An Easy Muffin For A Tough Day

Monday's are always the hardest day of the week.  I'm sure it was a Monday morning that inspired the bumper sticker I saw recently: 'There's got to be a better way to start the day than getting up in the morning!'  Monday's usually require an extra smack or two of the snooze button in order to ease into the day. Luckily,  I've got 'snooze radar'; no matter how deep I'm sleeping, or how I'm laying, I can instantly smack that snooze button before the first annoying beep is done.

Mondays have become a little easier, however, now that I know they'll be starting with fresh, tasty muffins. I was out of town last week and missed the fun, so I was excited to get this weeks recipe.  It's not only easy, but super tasty as well. In fact, the first batch was eaten before I took all my pictures, so I had to make a second. These are called 'Donut Mufffins', and having made tens of thousands of donuts in my time, I can assure you, these are the easiest donuts on earth to make!

The recipe calls for jam in the center, but it's fine to exclude it if you don't like 'Filled' donuts. Personally, I love the tasty surprise in the middle, so I decided on apricot jam for my little beauties. Firstly, because I had a wonderful vision of apricot filled, almond muffins with a white chocolate glaze, but mainly because grape muffins didn't sound very appetizing, and that was the only other jam in the house. As fate would have it, though, the stealthy almond monsters had already raided the pantry leaving me helpless in my quest for donut muffin utopia.

In the end, I followed the recipe as written and still used the apricot jam as a filling. The only alteration  was to top with a simple streusel instead of the cinnamon/sugar topping called for. My family loves the streusel topping and this time was no exception. In fact, we liked these muffins better than the 'coffee cake' muffins from 2 weeks ago.

I made a few jumbo muffins, but the jam ratio turned out much better in the smaller ones. In fact, we all thought they were better the next day. Very moist and delicious.  And, best of all, they're so easy to make, even an Alabama graduate can do it! 

The recipe has been adapted from tasteofhome
Donut Muffins:
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 cups sugar
1/3 cup canola oil
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
Jam {Optional}

Topping:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F
Grease or use muffin liners to line a 12 hole muffin pan
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.
In a small bowl, combine sugar, oil, egg and milk; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

Fill cups half full; place 1 teaspoon jam on top. Cover jam with enough batter to fill muffin cups three-fourths full.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
Place melted butter in a small bowl; combine sugar and cinnamon in another bowl.
Immediately after removing muffins from the oven, dip tops in butter, then in cinnamon-sugar. Serve warm.

Yields: 10 standard-size muffins.

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop her a quick note to join her on her journey to make the world smile, and beat glum Monday mornings week after week. Click Here to find links to other Muffin Monday Posts!

These muffins are so easy, I'm sure I'll be making them often. Maybe soon I'll fill some with custard and top with chocolate. After all, custard filled, chocolate iced donuts are my fave!  What's your favorite donut?