One of my sons had a friend sleep over the other night. He’s a huge fan of my baking, so I knew I had to make something really good for breakfast. I decided on Cinnamon Bun Loaf. Doesn’t that sound good? Well it wasn’t. In fact it was a TOTAL BUST! I couldn’t believe it; I had to throw the whole thing away. I actually should have known better since the batter contained yeast, and never once in my life have I successfully cooked with yeast. Each and every time I’ve tried it a disaster has ensued, and this time was no exception. The bread smelled great when it was cooking, but the batter never rose, and as a result I ended up with this dense, seemingly undercooked slab of disgustion. I know that’s not a word, but my husband uses it all the time to describe anything utterly gross and it makes me laugh.
Well, so much for my baking failure. Thankfully it was quickly followed by a baking success. I made a batch of sugar donut muffins and all was right with the world. I had renewed faith in my baking ability and the kids enjoyed them. Actually I should qualify that – two kids enjoyed them. Our guest and one of my sons. One of my other sons took one bite, smiled, then looked at the muffin, noticed an infinitesmal speck of fresh nutmeg and promptly rejected the rest of the muffin. “What’s this brown stuff in the muffin?”, he demanded. Now my eyes are pretty good and I could barely see the speck of nutmeg, but I guess his eyes are better than mine because the rest of his muffin was met with flat-out rejection. Once he made his proclamation, two other boys jumped on the bandwagon and rejected theirs as well. This is what I live with everyday. It’s crazy. Who rejects a warm, fresh muffin whose top is rolled in sugar? Only someone insane and it looks like I produced three of them.
The directions call for rolling the entire muffin in sugar. I thought that was a little too over the top, so I just decided to cover the muffin tops in sugar. They were plenty sweet for me. I’ll definitely make these again.
Sugar Donut Muffins
Recipe from Nicole at Baking Bites3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk (low fat is fine)
1 tsp vanilla extract2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar, for rollingPreheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract.
Divide batter evenly into 10 muffin cups or ~24 mini-muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
Bake for 15-18 minutes for standard-sized muffins or 11-12 minutes for mini-muffins, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour remaining sugar into a small bowl.
When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from the pan and roll in sugar. Cool on a wire rack.
Yield: ~10 standard muffins or ~24 mini-muffins
Print This Recipe
Yum.
Hi, These look great! I am going to have to make them for this weekend. Do you have more pictures?
I’m printing off this recipe right now. I can’t wait to try this! We’re going on a camping trip this weekend and I think this will be a perfect quick breakfast for the kids to munch on while I’m making their big breakfast. Thanks for sharing!
I think I’d have a good day if I started it off with one of these!
These sound perfect – my son is coming home for the 4th and I know he will love them!!
I have two kids that act the same way. I made a sour cream angel food cake recently and the moment they learned there was sour cream in it, they rushed to the garbage can to spit out their bites and to dump the one remaining bite they each had left. Grr. I feel ya! Can’t wait to try these muffins.
Haha funny anecdote! Funnier still is that I was probably the same way when I was that age. Now, however, I simply can’t wait to give this recipe a try! Looks amazing!
Yum, those look good. I would never reject anything with nutmeg in it. 🙂
p.s. Sorry to hear about the yeast mishap(s). I hope it will work out for you one day – I have to say I’m the opposite of you: I bake all sorts of yeasted goods and fail at many things that use baking soda/powder instead!
Oooh, I’ve made these before, and they are super delish! I loved the nutmeg in it, it “made” them! Mmmm. =)
I love that story! What is it with kids and “specks?” I made some really good ice cream when we last had company and one of the kids took one bite and wouldn’t eat the rest because of specks! Like I’d try to hide broccoli in there!!! 😉
These look delicious! I’ll have to try them. Just found you through TasteSpotting. (I, on the other hand, and a TS reject. One of these days, they WILL deem one of my photos worthy!)
LOL! I can totally understand the food rejection situation. I’ve had to lie to my kids so many times to get them to try new stuff ;P Your sugar donut muffins look awesome, BTW! Yum!
I was the person who had the sleepover. I really enjoyed those muffins. I ate five of them. It was better than any muffins I had before. Thank you! I hope my mom makes them for me so I can eat them again. They were really good. My favorite part was the sugar on top, it made it the best.
These were absolutely delicious and easy to make. They reminded me of those little “Minnesota” donuts you get at the fair’s.Will make again and again.
I just made these donut muffins and they turned out AMAZING! So easy to make and simply delicious. I ended up rolling the muffins entirely in sugar and they were yummy, not too sweet. Thank you so much for this awesome recipe!
Oh man. A little cinnamon on top, and you got a sale. Do not give up on the yeast doughs! The smell they make while they cook is pretty good, but a hot slice with butter melting on it is supreme.
