Donut or doughnut? The world may never know. For now, I’ll just refer to them as “donuts”.

Anyway – most of us, when we hear the word donut, think of deep fried goodies slathered with frosting, and maybe eaten with our morning coffee. Some of us might prefer jelly donuts, with the grape jelly that always squeezes out the side-holes like it does without fail every time. And some of us are the type who just keep popping donut holes* into our mouths one after another.

But did you know that donuts aren’t necessarily restricted to those mentioned above? Some places sell these things called “spudnuts”, which are basically potato donuts. In other parts of the world, some people fill theirs with meat or red bean paste. For example, in India, they have a savory version – vada. I’ve always been too scared to try one, but I’m sure you guys are better risk takers than I am.

In any case, I think there’s one thing we can all agree on about donuts: they are DELICIOUS.

So here’s a neat-o recipe that I tried out a couple weeks ago – baked doughnut muffins. Yup, they’re baked. So there’s no frying nonsense involved!

*Did you know that 1 regular donut = 4.6 donut holes?!

Donut Muffins:

Makes about 12 muffins

Ingredients:

For the Muffins:

• 1 and 3/4 cup flour
• 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk

For the topping:

• Half a stick of butter
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin tin with butter.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the oil, sugar, egg, and milk.

3. Add in the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices to the wet ingredients, and stir just until combined.

4. Spoon the batter into the muffin pan and bake 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. While the muffins are baking, melt the butter. In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon and sugar.

6. When the muffins are done, carefully remove them from the pan.

look at those domes!

7. While they are still warm, dip each one first into the melted butter, and then in the cinnamon-sugar to coat.

8. Allow to cool a few minutes before serving.

no, they’re not burnt – that’s all just cinnamon-sugar goodness…

In my honest opinion… I think these muffins were pretty awesome. Especially since there’s no deep-frying involved. I don’t think I’m the only one who would be a little freaked out about doing that.

Some things I noticed, though: I ended up doubling everything used in the topping; I didn’t seem to have enough to coat all 12 muffins with what the recipe called for. Perhaps I used too much of the topping on each muffin, which is why they looked burnt and why my picky little brother thought they were “too cinnamon-y”. But I rather liked all the extra yumminess that it added. However, I decided to leave it out of the recipe I typed up above. You know, in case you’re not as hot on cinnamon + sugar as I am (and I think you need to see a doctor if you aren’t).

Something I think might be fun to try out would be to make these in a mini-muffin tin. And maybe, by doing that, you could get away with lowering the muffin-to-topping ratio.

But anyway, some food-for-thought before I run out of room here…

Which side are you on – donut or doughnut?