A few weeks ago, I stopped into Azucar, one of my favorite places in San Diego for a treat. They have the best cookies and scones and coffees and everything. I am a little addicted to the place. Anyways, when I was there I saw something called a "donut muffin" and I had to try one. Well, my mind was blown. Amazing.
The next day I decided to try my own donut muffins. I looked around online and put together a recipe that is a slightly dense muffin. After baking you roll the mini muffin in melted butter and cinnamon-sugar. You can make this recipe in a traditional sized muffin pan but I love the mini's. The denser texture combined with the butter-cinnamon-sugar coating gives these little muffins the perfect donut taste. SO good.
apple donut muffins (makes about 30 mini muffins)
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup cider
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 medium apple - peeled and grated
2 teaspoons cinnamon + 1/4 cup sugar + 4 tablespoons melted butter (for after baking)
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a mini muffin pan.
2. In a larger bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, and brown sugar). Set aside. In a different bowl, mix the 3 tablespoons of melted butter, cider, egg, vanilla extract, and the grated apple.
3. Combine the wet and dry ingredient and spoon into the muffin pan.
4. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Remove the muffins from the pan and dunk first in the bowl of melted butter, then in the bowl of cinnamon-sugar.
5. Set the coated muffins on a plate to cool. I found that these muffins tasted more "donut like" when they had cooled for about 15 minutes. When they were piping hot, the texture was more muffin-esque. Try it, you'll see what I mean :). Also, depending on how buttery and sugary you want your muffins to be, you might need more than the amounts of cinnamon, sugar, and butter that I recommended for the topping.
Every Fall I make something pumpkin. I am not a crazy - pumpkin-in-everything kind of person, but I do like it. Originally, I wanted to make pumpkin chocolate chip muffins but I was out of chocolate chips so I went with the one thing I rarely neglect to restock - nutella. I decided to make mini pumpkin bundt cakes (a muffin tin is fine too) swirled with nutella. They were perfect - I want to swirl nutella into all my baked goods :).
mini pumpkin nutella swirl cakes (makes 12 mini bundt cakes or 12 muffins)
-2 cups all purpose flour
-3 teaspoons baking powder
-1 teaspoon salt
-3/4 cup white sugar
-one can of pumpkin puree
-2 tablespoons vegetable oil
-1 large egg
-1/2 cup of nutella
1. Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, mix together the pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg until well combined. Add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Heat the nutella in the microwave for about 20 second (you don't want it to be hot, just slightly pourable) and stir into the batter. Don't stir until it is completely mixed in. Just do a few turns of the spoon so that it is swirled into the pumpkin batter.
5. Spray a muffin pan or mini bunt pan (I got one at Target and love it) with non-stick spray and fill with the batter.
6. Cook for about 25 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for about ten minutes before removing. Store in an air tight container for up to three days.
I am a big eggnog fan. I bought a bottle last week and have been putting it in my coffee every morning. All of a sudden it's Christmas.
I also love an eggnog cocktail. I make mine with a shot of grand marnier liquor. So good.
I love eggnog and I love muffins, so I combined the two and made eggnog muffins. The taste is so... eggnog-ey. That is the best adjective I can use to describe these muffins. That and delicious.
Eggnog Muffins {makes 12 large muffins - recipe adapted from here}
-2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
-3/4 cup sugar
-2 teaspoons baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-2 eggs
-1 cup eggnog {I used low fat}
-1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
-1/4 cup non fat plain greek yogurt
-1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Streusel Topping
-2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
-2 tablespoons brown sugar
-2 tablespoons flour
-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and grease a muffin tin or line with muffin wrappers.
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, salt, and sugar.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, eggnog, melted butter, yogurt, and vanilla extract.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir together. The batter will be a little lumpy, which is fine.
5. Make the streusel topping by cutting together all the streusel ingredients. I use a pastry blender but you can use two knives or zap everything in the food processor.
6. Spoon equal amounts of batter into the muffin pan and top with the streusel topping. Bake for 20 minutes.
Enjoy!