I made these for coffee hour at church. I had to taste one before serving and they were DELICIOUS!! Thanks for the great recipe.
I made this same recipe last night! They were a big hit with my teenage sons. I used cinnamon sugar.
These were perfect! At least I thought so, went 50/50 with my boys. But what do they know anyway 🙂 I rolled only the tops in sugar which was exactly the right amount of sweetness. Ridiculously easy to make with ingredients I always have. This recipe will get made many times
I got this recipe from Baking Bites also and made it…they were so delicious! Glad to see Im not the only one addicted to them.
My husband and I really didn’t have anything to make for dessert tonight. Thankfully, I stumbled across this recipe and was excited to find out that I had all of the ingredients! They are great! Thank you for saving me.
i made these green and served them for a st. patricks type holiday! it was fantastic! thank you so much for sharing, here were my own results!! http://clutzycooking.blogspot.com/2010/03/green-beer-day-treats-cinnamon-sugar.html
I love your green muffins! I’ll think I’ll make a green batch for my boys for breakfast tomorrow morning. What a great idea. I was looking for something green to cook.
These look super cool. It sucks that your kids ditched them. My stepkids are frequent spitter outers too when they realize there’s an ingredient that they don’t like (but can’t taste) in it. Anyway, more for you! Yay!
Wow. These are amazing. My 4-year old helped me make them and won’t stop shoveling them in his mouth. I made the last few with cinnamon sugar, and they’re even more delicious! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I just made these and they are delicious! I added some cinnamon to the top sugar mixture like some other commenters suggested. Thanks for the great recipe!
I made these. They are very good muffins. I was actually looking for the sugar donut receipe but found this. Still looking for the melt in your mouth donut receipe, but will make these muffins again.
Thanks
Kristi
The batter was delicious! And the finished muffins even more so! This recipe has been sitting on my Recipe board and finally made them. Totally worth it!
These were good…. but they didn’t taste like sugar donuts to me.. they tasted like a lighter sugar muffin… I would make these using the smaller muffin pans and roll them in cinnamon sugar… but if you’re looking for the taste of a sugar donut.. keep looking…
disgustion? i know that we could be friends. 🙂
Hi! has anyone tried making these with a gluten free flour or GF baking mix?? I imagine coconut or almond flour would taste good…just dont know if any other adjustments should be made….
Yummm. Wanting to make these real bad…just no nutmeg in the house. Wish me luck anyways, gonna go for it!!!
I found this recipe a few nights ago and made it today. I love them. These will be a keeper.
Sharon,
I made these using Carol Fenster’s Sorghum Blend, which I first read about in her cookbook “100 Best Gluten Free Recipes.” It’s made of 1.5 cups sorghum flour, 1.5 cups potato starch and 1 cup tapioca flour. I also used 1.5 teaspoons of xanthan gum. They turned out perfectly! No one eve knew that they were gluten free 🙂 Good luck!
Also, it subs cup-for-cup for regular AP flour (sorry I forgot to mention that part!) 🙂
Thanks for the gluten-free substitutions Morgan!
Diane
Love these…..hate cinnamon but love nutmeg, odd….I know, but these were a hit with my teenage son and friends 🙂
These tasted amazing… I tried them…
Do you think that there would be an issue if I double this??
Have you done that??
Happy Thanksgiving~~
Hi Kristen,
I haven’t doubled the recipe myself, but I don’t see any reason why you’d have trouble doubling it. Good luck!
-Diane
Just made them, just ate one, and they are so yummy! fluffy and just the right sweetness! Thanks
I made these tonight and doubled on a whim that they would be a hit with the kiddos. Glad I did! Dont have nutmeg but a little cinomon in batter and more in sugar for top. Amazing! Thank you for the recipe, will be makeing them again and again
I made these late last night to be served with coffee after Christmas Eve Dinner. Wonderful! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Nicola! Merry Christmas!
-Diane
I just made these with a Gluten free all baking flour(I think it’s mainly coconut flour) and to me, they didn’t come out sweet enough. I am thinking next time I make them adding more sugar. However, my husband, who has been GF his whole life LOVED them!!
Oh, man, are these good! I made them as mini muffins–which just makes me want to eat even more of them! Thanks for the recipe!
Made these again this morning. They are simple and tasty. My hubby and I love to have one with our morning tea or coffee. Thanks for the great recipe! 🙂
@MB – so glad you’re enjoying the recipe. It’s one of my favorites.
Just finished making these for my grandma who loves raised sugar donuts! You have to try them, delicious and very easy/fast to make!
I want to make these for breakfast but don’t have nutmeg on hand. Would they be good without it?
Nichole,
I think the nutmeg really makes these muffins. They definitely won’t have as much flavor without it. They’ll be more like a plain vanilla muffin.
-Diane