least favorite, and after sampling, ended up in the trash.

In the end, I took the flavor inspiration from #1 and combined it with the great texture of #2 (plus the addition of cinnamon in the batter from #3) and came up with my own recipe, which I am totally in love with. To me, it tastes just like a cake doughnut but with all the ease of baking a muffin!

Doughnut Muffins
Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

For muffins:
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
13.5 oz. (3 cups) all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup plus 3 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp buttermilk

For dipping:
4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter; more as needed
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a standard muffin tin with non-stick spray (or butter and flour). Be sure to grease inside the cups as well as the top of the muffin pan.
2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter with both sugars. Beat in the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the milk and buttermilk.
4. With mixer on low, add a quarter of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Add half of the milk mixture. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix just until combined, finishing by hand if necessary.
5. Fill each muffin cup just to the top with batter. Bake the muffins until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 24 minutes. Allow to cool 3-5 minutes and then remove from muffin tin onto a cooling rack.
6. For dipping: melt butter and place in a medium bowl. In another bowl, mix together the sugar and cinnamon. While muffins are still warm, roll each muffin in the melted butter, coating the top and all sides. Transfer to the cinnamon-sugar mixture, and roll to coat the muffin completely. Leave on cooling rack to cool completely.

Raisin Bran Muffins

I know I said in my last post that New York-Style Coffee Cake would be next, but I'm going to hold off on that recipe for a little while because I may be making some alterations to the recipe. It will give you something to look forward to though, trust me.

There's nothing weirder than a crunchy muffin. And in my opinion, there's nothing worse than soggy cereal. I'm the type of person who waits until the last minute, spoon at the ready, to pour the milk on to my Honey Bunches of Oats, and then starts shoveling it in before I even sit down. But, ironically, it's those gross, soggy, mushy flakes of bran that are the key to this muffin recipe.

Dan was in his last week of studying for the first step of the Boards (or, in his words, the most important test he'll ever take. Clearly, he'll never take a pregnancy test), when he asked me to make him something he could snack on throughout the day, without having to take a break from studying, and that wouldn't put him into a food coma. We settled on muffins and I decided to try these.

After the first bite, I wasn't sure I was going to finish the whole muffin. It was dense, not that sweet, and seemed sort of flavorless. But then, I took another bite, and another. The texture lightened up and the subtle flavor of the bran started to come through. These weren't phenomenal, but they were good. My favorite bites were the ones with the raisins in them since that upped the sweetness factor by about 10 so I changed the recipe to include more raisins if you're looking for a sweeter muffin. If you're feeling really frisky, you might even add a pinch of cinnamon for a little added spice. But this is a solid, easy recipe for a basic bran muffin.  

Raisin Bran Muffins

Yield: 12 Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

2 1/2 cups raisin bran cereal

1 cup raisins

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 1/4 cups buttermilk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Demerara sugar (Granulated brown sugar)

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugars. Stir in the cereal and raisins; set aside. It's best to do this by hand as the paddle of a mixer will break up the cereal.

2. In another large bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, egg, buttermilk, and vanilla.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, folding to incorporate. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate over night or up to 3 days in an airtight container.

4. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a muffin tin with liners or spray with non-stick cooking spray.

5. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin tins. Sprinkle the tops with the demerara sugar.

6. Bake for 20-25 minute or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two days, and then in the refigerator for up to another week.

(Adapted from Joy the Baker)

Next Indulgence: Oatmeal, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip Cookies (That's right. The TRIFECTA)