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    Home » Breads and muffins

    Published: Mar 22, 2020 · Modified: Apr 2, 2022 by Cynthia · This post may contain affiliate links · 4 Comments

    Cinnamon-Cardamom Mini Donut Muffins

    Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

    With their warmly spiced sugar coating, these bite-sized Cinnamon-Cardamom Mini Donut Muffins will cure all your donut cravings!

    Mini muffins on a marble counter.

    Mini Donut Muffin dreams

    There are some days I just crave a donut. To be clear, there are some days I have woken up from a donut dream. Yeah, really. Nine times out of ten, I dream about a cinnamon cardamom sugar coated donut. I want to taste a little cinnamon, a little cardamom spice, and feel the crunchy grains of sugar melt on my tongue.

    We can talk about my need for dream therapy another day, right now I’m turning my spiced sugar coated donut dream into a Cinnamon-Cardamom Mini Donut Muffin reality. C’mon, you know you want it too...

    This recipe makes 30-36 mini donut muffins, depending on the size of your mini muffin cups. You can tell people you only made a dozen. I won’t tattle.

    Easy mini muffin variation

    If you don't feel like dipping donuts, or your fingers, in a bowl of butter, you can switch things up! Sometimes, when I'm feeling crazy, I scoop my muffin batter into the muffin pan and then sprinkle the cinnamon cardamom sugar on top before baking. You end up with a crispy, crackly sugar coating on top of a fluffy, moist muffin. Ain't nothing wrong with that.

    Muffins on a wiore rack.

    More breakfast baking:

    • Not So Basic Buttermilk Muffins: Better than Basic
    • Breakfast Strawberry Shortcake with Whipped Greek Yogurt Cream
    • Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits
    • Cranberry-Blood Orange Scones
    • No Yeast Biscuit Cinnamon Rolls
    Mini muffins on a marble counter.

    Cinnamon-Cardamom Mini Donut Muffins

    With their warmly spiced sugar coating, these bite-sized Cinnamon-Cadamom Mini Donut Muffins will cure all your donut cravings!
    5 from 1 vote
    Author: Cynthia
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 15 mins
    Cook Time 15 mins
    Total Time 30 mins
    Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert
    Cuisine American
    Servings 36 Donut Muffins
    Calories 124 kcal

    Ingredients
     

    Muffins

    • ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, melted
    • ¾ cup (180 g) whole milk, room temperature
    • 2 large eggs, room temperature
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 1 ¾ cups (210 g) all-purpose flour
    • ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
    • 2 tablespoon (16 g) cornstarch
    • 2 teaspoon baking powder
    • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
    • ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg
    • 1 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

    Cinnamon-Cardamom Sugar Roll Around & Yum

    • 12 tablespoon (168 g) (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, melted
    • 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
    • 2 tablespoon cinnamon
    • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
    • ⅛ teaspoon kosher or sea salt

    Instructions

    Making the Muffins

    • Preheat oven to 375° Coat mini muffin pans with non-stick spray.
    • In a small pan, melt one stick of unsalted butter and set aside to cool a bit. Whisk the milk, eggs, and vanilla in a small measuring cup and set aside.
      Measure all the dry muffin ingredients together in a medium bowl. Add the wet ingredients and the butter to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined and no more dry flour clumps are visible.
    • Fill the muffin cups ⅔ full, which for my 2 tablespoon muffins cups is about 1 ½ tablespoon per cup. You can also just put all the muffin batter in a ziplock bag, snip a small hole in the corner, and squeeze the batter into each cup, filling ⅔ full.
    • Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the muffins are all poofy and spring back when pressed. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire cooling rack. Allow them to cool for 10-15 minutes. You can mix your topping while you wait! (If you have more batter, like I did, allow the muffin tin to cool off, then refill and bake the next batch. You can get the first batch all sugary while they bake!)

    Sugaring up the Muffins

    • Melt 1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter in a small pan. Set aside to cool a bit. In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, and salt.
    • Dip each muffin, top and bottom, in the melted butter and shake off any excess. Roll the buttery muffins in the spiced sugar mixture to coat evenly. Don’t eat it (maybe just one). Repeat with all the muffins.
      All done, but still have spiced sugar left? Give all the muffins another toss!Share with family or friends or, just this once, hoard them all to yourself. No one will know 😉

    Notes

    For a lighter spin, you can skip the butter dip and just sprinkle the spiced sugar on top of the mini muffins before baking.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 124kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 28mg | Sodium: 87mg | Potassium: 23mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 220IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 1mg

    The nutritional and caloric information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It does not assert or suggest that readers should or should not count calories, and should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s or doctor’s counseling.

    Tried this recipe?Mention @butfirst_webrunch or tag #butfirstwebrunch!

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Laura C says

      February 04, 2022 at 7:53 pm

      5 stars
      These are my absolute go-to dessert to make for company (and myself). Lots of people don’t know what cardamom tastes like, but it’s so delicious in this recipe with the cinnamon and hint of vanilla! You get hooked. People always ask me for the recipe after they eat these, and the best part is that they’re SUPER easy to make! Today, I made a double batch for the staff at the school I work at, and they finished all 72 of them. Make these! You won’t regret it. Even if you eat 72 of them.

      Reply
      • Cynthia says

        February 04, 2022 at 8:13 pm

        Yay!! I’m so glad all of you love them so much!!

        Reply
    2. Doris Petersen says

      April 02, 2022 at 11:01 am

      This recipe checks all the boxes for me. Saved it on Paprika, and will be making soon!! Thanks Cynthia

      Reply
      • Cynthia says

        April 02, 2022 at 11:38 am

        Thanks Doris! I love having a collection of go to recipes that I can make whenever I’m in the mood!

        Reply

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    Hi, I'm Cynthia! In our house, we get up with the sun and most of us don't stop working until late in the night, so breakfast and brunch are our family meals. So join me at the kitchen counter, where I cook up delicious food for my busy family, starting first thing in the morning!

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