Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

When we first moved into our home, a neighbor delivered fresh, hot, pumpkin doughnut muffins as a "welcome to the neighborhood" gift.

It. Was. Heavenly.

And you can believe I've never forgotten them.

Fast forward two years and here are two ways of making delicious, pumpkin doughnut muffins:

Option 1:

I am in the process of getting ready to move, so I have been doing my best to use up any and all food we have left in our house. I was asked to bring mini muffins to an event recently and I didn't want to go to the store for any ingredients. Then I remembered the pumpkin pie filling in the pantry I had been trying to use up. And THEN I remembered the delicious pumpkin doughnut muffins from the neighbor and thought I may be able to recreate them so I could use the pumpkin pie filling. I kept trying to find recipes that used the pie filling in a muffin recipe, but every recipe I came across used pumpkin puree, not pie filling. I then stumbled upon a recipe (somewhere I can't find now) where they used only two ingredients to make their muffins-yellow cake mix and pumpkin pie filling. Say what?! No eggs, oil, or anything else was needed. Sa-weet!!! I happened to have both in my pantry :) I mixed the two ingredients together, baked them at 350 degrees for around 20 minutes or so (until a toothpick comes out clean) and they turned out great. They are NOT like a normal muffin and you can definitely tell it has cake mix in it, but I love me some good cake mix taste. :) I then used a cinnamon sugar topping on the muffins (recipe below). It was a great option to making super easy muffins. (note: The pie filling was the very large can, not the smaller can.)

Option 2:

Here is the original recipe that my neighbor brought over. It is a more traditional pumpkin muffin. She made it using the giant muffin pans, but any size muffin pan would also work.


Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

Makes 12

For the Batter:

•10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, plus more for pan
•3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
•2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
•1/4 teaspoon baking soda
•1 teaspoon coarse salt
•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
•1/3 cup buttermilk
•1 1/4 cups pure pumpkin puree
•3/4 cup light-brown sugar
•2 large eggs

For the Sugar Coating:

•3/4 cup granulated sugar
•2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
•1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour 12 standard muffin cups. Make batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and allspice. In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, scraping down bowl as needed. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions pumpkin mixture and beat to combine.

Spoon 1/3 cup batter into each muffin cup and bake until a toothpick inserted in center of a muffin comes out clean, 30 minutes. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Let muffins cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. Working with one at a time, remove muffins from pan, brush all over with butter, then toss to coat in sugar mixture. Let muffins cool completely on a wire rack.