The weather has been a little bipolar here during these past few days. It’s been relatively hot for the most part this summer, but lately we’ve had a few days of high winds, dark clouds and rain. I don’t mind the weather one bit, especially if the temperature drops a few degrees! Yesterday morning we woke up to a dark house. I peeked outside and it was sprinkling. Once our little guy woke up we headed into the kitchen to make some pancakes. It just seemed like the thing to do on a rainy(ish) day.
While I was gathering ingredients in our fridge I noticed that we had a bit of buttermilk leftover from making our favorite banana bread. The expiration date was today, so I decided to put it to good use. I’ve been wanting to make these little cinnamon sugar doughnut muffins again for a while now. The recipe calls for more buttermilk than I had, so I just added a tablespoon of whole milk to compensate. It did the trick 🙂
It also called for cardamon. I know, I know, it’s not a common spice to have on hand. If you don’t have it, don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world… I promise. During the fall I like to add pumpkin pie spice instead. It’s definitely NOT the same thing, but it adds lots of flavor to these babies. Anyway, after I had the dough mixed up, I pulled out my mini muffin pans and filled them up. I was kind of expecting to only get 12 from the batch but I wound up getting 24! I baked them for 14 minutes and then as soon as they were cool I dunked them in melted butter and rolled the tops in a cinnamon sugar mixture. As soon as one was finished I couldn’t resist biting into it!
Not only were these muffins dense and flavorful, but the buttery cinnamon sugar tops were to die for! They tasted like snickerdoodles! YUM. If you’re looking for a quick and fun recipe to try, I’d highly suggest giving these mini cinnamon sugar doughnut muffins a try. Because you can’t go wrong when it comes to homemade doughnut holes!
Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cardamom*
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 cup +2 Tbsp buttermilk
- 4 Tbsp (½ stick) butter - room temperature
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg
Cinnamon Sugar Topping
- 2 Tbsp butter - melted
- 1/4 cup granulated or coarse sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius). Lightly grease two mini muffin pans and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and mix until combined.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cardamom, and cinnamon. With the mixer on low speed, gradually alternate adding the flour mixture and buttermilk into the stand mixer bowl. Mix until combined—do not overmix.
- Spoon batter evenly into the prepared pans, filling each cup about two-thirds full (they will rise significantly). Bake for 14–16 minutes, or until they are a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and let them cool for a couple of minutes until they are easy to handle. While they cool, melt the butter for the topping. Dip the tops of each muffin in melted butter, then roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
NOTES
Nutrition
Recipe source: adapted from my Donut Muffins
These are amazing! They taste exactly like a cinnamon sugar donut—definitely a recipe to keep!