Snickerdoodle-topped doughnut muffins

These have been sitting in my drafts pile for weeks and I’m honestly flabbergasted. Why? WHY?

Maybe because they didn’t really fit into my no-sugar eating plan. Even though I made these well before I took that (completely insane?!) vow.

I’m sure this comes as no great surprise, but every once in awhile, I get struck with intense cravings to break free from whole wheat/oat flour/flaxseed/chia seeds and just bake something unapologetically doughy and immense with all-purpose flour, sugar and normal levels of oil/butter, unadulterated by applesauce or yogurt.

As recently as Saturday night, that craving resulted in these sparkling blueberry muffins from Sally’s Baking Addiction (which I promptly stuffed in my sister’s bag to take far, far away). Weeks ago, the craving culminated in these snickerdoodle-topped doughnut muffins from one of my new favorite blogs, Top With Cinnamon.

These muffins have the crustiest, crunchiest, sugar-iest top you will EVER find on a muffin. There is literally a cookie that acts as the muffin top to a counterpart that is like a fluffy, lovely cake doughnut. It’s the best idea ever. Could we still be friends if I admit that I’m almost drooling thinking about them? You should make these immediately. Sorry for ruining your diets.

I’m so close to ruining mine. I can’t even talk about these anymore. This calls for a raw brownie.

Notes

Changes: although Izy’s muffins looked promising, I went with a doughnut muffin recipe I’ve been dying to try from King Arthur, which uses rather an incredible amount of flour and uses both butter (for taste) and oil (for moisture). I lowered the amounts of fat, sugar and flour just a tad to keep with the slightly lower amount of egg used. And I used 1.5 cups of white whole wheat flour to ¾ cups all-purpose and thought the muffins didn’t suffer at all from a bit more fiber. But you can follow the recipe as written.

Tips: Since this recipe calls for a tiny batch of snickerdoodles, Izy’s recipe uses half of an egg in the muffin batter and half in the cookies. Waste not, want not; I did the same. To get half of a large egg, beat it up in a bowl like you’re making scrambled eggs. Then measure out 1.5 tablespoons to capture half the volume. Voila!

Also, I highly recommend making the snickerdoodles first and refrigerating them while you make the muffin batter, as written below. Otherwise the cookie dough may be warm and difficult to handle when forming disks.

Oh yes, and why the Honey Bunches of Oats? I discovered that cereal boxes make great little trays for gifting baked goods if you cut out a nice flat rectangle from the box and glue up the sides. They’re a little flimsy though, so I wouldn’t use them for anything heavy! #recyclingisthebest

Snickerdoodle-topped Doughnut Muffins
Inspired by Top With Cinnamon with doughnut muffins adapted from King Arthur

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
1.5 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste
generous 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups flour
1 cup milk

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 egg
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 teaspoons baking powder OR 1/2 tsp cream of tartar + 1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tablespoons sugar, add cinnamon to taste
2 tablespoons flour

Grease a muffin pan, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cinnamon and sugar in a shallow bowl, set aside.

Make the snickerdoodles: Cream together the butter and sugar (you can do this by hand if the butter is room temperature). Stir in the half egg, flour, and baking powder. Refrigerate the dough while you make the muffins.

Make the muffins: Cream together the butter, oil and sugars until smooth. Beat in the remaining eggs. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt and vanilla. Add the flour and milk in alternating additions, starting and ending with the flour, until everything is completely combined.

Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and divide into 12 equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disk roughly the width of a muffin tin. Coat in cinnamon sugar. Once finished covering the disks in cinnamon sugar, add 2 tablespoons of flour to the remaining cinnamon-sugar, and use it to dust each cavity of the greased muffin pan.

Divide the batter evenly into the muffin tin, filling each one nearly to the top. Top with a cookie dough disk.

Bake for 5 minutes at 425, then 14-16 minutes at 350.

Comments