Duffin (noun): a donut muffin

Choices: One of the most difficult things to make in this world.  For instance, should I have a donut or a muffin for my after school snack?  The decision could take from an instance to 26 minutes, because after all you have to weigh the pro's and con's.  A donut has a texture that no other baked good has - it's light, fluffy, yet dense (yes, that was a total contradiction but I don't know how else to explain it).  

A muffin is moist, crumbly, and both can be filled, or topped with sprinkles, icing, chocolate, jam, sugar, cinnamon, fruit, did I mention a combination of sugar & cinnamon?  This is where my brain came to aid, as it recalled seeing a recipe for "Donut Muffins" before while searching through recipes of some of my favourite food blogs, and a smile crept up on my face when I realized, I can make a duffin :)

The cake itself is moist, fluffy, with the hint of nutmeg giving it that donuty taste.  Then the topping - Mmm.  I've been having an obsession with cinnamon lately so I absolutely adore anything with cinnamon.  Though this duffin may not taste exactly like a donut, it's a good alternative to the deep-fried treat, and perhaps even better.  Another alternative for the topping would be a streusel type topping with brown sugar, butter, and cinnamon baked right onto the muffin.  Next time, I gotta try that.  But that is how I spent my afternoon, eating duffins.

The Donut Muffin, or as I like to call it, "Duffins"

Adapted from Buns in My Oven who obtained it from Baking Bites

Makes approx 10-12 muffins (it made 11 for me)

Muffins

3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup oil
3/4 cup milk (I used evaporated milk because I had an excess amount of that)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Topping

2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling*
1 tbsp of cinnamon, for rolling*

*NOTE: The topping is up to you! You can add/take out spices. Ex. if you don't like cinnamon, veto it.  Also, you can get away with using half the sugar- cinnamon topping mixture, because I had left overs from using half the amount above.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or oil.
2. In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. Pour into egg mixture and stir to combine. Pour in oil, milk (in my case, evaporated milk) and vanilla extract.
4. Divide batter evenly into 10-12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
5. Bake for 15-18 minutes (the more muffins you have, the less time it will take - the muffins will be smaller), until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. While muffins are baking, melt butter and pour the topping ingredients (sugar & cinnamon) into a small bowl.
7. When the muffins have cooled for a bit, dip the top of each muffin in the melted butter, and roll in the sugar-cinnamon mixture.
8. Eat immediately, or wait till the butter has soaked through the muffin and the coating has become crunchy, or do both.  Either way, enjoy your duffin :)

Left: Without the Cinnamon-sugar Topping
Right: Donut Muff- I mean Duffin ;)