Jam-Doughnut Muffins (Nigella Lawson)

When I was a student, my friends and I used to indulge in hot jam doughnuts from the food truck at Queen Victoria Market. It is really nice to enjoy freshly fried doughnuts with warm oozing jam while wandering around the busy market.

When Lena from Frozen wings suggested this recipe, Jam Doughnut Muffins from the book, How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson or here for Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and me to bake along, I had this instant vision...

... of me and a bowl of doughnut balls with oozing strawberry jam to indulge!
... not in a busy market but at home.
... on my lazy couch
... with TV or music on?
... without my husband and kid??? LOL!

Ohhhh! I think I like this vision... Keep dreaming, Zoe!

Well, eventually I did have a bowl of perfectly shaped doughnut balls to enjoy but...

Jam-Doughnut muffins (Nigella Lawson)

Good that this recipe uses these wholesome ingredients

Plus, making the batter is ready easy!

Instead of using a muffin tin, I'm baking mine with a cake pop tin.

See these oozing batter, I was hoping that the muffins will look ok.

phew! They look great!

So, I dunk them into melted butter.

... and coat them with sugar.

... but some has no jam inside!

Disappointed? Yes, I am. These doughnuts are perfectly fine for consumption but just not the type that I had in my vision.

If I use a muffin tin to bake these doughnuts, I reckon that they should be looking as good as these that I have seen at Taste.com.

After this disappointment, I was thinking of baking this recipe again using a muffin tin but decided not as I'm not exactly a raving fan of oven-baked doughnuts after all. Based on what I have baked at here and here, I have noticed that these oven-baked doughnuts are in their best only when they are freshly baked as they become stale and tough on the next day.

Oh well, nevermind... I shall eat these kosong (meaning empty in Malay) doughnut balls...

... on my lazy couch
... with the TV on
... without my husband and kid??? Well, you think?

Here's the recipe from the book, the book, How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson or here  (with my modification or notes in blue)

Make 12 mini donuts 

125ml milk
85ml corn or other vegetable oil, plus more for greasing (I used rice bran oil)

1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I used vanilla paste)

200g self-raising flour (I used 200g all purpose flour + 2 tsp baking powder)

100g caster sugar (I used 50g only)

12 tsp strawberry jam (homemade, recipe is at here)

100g unsalted butter
150g granulated sugar (I used the caster ones)

1 incredibly well-greased or silicon 12-bun mini-muffin tin - I used cake pop tin and can make 14 donuts balls with this recipe.

Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5 or 160°C fan forced

With a fork (or a hand whisk), beat together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract or paste. Stir this into the flour and the 100g (or 50g) caster sugar to combine (just): the lumps don't matter and if you overbeat the muffins will be tough.

Spoon the mixture into each muffin or cake pop cup so that it's just under a third full. Then with a teaspoon add a dollop of strawberry jam - about the size of a fat broad bean - then top with more muffin mix so that the cases are just about full.

Put them in the preheated oven and cook for about 20 mins or until the tops feel springy and resistant and the muffins have puffed up into little toadstools.

Meanwhile, melt the butter slowly in a thick-bottomed pan, and lay the sugar out in a wide, shallow bowl. As soon as the muffins are ready, remove them from their moulds, dip them in the butter and roll them in the granulated (or caster) sugar. Eat warm.

Happy Baking

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Please note that the linky tool for bake-along is no longer available.