Recipe: Donut Hole Muffins from Spring Brunch

By popular demand, we'll be posting a few recipes from our supper club events.

Cinnamon and Cocoa Dusted Mini Donut Muffins

The first recipe is from our spring Brunch in April.  We ended our meal with "donuts and coffee", but done Foodist Colony Style.  The coffee was an intense coffee martini, and the donuts were these adorable donut hole mini muffins.   These are light, airy, and cinnamon-y like the best donut holes, but don't need to be fried.

I found this fabulous recipe from a great blog called A Sofa In the Kitchen, which was exactly what we were looking for, and really easy as well.  I doubled the recipe below, and I got 2 batches of 24 mini donut muffns each.  Leftovers were still moist 5 days later, so this is a great recipe to make ahead.  Just out of the oven, the cinnamon/sugar mixture makes them a bit sticky, but let them cool off, and they'll be fine.  My comments on the original recipe are in italics

 Ingredients
1 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
pinch of nutmeg (I used fresh grated)
6 Tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup cold heavy cream
1/4 cup whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

For Dipping:
In two separate bowls:

7 Tablespoons melted unsalted butter
&
1/2 cup sugar + 1 Tablespoon cinnamon mixed well

(I started off using a lot less butter, but I really did need almost the whole amount.  Also decided for the 2nd batch of mini-muffins to add some unsweetened cocoa to the sugar mixture, which was a nice touch).

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F and spray mini muffin pan with baking nonstick spray  (this is really important, so your muffins come out of the pan easily)
2. Sift dry ingredients, except for sugar, into a small bowl
3. Mix cream, milk and vanilla in a glass measuring cup
4. Beat sugar and butter until light and creamy. appx. 3 minutes;  I used an electric hand mixer and it took maybe 4-5 minutes
5. Stopping mixer, scrape sides of bowl. On medium speed, add egg, and mix until well incorporated.
6. Add 1/3 of dry ingredient mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Alternate with milk mixture, starting and ending with dry ingredients. Do not overmix, stop when ingredients are just incorporated and smooth.   For this step, I moved to mixing with a wooden spoon. 
7. Scoop equal portions into mini muffin tins.  I filled them probably about 3/4 full, and I like the domed top I got from doing that. 
8. Bake 10-12 minutes, until cakes are just slightly golden brown.  They will not be very brown, but don't let them overbake.  After 12 min, mine were perfect - I could stick a toothpick through the center of the cake, and not have any batter attach to it. 
9. Remove from oven, and allow to cool for about five minutes in the muffin tin.
10. Remove one by one from tin, submerging each cake fully in the butter bowl, then rolling it until completely coated in cinnamon sugar bowl. 
11. Place on parchment and allow to cool.
12. Enjoy - ideally with a coffee martini!

Enjoying coffee & donuts