Cinnamon Donut Muffins

Have you ever had those little, pre-packaged, cinnamon-coated donuts? These muffins taste a lot like those except more awesome because they're homemade. I used to make them at the coffee shop all the time, and it was always hard to sell them to customers rather than eating them myself. They're that delicious. The secret to these muffins is butter. You dip them in butter and then roll them in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. Not only does this make the cinnamon-sugar actually stick to the outside of the muffins, it gives them a bit of extra moisture and a ton of extra richness. If you're looking to save on calories, you can just dip the tops in butter instead, though believe me, you'll be missing out on the extreme deliciousness of a fully-coated muffin.


Ingredients

Muffins
3 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/8 cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Coating
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3/4 cup butter, melted


Directions

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 400 F and lightly grease the wells of a muffin pan. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl, and whisk until thoroughly mixed. Set aside.

In a large bowl, stir together vegetable oil and sugar. Add eggs and beat until well-combined. Stir in milk and vanilla extract. Add flour mixture all at once and stir for 20 seconds, or until just combined. Batter will still be lumpy and may even have small patches of dry flour.

Spoon batter into muffin pan wells until 2/3 full. Place pan in oven and immediately lower temperature to 350 F. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden. Allow to cool 3-5 minutes before removing muffins from pan.

Meanwhile, combine sugar and cinnamon in a bowl, mixing well. Dip muffins in melted butter, and then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat.


Servings: 12


Recipe adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks.