"Donuts. Is there anything they can't do?" - Matt Groening

It was blistery and cold today, with icky, icky snow flurrying around outside, so I decided it was time to make something homey, warm, and comforting.

I looked around on the internet a little for recipes for which I had all the ingredients to (so I wouldn't have to go out into that weather unnecessarily for an emergency run to the grocery store). This recipe for Donut Muffins from Week of Menus (http://weekofmenus.blogspot.com/2009/04/donut-muffin-doffin.html), looked easy and intriguing, and best of all - I had all the ingredients!

The recipe said that this would make a good breakfast recipe, but I made these at 4pm…and ended up eating about five of them…instead of dinner. Yes, they were that good. And hey, the recipe also said that the point of the muffins was to create baked donuts, versus fried, so I was definitely saving myself (and my ass) a little bit there.

Donut Muffins (Doffins)

Ingredients:

(Makes 12)

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3/4 cup milk (I used 2%)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter melted

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup of sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.


2. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray. Don't use liners! The oil from the cooking spray makes the sugar stick to the sides without extra butter, which is a plus.

3. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg.


4. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract. Mix.


5. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.


6. Pour in egg mixture and stir to combine.


7. Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full (I used a 1/4 measuring cup, and the batter divided perfectly and evenly).


8. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

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

10. When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter (I used the back of a soup spoon), remove from the pan and role in sugar and cinnamon.

11. Let cool. These make exactly 12 doffins.

They smelled amaaazing, kind of like a mix between real muffins and pumpkin bread. Which made me think…these would be really, really good with a little pumpkin and pumpkin spices in them. Something to consider next Thanksgiving?

Also, these took me less than a half hour to make. Talk about instant gratification!