donut muffins

muffins. no, donuts. no, muffins. yes, muffins.
it's that time of the week when we make muffins once again. last week, i joined this awesome initiative and baked some vegetable-y and cheesy muffins. i brought some of the spinach and feta muffins to shawn's work and everybody loved it! obviously that made me quite a happy, happy boy. that's one of the things i love about cooking, instant feedback. anyway, let's get back to this week's task - donut muffins.

i love donuts, so imagine my disappointment when my favorite donut place was no where to be found. not within a 50 mile radius. if you're thinking dunkin' donuts, you're right. i can't believe that they upped and left california. what's worse is that their ads are still running in local channels. can you believe that? it's like showing a diabetic with a sweet tooth cake and not giving it to him. it's torture people, torture!
i love those cake donuts with an nutty, orange-colored crust. after googling that description, i found out that it's called butternut cake donut and it has 300 calories. well, i'm pretty sure that the fact that it's fried does not help it's calorie count. my love for that particular donut was inexplicable until i had it again a couple of years ago. i researched and found out that nutmeg was the spice my tongue was obsessed over. i rarely use nutmeg that's why i did not figure out what that flavor was.a little over a month a month ago, i tried making a version of those particular donuts and it was a success. the flavor was there and my nutmeg obsession was satisfied. unfortunately, i failed to bookmark the recipe and i don't remember what i searched for, so that recipe is now somewhere in the interwebs waiting to be found once again. it's sad i know, but when an of bakerstreet emailed me the recipe of this week's muffin, i got excited since it was very simple and that's how i like my donuts - simple and straightforward.halfway during the baking time, i opened the oven with the intention of rotating the muffin pan, but i ended up smelling the wonderful aroma of the baking batter and forgot about the 350-degree-F heat radiating to my face. after i pulled those babies out of the oven, i immediately took them out of the pan, rolled them into the cinnamon sugar mixture and took a bite. i was in heaven, the flavor was awesome. sweet with a hint of spice, it was totally wonderful.
what's your favorite donut? let me know by commenting below. :)

donut muffins

ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup room temperature butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup buttermilk

instructions:

1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. in a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt, set aside.

2. in a large bowl, or with your stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar together until it becomes pale and fluffy.

3. with your mixer on low, slowly add flour and spice mixture into the creamed butter with sugar in 3 additions alternating with buttermilk. so basically, flour mixture, buttermilk, flour mixture, buttermilk and flour mixture. make sure you only mix until it's combined. over mixing will lead to a very dense and rubbery muffin and who would want that?

4. fill you greased or paper lined muffin tins halfway and bake for about 25-30 minutes or until the time when you insert a toothpick into a muffin and the toothpick comes out clean.

5. while still hot, roll donuts into a mixture of 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tsp of cinnamon. the heat will make sure that the cinnamon sugar mixture will stick to the muffins.

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

make sure to check out these awesome bloggers' take on the recipe. enjoy!