Cinnamon-buttermilk muffins

I have a funny relationship with doughnuts. I don't mind the odd doughnut but I can't really eat them, Homer Simpson-style. I don't know why. I can eat the little doughnut balls, but big doughnuts make me feel ill. I do love the flavour of doughnuts though. Sounds complicated? I told you it was a funny relationship. Maybe it's the oil?

Anyway, while I was reading foodgawker, I came across quite a few recipes for baked doughnuts. Sometimes I have had ideas to make my own doughnuts but I have a fear of deep frying so I have never attempted it. The baked alternatives often have a yeasted batter/dough too, which had just seemed to be a bit too much effort.

These Cinnamon-Buttermilk Muffins posted on Food Gal addressed my two issues quite well. It combined the ease of a muffin mixture and did not involve deep fryer. I had to try them after that.

These muffins, like their doughnut brothers are topped with a mix of cinnamon and sugar. Since the muffins don't have the benefit of being fried, in order to make the cinnamon sugar mix stick, the muffin tops are dipped in melted butter. Well, I brushed melted butter on the tops of mine as this mix didn't rise all the much and my muffins were lucky to clear the tops of their cases.

The recipe says that the batter is similar to a doughnut batter which means the muffins have a similar texture. I think that the muffins were quite successful in doing this, they were very tasty. I have to say that I could eat more than one of these muffins without feeling ill as I would with real doughnuts.

These were very easy and very yummy. A great alternative to a real doughnut.

See this post on Food Gal for the recipe.