These Jam-Filled Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins are perfect for brunch or dessert, and they’re oh-so-tasty!
{Psst! Love muffins? Be sure to check out my top 7 favorite freezer-friendly muffin recipes!}
Guest post by my sister, Brigette Shevy.
These Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins are a family favorite!
These muffins have been a family favorite for over 20 years. We got the recipe from a Taste of Home magazine and have been making them ever since!
Even though they look fancy, they are actually really simple to make and rely on just a few basic ingredients (those kinds of recipes are the best!). The jam is a really fun addition, too!
Ingredients For Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins
- 1 ¾ cup flour (I use a mix of whole wheat and white)
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup granulated sugar (I always scrimp on this amount)
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup milk
- ¼ cup jam
For the topping:
- ¼ cup butter, melted
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
How to Make Doughnut Muffins with Cinnamon and Jam
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
3. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, oil, egg, and milk until well-mixed.
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened.
5. Fill 10 greased, paper-lined, or silicone cup-lined muffin tins half full.
6. Place 1 teaspoon of jam on top of each muffin cup.
7. Cover jam with enough batter to fill muffin cups ¾ full.
8. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
9. While muffins bake, melt butter in a small bowl.
10. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar.
11. When the muffins finish baking and are still hot, dip the tops in butter and then in cinnamon & sugar.
12. Cool for a few minutes before serving.
How to serve Cinnamon Sugar Muffins
I love serving these Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins for breakfast, brunch, or even during one of our traditional “breakfast for dinner” meals.
And if we ever have any leftovers, my children love them for snacks, and my husband takes them to work in his lunch. Because of how versatile this recipe is, I definitely recommend doubling it!
Here are a few recipes that pair well with donut muffins!
- Easy Breakfast Casserole
- Bacon Omelet Bites
- Red, White, and Blue Smoothies
- Baked Oatmeal
- Breakfast Burritos
Cinnamon Doughnut Muffins Storage
If you don’t eat the muffins immediately after baking, or if you make a double batch for later, let the muffins cool completely and then store them in an air-tight food storage container at room temperature.
You can freeze them for longer storage, but don’t refrigerate them as that tends to dry them out.
How do you keep homemade muffins moist?
Make sure you store them tightly sealed at room temperature or in the freezer.
Doughnut Muffins FAQs
Baking powder is best for muffins. When baking powder is added to the batter, it reacts with the liquid and acidic ingredients to release carbon dioxide gas, which causes the muffins to rise and become lighter in texture.
Brown sugar works well for adding moisture to baked goods, whereas granulated sugar will create a more aerated crumb and crispier texture.
Sugar on top of muffins adds a nice crunch, which offsets the soft chewy muffins nicely. Also, a little extra sweetness!
There may have been too much flour in your mix or you could have baked them too long. Also, storing muffins in the refrigerator can dry them out as well. One other option is swapping half the granulated sugar for brown sugar, which can offer more moisture.
In general, most muffins are not considered a “health food” although they often contain less sugar than cake! Many bakers choose to substitute honey, applesauce, and whole grain flour for sugar, oil, and all-purpose flour — these swaps increase the nutritional value.
Cinnamon Donut Muffins
Ingredients
- 1¾ cups all purpose flour
- 1½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cinnamon
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ cup milk
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup jam
For the Topping
- ¼ cup butter melted
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl, combine sugar, oil, egg, and milk until well-mixed.
- Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients just until moistened.
- Place 1 teaspoon of jam on top of each muffin cup.
- Cover jam with enough batter to fill muffin cups ¾ full.
- Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
- While muffins bake, melt butter in a small bowl.
- In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar.
- When muffins finish baking and are still hot, dip the tops in butter and then in cinnamon and sugar.
- Cool for a few minutes before serving.
Nutrition
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More Muffin Recipes:
- Patriotic Strawberry and Blueberry Muffins
- Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins
- Whole Wheat Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
- The Best Bran Muffins
- Apple Butter Muffins
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Muffins
- My Top 7 Favorite Freezer-Friendly Muffin Recipes
Brigette is a full-time wife and mother to four kids. She enjoys music, experimenting in the kitchen, homeschooling her children, finding great deals, long-distance running, and anything chocolate.
Reader Interactions
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I have made these with gluten free all purpose flour and coconut milk since I am gluten and dairy free and without the jam and they are so good. I make them in a mini muffin pan without any paper liners and then roll them in melted dairy free butter and then cinnamon sugar mixture. They are like donut holes. They are sooo good! Make sure you don’t leave out the nutmeg because I think that is what really give you the donut flavor.
Thanks for sharing those tips! We love finding ways to make our recipes available to our readers with food allergies and intolerances! -Jordan, MSM Team
Do these need to be refrigerated due to the jam? Thanks.
