Donut Muffins

Tengah dilanda kemalasan untuk meng'update' blog..hu..hu..

Resepi muffin yg maisya cuba kali ni agak menarik sebab combination of donut & muffin. It is suppose to taste like a donut( a cake-donut type not the yeast-donut type )....mmm..not sure about that, but these muffins taste really good!

The original recipe suruh guna shortening tapi Maisya guna marjerin sebab tak berapa suka guna shortening. Lagipun ada jumpa resepi yg sebijik serupa dgn ni cuma dia guna minyak instead of shortening...kalau nak guna butter pun ok kot?

Sebelum cuba resepi, jom kita baca sikit dulu artikel ni:

A Muffin That Tastes Like a Doughnut
http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/articles/how-to/doughnut-muffins.aspx
Enjoy authentic doughnut flavor in an easy to make muffin; best of all, there's no frying
by Kathleen Stewart

They may look like muffins, but they taste like doughnuts. A dip in melted butter lets the cinnamon-sugar coating stick.
I love doughnuts, but oh, the work involved in making them: the (sometimes yeasted) batter, the rolling, the shaping, and then, finally, the frying. It makes me think of that old Dunkin' Donuts ad with the guy who, stumbling around in the wee hours of the morning, keeps chanting: "Time to make the doughnuts; time to make the doughnuts."
Well, it is time to make doughnuts—doughnut muffins, that is. Aside from being much, much easier to make, these doughnut muffins, which we sell out of every morning at the Downtown Bakery, are simply delicious. A creamed batter yields a light, cakey interior, while a dip in melted butter mimics the satisfying "friedness" of a doughnut. A generous coating of cinnamon and sugar is the final irresistible touch.

Cream carefully for best results
In most muffin batters, the butter is melted and combined with the wet ingredients, not unlike pancake batter. The texture of my doughnut muffin is more cakelike than muffinlike (a doughnut-muffin-cake anyone?), and so I begin by creaming the butter with the sugar.
Creaming is a crucial step that too often gets short shrift. It incorporates air into the batter, which is especially important for mixtures such as this one that are too heavy to rely solely on chemical leavens, such as baking powder and baking soda. The sugar cuts into the butter, creating tiny air bubbles that get further expanded during baking by the baking powder and the heat of the oven. Proper creaming, therefore, gives you a nice, light crumb.
Start with your butter at room temperature. Here's where a lot of people go wrong with creaming. Butter that's too cold won't blend with the sugar, and butter that's too warm won't hold the pockets of air. Butter that's the proper temperature is somewhat firm but soft enough to easily poke a finger into.

For best results, use the paddle attachment on a stand mixer and beat on medium, starting with the butter and then adding the sugar in a steady stream.
Cream with care. Look for a lighter color, an increase in volume, and less obvious sugar granules.

Cream for longer than you think. The most common mistake is to cream too little; continue beating the butter until the mixture increases in volume, lightens to pale yellow, and the sugar granules no longer look obvious; this may take as long as five minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl once or twice during creaming.

Stop before the butter looks curdled. Although undercreaming is more common, beating the sugar and butter too long will result in a mixture that's grainy and looks somewhat curdled. You can still use it, but the results won't be as light.

Alternate the wet and dry ingredients
Alternate the dry and wet. Adding the wet and dry ingredients alternately helps keep muffins tender. The golden rule of muffin making—don't overmix—definitely applies to this hybrid. Overmixing creates gluten, which will toughen the muffin: an unfortunate rhyme but true nonetheless. It also encourages the dissipation of the gases produced by the baking powder; this early dissipation can result in flat muffins.

I mentally divide the dry ingredients into four additions and the wet into three. These small amounts, added gradually and evenly, prevent overmixing.

Dip and roll for doughnut flavor
While the muffins bake, melt the butter for dipping. If you like to keep things neat, you can dip just the tops of the muffins into the butter and then the cinnamon sugar; that way you can use the bottom as a handle and keep your fingers from touching the butter or sugar. But I like to brush the melted butter over the entire muffin and then roll it in the cinnamon sugar. After all, we're trying to dress up a muffin to seem like a doughnut, and it's much more convincing if the entire muffin wears the disguise.

From Fine Cooking 42, pp. 54-55



DONUT MUFFINS
http://amandalwh.wordpress.com/2008/03/22/easter-special-ii-hot-cross-donut-muffins/

1/3 cup shortening (maisya guna marjerin)
1/2 cup sugar
1 medium egg
1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (maisya tak letak)
3/4 cup milk

For The Topping:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon (maisya tak letak)
1/4 cup melted margarine/butter

-Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. Grease a muffin pan, don’t use paper liners because you’re going to want to dump these out hot and get started coating them in sugar.

-Cream the shortening and 1/2 cup sugar. Add the egg and whisk it all up until it is smooth.

-In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together.

- With a wooden spoon, mix a quarter of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then mix in a third of the milk mixture. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until well combined and smooth, but don't overmix.

-Spoon the batter into the greased muffin tin. Make sure not to over fill the muffin cups, 1/2 to 2/3 full is full enough.

-Bake for 25-30mins, till an inserted skewer comes out clean and muffins top are slightly brown.
-Take the muffins out of the pan. When they are cool enough to handle, dip/brush the tops of the muffins (or the whole muffin) with the melted margarine. Then dip them into the powdered sugar&cinnamon mixture. Arrange the prepared muffins on a large plate and serve while still warm. Makes a dozen. Very good for breakfast and after school or midnight snacks.

**This recipe is very very old, at least 80 years old. It was created by a cook with leftover donut batter who didn't have time to deep fry them. She added a little milk to make the batter thinner, and cooked it in muffin cups instead of deep frying it. The nutmeg is the secret ingredients which gives these muffins their special old fashioned donut flavor.