Baked Sugar Donut Muffins

Just a lazy long labor day weekend here at our house.  The girlies wanted me to slave over some cinnamon rolls. I had to think about that one for exactly a nano-second…….NO.

So as not to make the poor starving babies think that I don’t love them, I whipped up some of these little sugared cuties. 

Much much easier than sweating over cinnamon rolls and much much healthier than fried Homemade Donuts, they were a hit!  The ones pictured here are covered with plain white sugar, but cinnamon sugar and powdered sugar are good too.
 



Sugar Donut Muffins

(recipe adapted from Baking Bites)

 



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 (low fat is fine)

2 tsp melted butter

1 tsp vanilla                                                                                                     
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat 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 a mini-muffin pan. (Recipe will also fill about 10 regular muffin cups ¾ full.) Bake for 15 to 18 minutes.  When muffins are done, lightly brush the top of each with some melted butter, remove from pan, and roll around in remaining sugar.  
   

Makes 24 mini-muffins.

Looks good, no?  Okay then, how about dipped in vanilla icing?

Confessions

It is 4:20am and I have a confession to make.  In 9^th grade I told a boy “no” when he asked me to dance at a fall dance, because my friends were making fun of me liking him.  It was one of my first boy/girl dances and if the poor kid was as nervous as I was, I am thinking it took a lot for him to even ask me.  This happened 20 years ago.  Heck, it could have been 20 years to this exact day.  I really did want to dance with him.  He seemed nice and kinda cute and I always wished I would have said yes.  I am pretty sure this would have been like a picture of us if I had.

  So, Nathan C. I am sorry.  I was very LAME to do that to you and I promise I will tell my daughters this story so they are confident enough in themselves to say “yes”, if they want to.  And before you all get too disappointed in me for crushing a young boy’s heart, Nathan is actually one of my friends on Facebook,he has a beautiful little family, and it is highly unlikely he even remembers the incident.  As for me, about 9 months later I said “yes” to Greg at a dance.  We went out for exactly two months and then he dumped me because I didn’t want to French kiss…..barf!

On to my next confession, because Mama’sLosin’It is challenging us on her Writer’s Workshop.  Are you ready? Here it is.........I am a Brand Name snob when it comes to food.   I must get Tostitos Corn Chips, C&H Sugar, Land O’ Lakes butter, and Kraft Macaroni.  I can tell the difference between the Kroger brand spaghetti vs. the much more expensive Bertolli.  What is wrong with me?  It actually makes me gag if I know I am eating a store brand hot dog and not Oscar Mayer.  In my 13 years of marriage how much money could have been saved by ditching the store brands?  If you have any suggestions please let me know, but don’t try and schmooze me with a lunch date because I can totally tell that it's  not Hellman’s real mayo you'll mix in with your chicken salad.

That being said, it is time for my new favorite fall dessert/breakfast/snack.  You might even want to serve these for dinner.

Mini Pumpkin Muffins with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

(just make sure the Cream Cheese is Philidelphia)

 

Ingredients:

·        1 2/3 cups flour

·        1 Tbsp pumpkin pie spice (*or make your own like I do)

·        1 tsp baking soda

·        ¼ tsp salt

·        2 eggs whisked

·        1 cup pumpkin

·        1 stick butter melted

Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl.  Sifting is a pain but you run the risk of getting soapy chunks of soda in your pretty little muffins, so just do it.  In another medium bowl mix the wet ingredients.  Add the dry gradually to the wet and mix together.

  Prepare mini-muffin pan with liners and fill.  Bake at 350 F for 9 to 10 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool.

Ingredients for Frosting:

·        8 oz PHILEDEPHIA cream cheese

·        2 Tbsp melted butter

·        1 tsp pure vanilla extract

·        ½ tsp cinnamon

·        3 cups powdered sugar or more until desired consistency

Mix the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla.  You may want to let the cream cheese soften a bit first...or this will happen. 

On the other hand, you may just want to beg your husband to buy you new high quality utensils for Christmas.  That’s what I am going to do.  Mix in the cinnamon and then the powdered sugar one cup at a time.  Frost the little muffins.  It makes about four dozen and your house will smell like cinnamony goodness!

Now the big question is, should I tag Nathan C. to this blog on Facebook and see what he says about my confession?  Nahhhh....that's creepy.