Tried them this morning. The only thing I would recommend is I used a half recipe for the topping (sugar, cinnamon, and butter) and it worked out just about right. I think a full would have left me with left overs. Thanks for the recipe!
Yummy. And relatively easy. I think the girls will love them before our homeschool day begins. I know I did. Thanks!
I tried these tonight. I was going to save them for breakfast in the morning but decided to try one while it was nice and hot. I’ll be honest and say I’m not a huge fan. Maybe I’ll try it without the jelly next time or put chocolate chips or blueberries in the batter instead. I’m usually in love with all your recipes but this one not so much. Sorry.
You might try them refrigerated overnight or at room temperature. I actually like them better that way. 🙂
These muffins look so good! I can’t wait to try them out this week 🙂
These were a hit with the whole family! Thanks for the recipe! We will be making these again!
So happy you liked them!
I made these yesterday am and they are simple and delish, thank you!
can these be made gluten free? would love to try them.
Denise,
I am going to try to make them gluten free – I was just going to substitute a gluten free flour blend for the flour. Hopefully they will turn out well!
Hi Colleen,
If your GF muffins turn out – will you tell us your flour blend? My family would love to try these too! They look delicious!
What flavor jam did you used?
I use whatever we have on hand. I’ve used peach, strawberry, grape, raspberry…pretty much every flavor there is. 🙂
I made these this morning and they were great! I didn’t put jam in because my kids and I don’t really like that sort of thing. They really do taste like a doughnut but are so easy. My kids thought the topping was a little too much cinnamon so I will do a little less next time. I think that I loved them a little more than my kids. I probably could have eaten they whole pan. Not good for me but super yummy.
Recipes aren’t copyrighted, however, if you copy the instructions/directions exactly as they are published somewhere, it is copyright infringement. That’s why we always re-write things here in our own voice — even if we haven’t really changed a recipe much from its original form.
Thanks so much for commenting and for your desire to make sure we’re on the up and up here! I really appreciate it.
These look great Brigette. I’ve tried two other recipes that you posted, chocolate raspberry cheesecake pie and the double chocolate brownies and they were both big hits so I’ll have to try these muffins too.
I’m so glad you’ve tried and liked these recipes – LOVE comments like this! 🙂
Are these too plain or bland without the jam?
The jam makes them extra special, but they’d be good without it too.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the jam inside ( I used homemade grape jelly) so next time I might try them without.
Oh my goodness these look delicious! My 9 year old daughter and I are bookmarking holiday baking projects to do and these just made the list! Thank you!
Thanks for sharing!! I am going to try these this weekend!
In regard to the flour, what is the difference of using all white flour versus a mix of whole wheat and white? I have all the other ingredients except for whole wheat flour and seeing if I really need to buy some. I am not a baker or cook other then I am great at following a recipe.
So If it is the flavor or texture that would be effected by not using whole wheat, I will be buying whole wheat flour. If it is because it is just a bit healthier, then I intend to just use the white flour. Also, if I subsitute applesauce like someone mentioned below for the vegetable oil, you had said that you sub part of the oil only. How much oil and how much applesause would you use then?
Thank you !
Whole wheat is definitely not necessary. I only add some for the health factor. 🙂 As far as adding applesauce, I’ve done half applesauce/half oil and they’ve worked great. It would probably work to do all applesauce, but since I haven’t tried it, I can’t say for sure.
Thank you Brigette. You are going to turn me into a cook/baker. I tried your oven fried baked chicken and it was excellent. I like simple recipes. Please keep them coming!
By the way, do you have a recipe for: vegetable soup (I love soup), chicken/turkey pot pie, chicken/turkey and dumplings, and any easy recipe for left over turkey (I will have plenty of turkey left over come this Thanksgiving). This will be my first ever Thanksgiving that I will be by myself and I still want to have my turkey. I intend to make a bone in turkey breast but need help in recipes for the leftovers. Thank you!
I was just trying to think of what to do for a snack for the children this afternoon. I’ve got 4 of my own, plus babysitting 3 more, so I wanted something sure to please and a lot of it! When I saw these I immediately mixed up a batch and they are baking right now! 🙂
I did some with peach jam, and some with strawberry, I’m sure they’ll be great! Thanks Brigette!
You’re welcome! If your kiddos are anything like mine, they’ll love these!!!
What kind of flavor jam would work best with the cinnamon flavor? my husband loves strawberry do you think that would work?
Strawberry is yummy with these – we do it all the time!
Those muffins look amazing!
They sound YUMMY !! Can’t wait to try them. I will use applesauce instead of the veg oil. This will make them healthier and more moist.
Applesauce works great! If I have it, I often sub it in for part of the oil.
Do I use as much applesauce as oil?
Yes
No…only substitute 1/2 of the oil with applesauce. You need some of that fat or they don’t turn out well.