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These Mini Donut Muffins are the ultimate breakfast treat! We dunk the tops of these donut muffins in melted butter and then dip them in a mixture of cinnamon sugar for a buttery, sweet crust on top. I’ve been making these since I was a teen!
Let’s face it—there’s something magical about donuts.
It’s The Butter Bath For Me!!
Did I decide to make donuts a wee bit less indulgent by baking up a batch of mini muffins that look and taste like donut holes?
Yes. Sure did.
Did I then decide to give them a little bath in a bowl of warm, melted, salted butter?
Guilty as charged.
Less indulgent than a deep-fried donut situation? Questionable.
Just as delicious? 100%.
Honestly, I’ve been making these mini donut muffins since I was a kid myself! They’re giving major donut hole vibes and the rich, buttery crunch on the outside is the stuff that dreams are made of.
Grab a cup of coffee and a pile of donut muffins. Your day is about to get delicious.
3 Reasons You’ll Love This Recipe!
- Bite-Sized Perfection: Mini donut muffins mean you can have “just one more” without an ounce of guilt. That’s how it works, right?
- No Frying Required: All the donut flavor, none of the hot grease + mess.
- Cinnamon-Sugar Magic: The buttery coating and sweet topping take these over the top.
More Breakfast Favorites:
We love lazy weekend morning breakfasts! Here are some of my personal favorites:
What Readers are Saying!
“Made these this morning for the family, and the were great. They all loved them. The tasted almost like snicker-doodles, so that was a major plus also. Thanks for the amazing recipe! ^_^” – Sara
How To:
Muffin Batter: In a large bowl beat together the milk, sugar, egg, and oil. In a separate bowl start mix the dry ingredients; some flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Combine those with the wet ingredients and mix until smooth.
Bake: When you’ve prepared the donut muffin batter you can start pouring it into a greased mini muffin tin. There should be enough batter for 24 mini muffins, and you’ll only need to fill each tin about 3/4 of the way full.
Mini Muffin Tin
This mini muffin tin gets a workout in our kitchen. It’s perfect for making smaller sized muffins, but we also use it make homemade tots and baked quiche bites.
They’ll rise in the oven and should be finished in about fifteen minutes. Once they’ve finished baking let them cool for a few minutes before you move on to the final (and my favorite!) step.
Dunk: These muffins are good as they are right out of the oven, but we’re going to make them even better!
Once the muffins have cooled enough to handle, melt some butter in the microwave and then mix together some cinnamon and sugar in a separate bowl.
This will make the perfect topping for the muffins! Start dunking each muffin top into the melted butter, and then into the cinnamon and sugar mix. Finally, they are ready to eat!
Why Do We Call These Donut Muffins?
The richness of the butter and the crackle of the cinnamon and sugar topping gives these that deep fried cake donut vibe. These are the best mash-up between muffins and donuts!
FAQs:
Nope, you can use a regular sized muffin tin, though you’ll need to adjust bake time accordingly. These should take closer to 20-25 minutes in a full size muffin tin.
I’ve not tested it myself but these should work well with any 1:1 gluten free flour blend.
Sure! They will keep best in an airtight container for a few days. Place a paper towel in the bottom of the container. Add your muffins. Place a second paper towel over the top. This will help keep them from getting too soggy in the container.
More Breakfast Recipes:
More Muffin Recipes!
We love muffins for breakfast or just as a snack or treat any time of the day! Below are a few of our favorites:
- Applesauce Donut Muffins
- Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Muffins
- Monkey Bread Muffins with Icing
- Blackberry Muffins with Streusel Topping
- Pigs in a Blanket Pancake Muffins
Sugar Donut Muffins
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 cup melted butter for dipping
- 1/2 cup sugar for rolling
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon for rolling
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees and grease mini muffin tin with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl beat together milk, sugar, vegetable oil, egg, and vanilla until well combined.
- In small bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir to combine.
- Pour into muffin tins, filling each about 3/4 full.
- Bake for about 15 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
- Melt the butter in a small bowl in the microwave.
- Stir together sugar and cinnamon in another small bowl.
- When the muffins are done allow to cool for a few minutes, until you are able to handle them easily.
- Dunk the tops of each muffin into the melted butter and then the cinnamon sugar. Set aside to cool.
Serena says
Making these tomorrow! I’m going to use coriander instead of nutmeg since that’s the classical donut taste imo. (And I don’t particularly like nutmeg.) And regular size muffin pans because I don’t have a mini but boy, the mini muffins look so cute that I now need a mini muffin pan!
Secret Mom Thoughts says
I’ve dreamed about these. Yummy.
Dina says
this is a great idea! i love doughnuts.
Laura says
I just made these for breakfast and OH MY GOD, they are the BEST muffins I’ve ever had in my life. I made regular muffin sized, and they were perfect at fifteen minutes exactly. You are the current #1 hero in my (picky picky) household! Next time I might try subbing applesauce for the vegetable oil. Thanks for posting this! Now I’m going to dig through all of your archives and see what else I can add to my thighs…
melissa says
my kids eat all those unhealthy cereals too!! AND bacon! AND instant oatmeal. yay, i’m so glad i’m not the only horrible mother!!
btw…trying these muffins this morning!! they look droolingly delish and my kids would love them!
the Provident Woman says
Those look so good!
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Bunny says
Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Krispies, yeah that’s what our kids eat for breakfast!!! LOL!! I’ve made these babies, I know how good they are!!!
Hannah says
Wow, those look delicious!
Denise says
I made a batch of these yesterday and my boys ate them all so I made another batch this morning. Needless to say, these are a hit around here. Thanks for sharing this yummy recipe!
Gala says
You’ve got some amazing pictures on your blog! Love the donuts.
diva says
oh these are adorable and a perfect combination of 2 of my favourite sweets. yum yum. the rounded tops are real cute too.
Lori says
I love muffins, and I love donuts! I will definitely try these out. They sound wonderful. A person can never, ever have too many muffin recipes.
CatHerder says
omg…i used to make these in highschool cooking class, only the teacher called them “french breakfast puffs”…..i had forgotton how good they are…i looked up my old recipe in the file when i saw this and it is the same….I havent thought of them in years…im DEFINATELY going to make them!
Nikki says
I just read this recipe with my mouth hanging open. I’ve never done that before, so I thought I’d share.
Leslie says
soooo yummy. I am going to have to make these