These muffins taste like cinnamon sugar doughnut holes

When it comes to breakfast pastries, it’s impossible to place a hierarchy on the goods. Doughnuts, muffins, croissants, danishes, scones, cinnamon rolls — they’re all so incredibly delicious, and each noble in their own right.

But when we start crossing breakfast pastries, the real magic happens. Sweet cronuts (croissants + doughnuts) are miraculously doughy and flaky all in one. Or, another glorious croissant cross, the cragel, is one that appeals to those who love a savory breakfast — and the carby creation is capable of holding a cream cheese spread and lox on top.

MORE: Make monkey bread muffins in 30 minutes using biscuit dough

So, my attention was of course piqued and sweet tooth activated when I saw that Allrecipes has a recipe for Donut Muffins. Domuffins? Muffdos? “Donut” stop me now. These are the perfect treat to make on the weekend and savor throughout the week. The entire recipe takes 40 minutes to make, and it says it yields 24 donut muffins, but when I put it to the test I got about 30! Plus, there’s no rolling and shaping dough, which makes this an approachable recipe for even the most novice bakers, myself included.

As I was baking, I could smell a warm spice aroma in my kitchen from the nutmeg, which is the “secret ingredient” in the muffin mix. The recipe promised that the mini muffins “taste just like cinnamon sugar doughnut holes,” and I’ll absolutely vouch for that. These donut muffins, indeed, tasted like freshly baked cinnamon-sugar doughnut holes. They had a soft, puffy interior, were golden-brown on the outside and the cinnamon sugar took them to the next level.

Here’s the final product:

The muffin mix was easy to make. I added a pinch of extra baking powder because I’m cooking at high-altitude here in Denver, aka the “Mile High City.”

Here’s what the batter looked like. You don’t want to skimp on the nutmeg.

The recipe instructs to fill up your mini muffin tins half way. I used a standard dinner spoon to spoon in the mix to my greased muffin tin and then popped these mini desserts into the oven.

While my muffins (or are they doughnut holes?) were baking, I prepped my finishing ingredients by slicing up some margarine (it makes it easier to melt in the microwave, I’ve found) and combining my cinnamon and sugar.

When I pulled out the muffin tray, I used a knife to circle around the muffins to loosen them up so they’d pop out easy and then transferred them to a cooling rack.

The fun part comes when you dip the muffins into the melted margarine and then roll them into the cinnamon sugar to turn them into donut holes. I found that you could just dip the top in the margarine and it would drip down enough that the sugar mixture would lightly coat the entire doughnut.

I like that the recipe uses a mini muffin tin, and could be altered slightly to make other types of doughnut holes. I’m going to try to make some apple cider ones come fall. One reviewer suggested making vanilla and chocolate glazes for the muffins and sprinkling confectioners’ sugar to top the treats.

This recipe is what we consider a diplomatic one. Make some of these mini muffins and you’ll appeal to both the muffin-lovers and the doughnut enthusiasts in your home.