• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

sweetest kitchen

... making your day a little sweeter ...

  • Home
  • Recipes
  • About
  • Shop
  • Contact
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • RSS
    • Twitter

Vanilla Donut Muffins

24/03/2014 by jamieanne 7 Comments

Share on Facebook
Facebook
0Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
0Email this to someone
email

I am not an outdoors-y sort of person at all.  I don’t like bugs (especially moths) or dirt or the hot, glaring sun; I’d much rather observe things that live outside through a window, safe in the comfort of my own home.  I know that sounds crazy, and honestly, I’m not a recluse!

I do go outside to do many things, actually.  One of those things I have to do outside is hang up clothes.  The walkway to the clothesline is usually barricaded with webs in the morning, and more often than not, the clothesline will also be shrouded in webs.  Ew.  It was one such morning, when I cleared a curled-leaf spider‘s web from the line, that I realized that not all such things freak me out (as much)…

See, I may be totally scared of spiders and moths and bugs, but I don’t kill them.  I couldn’t stand the guilt of killing something so innocent that is just going about its own way of life.  For example, the night a huge Huntsman spider had found its way inside my bedroom and proceeded to glare at me from the ceiling as I was lying in bed.  Sure, I could have woken my husband to take care of business, but if I did that, he’d kill it and leave a gigantic smear on the ceiling.  So.  I slowly exited the room, grabbed a very large plastic box, its lid and a chair.  I placed the chair under the spider, and, with my heart racing, slowly climbed up the chair and even slower, centered the box around the spider.  Then, SLAM!  The spider was trapped, all I had to do was move the box a little and convince the spider to climb down inside the box.  I kid you not, I was totally freaked out.  I had no idea how I was even doing this.  How was I even going to get the lid on quick enough?  Panic!!  Luckily, I had great timing and ended up with a trapped huge Huntsman spider.  I then took it outside, quickly removed the lid and high-tailed it back in the house.

Anyway.  So back to this curled-leaf spider.  As you now know, I don’t kill things.  When I cleared the spider’s web from the clothesline, I placed the leaf, with the spider inside, on top of the bushes next to the clothesline.  Never thought of it again.  Hung up clothes.  Brought them inside later.  Went to bed.  Woke up.  The curled-leaf spider was back on the clothesline, huge web and all.

This process continued for weeks – I cleared the web to hang up clothes and the next morning, the spider would be back – until I finally stopped clearing the web and just hung up clothes around the spider.  I looked up information on the google about curled-leaf spiders and learned that this was probably a female.  We named her Aughra (yes, I’m a Dark Crystal fan!).  For at least a month she was with us.  I took a number of pictures of her and her web.

It was the day I took this picture above, that I made a batch of some very delicious muffins.  The recipe for these vanilla donut muffins comes from Beanilla, which is the only place I buy my vanilla.

muffins1

The recipe sounded lovely, with a donuty-muffin base spiced with nutmeg and flavored with Tahitian vanilla (which is the flavor I always buy), and dusted in a vanilla bean cinnamon-sugar mix.  In fact, this wasn’t even the first time I had made these!

muffins3

And I very rarely make the same recipe twice, so you know they have to be good!

They’re very easy to make, but do require the use of a stand- or hand-mixer, which is quite unusual for a muffin recipe.  Muffin batter is often mixed by hand, and care has to be taken so as not to over-mix the batter.  This recipe is a little more forgiving, but I only did minimal mixing once the flour and milk were added.

muffins4

The result is a soft, almost cake-like, crumb that is bursting with vanilla flavor.  Topped with the vanilla bean cinnamon-sugar, wow!

muffins5

The vanilla bean cinnamon-sugar mixture is just as it sounds – a mix of vanilla bean “caviar”, cinnamon and sugar.  The recipe gives you plenty of the mix, so feel free to liberally coat the muffins in it, or save some to make cinnamon toast or sprinkle over your coffee or hot chocolate.

I had so much fun editing these photos – I think they look fantastic!, along with the last photos I was to take of Aughra.  Little did I know that, after the wind had destroyed Aughra’s web, that she wouldn’t be rebuilding her web that night.

As was then a morning ritual, I checked on Aughra first thing, and the leaf was hanging down from her tangled and tattered web.  I even looked inside the leaf to confirm her absence.  She was gone.  She was just a spider, but with her persistence, she became a family friend and her sudden departure left us all feeling rather saddened.

These muffins, and this post, is a tribute to this little spider.  🙂

muffins2

Have a muffin, and may this post inspire you to be just a little kinder to Earth’s creatures!

By the way, this post was not sponsored in any way by Beanilla, I just simply love their vanilla products!

