Versatile Doughnut Style Muffins

These muffins taste like doughnuts but are as convenient to make and bake as muffins are.  You can fill them with whatever you like, I used lemon curd for half of them and leftover Christmas fruit mincemeat to fill the other half.

The went down so well, thank goodness I made 20!  My husband and 3 daughters pounced on them as soon as they had cooled enough to handle.  The muffins kept well in a cake tin overnight and the rest were devoured the next day by my family and friends. You could halve the recipe should you only want to make 10, they are rather filling.

Versatile Doughnut Style Muffins - Makes 20

600g self-raising flour

330g caster sugar  

160ml vegetable oil

2 large free range eggs

350ml buttermilk or natural yoghurt

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup filling: lemon curd, chocolate spread, jam, etc

Topping:

75g butter, melted

2 tsp ground cinnamon

½ cup caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C and grease 2 x 12 hole muffin pans.

Put the dry ingredients into a large bowl, stir to mix, then make a well in the centre.  Combine the wet ingredients in another bowl or jug. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix them together until they are only just combined.  Don’t be tempted to over-mix the batter or the muffins will be heave and tough.  It is quite a thick mixture, not as loose as a usual muffin mixture. 

Put a tablespoonful of the mixture into each muffin hole, put ½ - 1 teaspoon of your chosen filling on top before covering the filling with another tablespoonful of mixture.  Bake for 20 minutes  until cooked through and golden.  

To make the topping:

Combine the cinnamon and sugar.  Brush the tops of the warm muffins with melted butter then sprinkle over the cinnamon sugar mix.  

If you serve these muffins warm be careful as the filling will be hot.  These are great with a cuppa and would definitely go down well at coffee mornings, cake stalls and for after school snacks.

I am submitting these muffins to the Alphabakes blogging challenge, which is being hosted by Caroline this month, the letter is D and these are Versatile Doughnut Style Muffins.

I am also submitting these muffins to Teatime Treats where the theme is Citrus, as they are filled with Lemon Curd.  Tea Time Treats is hosted alternately by Karen at Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked, and this month Karen is hosting.