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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
i made this recipe yesterday and it made 12 muffins. They were so delicious that i ended up eating 11 of them (giving 1 to my mom).. think i’ll be remaking them today and doubling the recipe hehe. :p
Catha says
Lovely! How many muffins you get out of this recipe?
Karly says
I ended up with 24 mini muffins.
Sara says
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! ^_^
Karly says
Glad to hear it! 🙂
GoodnightSpoon says
Just made these tonight! I added some cinnamon with the nutmeg for the extra bit of warm snuggles. My mom loooved them. I must say, though, this tastes more like coffeecake than a cake donut… I don’t quite view those in the same way. The cinnamon-sugar on top was more crunchy then I was expecting. I’m not sure how I feel about it. That being said… they are still very good. But something was still missing …so with the leftover melted butter I made a quick glaze to drizzle over my coffeecake muffins.
If I make theses again (there are just so many other recipes to try first!), I will just swirl cinnamon in the top of the batter and glaze them without the cinna-sugar,
Rebekah says
So my 14 month old daughter, my husband and I all had pumpkin cheesecake from the cheesecake factory (you know, the one with 35 grams of fat and like a million grams of sugar for a 1″ slice?) for breakfast the other day…. haha. pretty sure I top off the bad mom list! Not to mention bad wife!!!
I am about to make these for dessert along with homemade ice cream in a bag. I love your site!!! someday I want to do this too, it just looks like so much fun. Thank you for sharing!
laurie says
my kids ate crap cereal every day of thier lives,plus for dinner on sundays… didn’t hurt them any… son is 6’6″ and my daughter is 6’…. course i was also told that by not nursing them i would stunt their growth..
Kayla says
Just made these for our New Years breakfast tomorrow…they are delicious! Thanks 🙂
Amy says
Made these for breakfast at work. I love them!! Thanks for the idea.
Ashley says
Lovely Recipe. I substituted the following to make it vegan:
1 egg–>(1TBSP Ground Flax + 3TBSP Warm Water)
milk–>(soymilk)
butter–>(earth balance/other veg margarine)
refined sugar–>(evaporated cane juice)
They puffed up just like the picture with the flax mixture and turned out heavenly!!! The flax adds omegas and cuts out fat/cholesterol too!!
<3
Karly says
Mya,
Not stupid at all. I just never think to include that information because I don’t usually pay attention to it myself! Bad food blogger!
Anyway, I always, always buy and use salted sweet cream butter just because I like it best. If a recipe of mine needs unsalted butter, I’m sure to mention that (but that pretty much never happens), otherwise you can assume it’s salted butter. 🙂
Karly
mya says
this might sound stupid, but does it matter what kind of butter i use? Like salted or sweet cream?
pink13 says
I have been looking for such a recipe. Thought i would have to create one.
carolinelamb says
hello!
i am here via regan_v’s livejournal post! – i was a kid raised by pancakes, nutella and potato chips – and i turned out fine 🙂 so no worries there!
besides – these sugar donut muffins look incredibly delicicious!
Holly says
Just made these. They were delicious! And they don’t even have chocolate in them. I love when I make recipes where I don’t have to go the the store because it’s already in my house.
Lorie says
I just stumbled across your blog today and am loving everything on here! Is the baking time the same for the mini muffins?
Thanks!