5.0 from 2 reviews
Vanilla Donut Muffins
 
Print
Prep time
10 mins
Cook time
20 mins
Total time
30 mins
 
Delicious, vanillary donut muffins made with Tahitian vanilla.
Author: Sarah | Beanilla
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • MUFFINS:
  • 6 ounces butter (softened)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs, room temperature
  • 2½ cups all purpose flour
  • ¾ tablespoons baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1 cup whole milk, room temperature
  • 1 teaspoon double-fold Tahitian vanilla extract*
  • TOPPING:
  • 2½ tablespoons butter, melted
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 1 Tahitian vanilla bean, split and scraped
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper liners, or spray the muffin holes with non-stick spray.
  2. In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract until light and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until incorporated after each addition.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and nutmeg. With the mixer on low, add ⅓ of the flour mixture and beat until well blended. Add ½ of the milk and beat until incorporated. Repeat, with the remaining flour and milk, beating well after each addition, ending with the last ⅓ of the flour. Mix just until incorporated.
  4. Divide batter evenly among muffin liners, filling each around ⅔ full. Bake 15-20 minutes, or until the tops spring back when lightly touched and are light golden.
  5. Combine topping ingredients in a smallish bowl with a tight-fitting lid. I find the easiest way to combine the sticky vanilla beans into the sugar is to put the lid on the bowl and shake, shake, shake!
  6. Brush the tops of the warm muffins with the melted butter and liberally sprinkle over the topping mixture.
  7. Enjoy warm from oven! They will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for a day or so.
Notes
*You can use any type of vanilla you have on hand, but I highly recommend that it at least be pure vanilla extract.
3.2.2265

 

Related Posts

  • Jam-Filled Donut MuffinsJam-Filled Donut Muffins
  • Blueberry MuffinsBlueberry Muffins
  • Double Chocolate Chunk MuffinsDouble Chocolate Chunk Muffins
  • Double Chocolate Chip MuffinsDouble Chocolate Chip Muffins
Share on Facebook
Facebook
0Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Pin on Pinterest
Pinterest
0Email this to someone
email

Filed Under: Muffins, My Favorites Tagged With: donuts, muffins, vanilla

Did you like this recipe?

camera icon If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment, hit up one of those stars to rate it, and be sure to tag any photos with #sweetestkitchen on Instagram if you made this recipe! I'd love to see what you've created!

 

Previous Post: « What’s Cooking
Next Post: Review: Cuisinart Fine Coffee Burr Mill »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. sue/the view from great island

    24/03/2014 at 3:22 AM

    I’m a huge vanilla freak, and these sound amazing! I’ve been wanting to buy good vanilla online, so I’ll check out Beanilla.

    Reply
  2. Kristy @ Southern In Law

    24/03/2014 at 6:13 AM

    Yuuummmm, these look amazing (as anything that comes out of your kitchen does!)

    I love the idea of focusing on the vanilla instead of the cinnamon as most donuts do!

    Reply
  3. Mary Murphy

    29/03/2014 at 4:28 PM

    These were excellent! I just made a batch for breakfast. I was able to fill 24 mini cups and 3 regulation-sized muffins. I think a third mini pan would have done it. Perfection! Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply
  4. sara

    30/03/2014 at 12:42 AM

    Oooh, those doughnuts look SO tasty! 🙂

    Reply
  5. Nagi@RecipeTinEats

    10/03/2016 at 1:34 AM

    I love vanilla! These look so soft and yummy!

    Reply
  6. Hannah

    03/06/2017 at 9:19 PM

    Hi! I made these muffins today and they were delicious! I replaced the nutmeg with cinnamon and it was so good! Thanks for this marvellous recipe!

    Reply
  7. Jenny

    04/07/2017 at 11:18 AM

    Hi

    I’ve just come across your blog and would love to make these donut muffins! Could you please tell me if the measurements are in Australian or US?

    Jenny

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Rate this recipe:  

Primary Sidebar

logo
Food Advertising by

Meet Jamieanne

Jamieanne is a Pisces and mum of 4 young children. She is originally from a small town in Indiana but currently resides in Sydney, Australia. She enjoys thinking about food, reading about food, writing about food, and photographing food! She is the writer, publisher and photographer of Sweetest Kitchen, a blog which features her most favorite recipes she's tried and tested in her very own kitchen. Read More…

Featured Posts

Matcha Strawberry Layered Smoothie

Matcha Strawberry Layered Smoothie

Blappleberry Hand Pies

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

Valentine’s Strawberry Jell-O Shots

Valentine's Strawberry Jell-O Shots

Blueberry Muffin French Toast

Blueberry Muffin French Toast

Creative Commons

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.

logo
Food Advertising by

Footer

Instagram

Instagram did not return a 200.

About Jamieanne

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Jamieanne is the blogger behind Sweetest Kitchen. She's a stay-at-home mum but spends all her free time in the kitchen. Read More…

From the Archives

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in · Privacy Policy