mini donut muffins.

Ooh these are dangerous... I told myself two. Just two.


But no, I took three.

Coming out of the oven, they looked like unassuming little stumps. Little baldies, as I would call them. But wait. Let's give them a little love. A swim in melted butter and a bath in cinnamon sugar, and they'll love you as much as you love them. I stress that you must have them warm, when the outsides are still crunchy and the inside is moist and fluffy.

I have to admit, I was just that little disappointed with this recipe. The muffins themselves were bordering on bland- not buttery enough, and they were missing that something that made a donut a donut. I scoured blogs for the answer, and guess what? Nutmeg.

I went to the kitchen and found my bottle of ground nutmeg, and I sprinkled a few pinches on. Then I took a bite. Wham! The flavour explosion hit and I sat upright in my seat. That's it! Now that's a donut!

So in short, for a great donut, lots and lots of butter and nutmeg. You can't go wrong.

Mini Donut Muffins
makes 24 minis or 12 normal sized ones
recipe adapted from Making Life Delicious

Ingredients
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup low fat buttermilk
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and divided
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Cinnamon sugar:
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Prepare a 12 cup muffin pan or your mini muffin pan.

Whisk the flour, baking soda, nutmeg and salt in a large bowl. Combine the buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla and 1/4 cup of melted butter in a separate bowl. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix until just combined. They are still muffins, remember? Lumpy batter is perfectly acceptable.

Divide the batter among the muffin cups and bake for about 13 minutes for normal sized ones, lessen the baking time accordingly for smaller ones. The muffins will spring back when pressed if they are done. Cool in the pan for 3 minutes or so or until they're cool enough to handle, toss them about in melted butter and then the cinnamon sugar. Eat immediately.

Although they can be kept for 6 to 12 hours, they are really best just out of the oven.

Linked to Sweets for a Saturday.