Jam doughnut muffins

Sometimes I wish I could channel Nigella Lawson when I describe food. She would probably say something terribly eloquent about these muffins, but all I could think of was ‘holy shit’. Oh well, maybe one day I’ll be more articulate and elegant. Probably not.

Anyway, holy shit, these muffins taste like actual jam doughnuts.

I’ve wanted to make them for ages, and I’m glad I finally did. The recipe is in the December 2010/January 2011 edition of delicious. magazine and it’s by the ladies at the Flamingo Cafe in Brisbane. I’ve been meaning to go there for a while, and if the rest of their food is anything like these muffins, it’s probably worth a visit. In the recipe they use blackberry jam, but I had plum so that’s what I used.

Nigella also has a similar recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess.

Plum jam doughnut muffins
Makes 6

2 cups plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup caster sugar, plus extra for rolling
1 cup milk
1/3 cup oil (the recipe says sunflower, but I didn’t have any so I used olive. Sunflower is probably better.)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbs jam (I used my homemade plum jam, but I think any would be fine. You just probably won’t experience the same immense feeling of self-satisfaction using store bought jam)
100 g unsalted butter, melted.

Preheat oven to 190°C and line a six-hole Texas muffin pan. Texas muffin pans are the really big ones.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk the milk, oil, egg and vanilla extract until well combined.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones. Mix until combined, but don’t overmix.

Fill each of the cases about 1/3 full. Carefully add about a teaspoon of jam on top of the mixture in each case. Then carefully cover until the cases are almost full.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cakes are golden on top and spring back when you touch them.

Remove from oven and let cool slightly.  Remove muffins from the tin.

Put some caster sugar in a shallow bowl. Brush the tops of the muffins with melted butter and then press them into caster sugar.

While these are good as is, I think if I made them again I’d make them smaller and with a little bit more jam. Nigella’s are smaller and she says to bake them for 20 minutes. I think you’d have to be careful not to bake them for too long because they’d be a bit dry.