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Why It Works
- Greasing and preheating the muffin tin helps crisp up the sides and bottom of the muffins, mimicking the crisp exterior of a fried doughnut.
- Bleached cake flour gives the muffins a tender crumb.
- Brushing the warm muffins with melted butter before tossing them in cinnamon sugar evenly coats them in the sugar, giving them a satisfying crunch.
I recently had a hankering for freshly made hot doughnuts, but did not want to deal with the fuss of a big, splattering vat of boiling oil and disposing the oil after frying. Luckily for me, our Birmingham, Alabama-based test kitchen colleague Craig Ruff has a recipe for doughnut muffins. Unlike traditional doughnuts, there’s no deep-frying involved: All you need is doughnut batter, a 12-cup muffin tin, and a hot oven. Craig’s recipe produces doughnut muffins that are crisp and fluffy, and especially delicious when dusted with cinnamon sugar. They remind me of my favorite cinnamon-sugar doughnuts at the Donut Pub on West 14 Street in Manhattan—no trip to the city required.
For subtly sweet muffins with just enough tang, Craig uses an old-fashioned sour cream doughnut batter that’s spiced with nutmeg. Sour cream contains plenty of lactose—sugars in dairy that can help promote browning—as well as fat. The fat coats the flour particles and gluten proteins called glutenin and gliadin; this makes it more difficult for gluten to develop, resulting in a tender muffin.
To crisp up the exterior of the muffins, Craig greases and preheats the muffin tin. As the pan heats up in the oven, the butter browns and takes on a rich, nutty flavor. The batter sizzles immediately when it hits the hot pan and butter, giving the exterior a pleasant crispness that’s even more pronounced after you coat the baked muffins in cinnamon sugar. Brushing the muffins with melted butter helps the sugar coating stick, making for a satisfyingly crunchy bite. It may not be a doughnut fresh out of the fryer, but it certainly tastes like one.
This recipe was developed by Craig Ruff; the headnote was written by Genevieve Yam.
Doughnut Muffins: All the Joy of a Doughnut, None of the Deep-Frying
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For the Batter:
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256 g bleached cake flour (9 ounces; 2 cups), such as Swans Down
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1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
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1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use half as much by volume
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1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (see notes)
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1/4 teaspoon baking soda
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170 g sour cream (6 ounces; about 3/4 cup), at room temperature
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113 g granulated sugar (4 ounces; about 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
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113 g unsalted butter (4 ounces; 8 tablespoons), melted, plus more for greasing
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42 g neutral cooking oil (1 1/2 ounces; 1/4 cup), such as canola
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1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
For the Coating:
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100 g granulated sugar (3 1/2 ounces; 1/2 cup)
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1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
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Pinch kosher salt
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28 g unsalted butter (1/2 ounce; 2 tablespoons), melted
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Adjust oven rack to middle position, and preheat oven to 400°F (205°C). Grease a 12-cup muffin pan with butter; set aside.
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Prepare the Batter: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and baking soda in a large bowl to combine. In a medium bowl, whisk sour cream, sugar, butter, oil, egg, and egg yolk until smooth. Add sour cream mixture to flour mixture, folding in using a flexible rubber spatula until no streaks of flour remain. (Batter will be thick and dense.)
Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze
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Place buttered muffin pan in oven; heat until butter is melted, just starting to brown, and smells nutty, about 2 minutes.
Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze
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Using oven mitts or a kitchen towel, carefully remove hot pan from oven. Working quickly, portion batter into prepared muffin pan using a 1/4 cup measuring cup.
Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze
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Return pan to oven, and bake until tops are lightly golden, sides are browned, and a toothpick or cake tester inserted into center of muffin comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Immediately remove muffins from pan; place muffins on a wire rack.
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For the Coating: In a wide, shallow bowl whisk sugar, cinnamon, and salt to combine. As soon as muffins are cool enough to hold comfortably, working with one muffin at a time, use a pastry brush to brush each muffin all over with melted; place in cinnamon-sugar mixture, and turn to evenly coat.
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Return muffin to wire rack, and repeat process with remaining muffins. Let cool until just warm, about 15 minutes, or cool completely, about 45 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze
Special Equipment
12-cup muffin pan, toothpick or cake tester, wire rack, pastry brush
Notes
Nonstick baking spray can be used to grease the muffin tin, but it won’t have the same flavor as the browned butter.
If using fresh nutmeg, finely grate it on a microplane and use 3/4 teaspoon.
For maximum crunch, let the muffins cool to room temperature.
Make-Ahead and Storage
The muffins are best eaten on the day they’re made. Once cooled, the muffins can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, but may soften as they sit.
Muffins can be frozen without their sugar coating in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Let thaw in refrigerator for at least 8 hours. To sugar them after thawing, place them in a 325°F (160°C) oven until just warm, then proceed with step 6 of recipe. (If you freeze muffins once they have been sugared, the sugar will dissolve as they thaw.)
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