Donut Muffins

This past week, I gave away "goodie bags" to 20 lucky friends since it is the season of giving after all. Boy, was that time-consuming. ha. It took me about 6 hours to fully complete the baking and about 30 minutes to package them all up. In the time leading up to these "goodie bag" giveaways, I had to decide what I was going to put in them first of all. I was going over all my recipes figuring out what would work best. I definitely knew I wanted some sort of a cake and cookie combination. Then, I had to choose exactly what. Well, for the cookie part of the bags, I wanted something that would last and not be affected by sitting over night. From this, I chose my Chocolate and Almond Biscotti and Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies. But what cake can I make?

When deciding the cake aspect, I had different ideas floating around in my head. Making whole cupcakes, mini cupcakes, cake truffles, cake pops, cake petit fours. The list went on and on. I narrowed down my choices to either Donut Muffins or Red Velvet mini cupcakes/petit fours. However, I had never made Donut Muffins before and I wasn't about to let my friends become guinea pigs.

So, these were the Donut Muffins I tested out. Sad to say, these didn't make the cut of my giveaway. Instead I made Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes. Overall, the giveaway was a success and was worth every minute of it. Too bad I didn't take pictures of the gift bags....I did take pictures of the Donut Muffins though! ha.

Tips
-Don't over-mix the batter. The batter will seem rather thick and not combined but a few mixes and it should be good to go.

-I used paper liners to bake them up simply for easier cleanup.

-I found that after the muffins came out of the oven and you are ready to cover them in sugar, dunking them in butter and letting them sit for about 30 seconds before dipping them into the cinnamon sugar worked best. It prevented clumps of sugar to accumulate on the muffin.

Results
Taste: Actually tasted close to a cake donut with the addition of cinnamon and nutmeg. However, something seemed to be missing for me in these muffins.

Texture: The muffin itself was moist and the cinnamon-sugar topping gave a nice crunch. The muffin had a texture close to a coffee cake, not as dense as a real donut which is probably the reason why I felt it was "off"

Donut Muffins (Makes 12 Muffins)
Recipe Found Through The Pioneer Woman @ Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients
1 3/4 cup Flour
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoons Salt
1/2 teaspoons Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoons Cinnamon
1/3 cups Oil
3/4 cups White Sugar
1 whole Egg
3/4 cups Milk

FOR THE TOPPING:
1/4 cups Butter
1/3 cups White Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Directions
Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add dry ingredients and stir only to combine.
Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a bowl. Combine the white sugar with the cinnamon in another bowl.
Shake muffins out while still hot. Dip muffins in butter, then into the sugar/cinnamon mix. Let cool.

-Aaron John

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