Donut Muffins? Yum!

I was looking around for recipes that I thought would be good to make for the kids lunches and came across this recipe . Sure sounded like a winner to me! Note to self, learn to take better food pictures!

It took a while for me to get around to making it. When the kids saw it, they knew they would love it. So last night while making supper, I whipped up a batch. They are very easy to make. Shaylee did a lot of the work. They were done by the time we finished supper. I finished them up and tried them. MMmmmmmm!! Very good! Yummy, donut texture, sweet but not too sweet but it had a different taste that I could not put my finger on....kind of spicy but I thought it was just the nutmeg and cinnamon.

Later when I was putting everything away, I realized I put CUMIN in instead of cinnamon, lol! Yeah, that would account for that spicy taste. I used my cinnamon sugar shaker to coat the tops so it still had that cinnamon taste but despite the mix up in spices, they were still good. It was a good reminder to relabel my spices as the letters were wearing off which resulted in the mix up and I was so harried making supper and helping Shaylee get the muffins put together that I didn't even think to smell or double check before tossing it in.

So I linked the site but here is a text copy of the recipe with a couple of my notes added in.

Muffins that Taste Like Donuts
from lemanda on Tasty Kitchen

for the muffins:

1 3/4 cup All-Purpose Flour
1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon (NOT cumin, lol!)
1/3 cup Oil (I used olive oil)
3/4 cup White Sugar
1 whole Egg
3/4 cup Milk

for the topping:

1/4 cup Butter
1/3 cup White Sugar
1 Tablespoon Cinnamon

Grease one standard size muffin pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Combine oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add dry ingredients and stir only to combine. Fill standard sized muffin tin with the batter, using a scant 1/4 cup per muffin (note from Carla: I used a silicone muffin pan so they would pop right out after)

Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a bowl. Combine the white sugar with the cinnamon in another bowl. Shake muffins out while still hot. Dip muffins in butter, then into the sugar/cinnamon mix (note from Carla: I just spread the butter on top and sprinkled my cinnamon sugar on top). Let cool. Enjoy!

Makes 1 dozen.

Bread FAIL!

So I wanted to get back into the swing of regular bread making again. I made a few good loaves with home ground flour with the addition of some regular flour in the bread machine. I had a bad one but the next day I realized it was because I did not have warm water to activate the yeast since I had it soaking overnight. I knew for next time.

Today I wanted to make some bread. I put it on the sandwich setting, which is a 3 hour setting. It rose beautifully. I had to leave and when I got home, it looked bad. It is the loaf on the far left. After cutting into it, it totally sunk. I used half regular flour and half sprouted wheat flour. I tried to figure out what was wrong. Apparently it rose too much and didn't have enough flour to create a solid loaf, so it sunk when it started baking. Boo hiss. Tastes good though, although it didn't fully cook in the middle (which I didn't realize until later). Sprouted wheat flour acts as an enhancer for dough which makes the bread rise more so I probably added too much yeast causing the collapse.

So after the bread machine cooled down, I thought I would try another loaf, my regular way with only half a cup of the sprouted wheat flour. I did the quick setting, which is one hour, start to finish. That is the bottom right loaf. I don't think it cooked all the way through. It is pretty short and solid and not done on the top. After taking it out, it sunk a lot in the middle. It hasn't been cut into but I suspect it isn't baked through. Sigh.

My banana bread came out great! I made it in the crockpot in a silicone loaf pan. I should of packed some foil around it to keep the loaf shape as it spread out in the middle. Still, otherwise really good!

So what I may have to start doing is baking it in the oven. If I have to do that, I will bake more than one loaf at a time and also do buns and rolls. If my bread maker isn't cooking all the way through, it's pointless to keep using it. It is still good for mixing and kneading the bread. It is hard for me to do it manually so it will still serve a good purpose. I need to start having a baking day each week.