aka Muffin, aka Doughnut…

The suspect is a master of disguise, mixing undetected among both muffins and doughnuts.  It bakes like a muffin, and even takes on its form, yet it’s robed in the cinnamon-sugar livery associated with doughnuts.  Opening one reveals the dense essence of a doughnut too, down to the traces of nutmeg.

Cook’s Country dreamed up this devious treat and featured it in its Cookbook.  Really, it’s the best of both worlds, the taste and consistency of a doughnut, without all the deep-fried guilt.  Oh, melted butter is brushed on near the very end, to ensure copious amounts of cinnamon-sugar stick to the muffins, but it’s still much less a diet-breaker than is  a conventional doughnut.

When the muffins emerge from the oven, they feature a surface that’s somewhat textured, even craggy.  As dismaying as the cook (present company included) may find this, this roughness serves a purpose.  It gives the cinnamon-sugar a wealth of “valleys” in which to hide, ensuring occasional pockets of sweetly-spiced excellence.

Moreover, when a brush applies generous amounts of melted butter to adhere the coating, it softens the surface, smoothing out the peaks a bit. Finally, the muffin-doughnuts take a pretty serious (cinnamon-sugar) dust bath, which the cook supplements by pressing in as much coating as the pastry will hold.  Everything pretty much evens out in the end, and produces the reassuringly smooth muffins you see above.

This treat changes its identity depending on the situation, starting as a muffin, but ending as a doughnut.  Very sinister, this pastry.  Suspect may not be armed, but it’s quite dangerous.  Approach at your own risk.  You’ll think you’ll eat one, maybe two, and soon enough half the tray will be gone.  There you’ll be, the latest victim of a tasty criminal.

*****

Muffin Tin Doughnuts

For the doughnuts:

• 2 and 3/4 cups flour
•  1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg (*1)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs, plus one yolk

For the coating:

•  1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Set the oven rack to the middle setting, then preheat oven to 400°.  Spray a muffin tin with cooking spray, then start making the batter.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, cornstarch, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, melted butter and eggs.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix with a rubber spatula until just combined.

Fill each muffin cup about 4/5 of the way with batter.  Bake for about 20 minutes, until muffins are lightly browned, then let cool in the tin and on a wire rack for five minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the butter for the coating, and in a medium bowl whisk together the sugar and cinnamon.  Working with one muffin at a time, brush all over with melted butter, then place the muffin in the cinnamon sugar mixture, rotating repeatedly to ensure surface is well-coated.  Finally, with your hands, lightly press the cinnamon-sugar coating into the muffin.  Let cool on a rack for another 15 minutes, then serve.

NOTES:

1 – Ground nutmeg in the little can is good, but grinding it fresh is even better.

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