Jam Doughnut Muffins

I woke up this morning in a funk. The in-laws who had been visiting left last night, and I have a heap of housework to do to return the place to its usual state of semi-chaos. But, I just couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for housework. I started working on one of my many craft projects on the go, and then told myself, no, craft is for afternoons, mornings are for housework. So what do I end up doing? Baking Jam Doughnut Muffins of course. That will surely lift me out of my funk!

The recipe is from “How to be a Domestic Goddess” by Nigella Lawson (I really like Nigella’s recipes, but can’t stand watching her shows!)

Ingredients
125ml (4 fl oz) milk
85ml (3 fl oz) vegetable oil
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
200g (7 oz) self-raising flour
100g (3.5 oz) caster sugar
12 teaspoons strawberry jam (jelly for my US readers)

Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 190°C.
2. With a fork, beat together the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract. (I did this in a measuring jug).
3. Stir this into the flour and caster sugar to combine (just). Lumps are fine – don’t overbeat.
4. Spoon the mixture into a well-greased muffin pan so that each cup is just under a third full.
5. Add a dollop of strawberry jam (jelly) to the middle of each cup and top with more muffin mix until the cups are just about full. (The recipe says this should make 12, but I only managed 10.)
6. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until the tops feel springy and resistant, and the muffins have puffed up like little toadstools (Nigella’s words – not my own!).

Nigella then melts 100g (3.5 oz) of unsalted butter, dips each muffin in the butter and then rolls in granulated sugar. This felt a bit too decadent to me (and messy), so I baked mine in muffin papers, and sprinkled with caster sugar before I baked them to get a crunchy top.

I love this recipe as they produce a yummy treat that is really easy to make, although I think they taste more like cake than muffins. It took me 10 minutes to mix everything up, ending up with a dirty bowl, jug, fork and couple of spoons – so very quick to clean up as well.

What are your quick and easy but decadent treats? What are your favourite muffin recipes?