Recipe: Chocolate-Filled Doughnut Muffins

Photo: David Fenton

Brigit Binns author of Sunset’s Eating Up the West Coast: The best road trips, restaurants, and recipes from California to Washington. This recipe for Chocolate-Filled Doughnut Muffins was inspired by Franny’s Cup and Saucer a mother-daughter run bakery in Point Arena, CA.

Chocolate-Filled Doughnut Muffins

Makes 12 muffins (or 6 jumbo muffins) | 20 minutes, plus 30 minutes to bake and cool

I was hooked the moment I saw the sugar-crusted dome of Barbara and Franny’s monster doughnut muffins. Then I discovered the secret chocolate center—meltdown! You can use a small ice cream scoop to fill the muffins with ganache and spoon leftover ganache, warmed, over ice cream.

Ganache Filling

1/2 cup heavy cream

4 oz. semisweet dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Tiny pinch of Maldon sea salt or fleur de sel

Muffins

Cooking-oil spray

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup sugar

21/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. fine sea salt

1/8 tsp. ground cardamom

Finely grated zest of 1/2 orange

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. buttermilk

2 large eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Cinnamon Sugar

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted, for brushing

1. make the ganache: In a saucepan, warm the cream over low heat just until hot. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate; cover and let stand for 3 minutes. Add the salt and stir with a whisk until combined and the chocolate is melted and smooth. Transfer to a bowl and let cool until firm (about 2 hours in the refrigerator).

2. make the muffin batter: Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a standard 12-cup muffin pan (or 6-cup jumbo muffin pan) with paper liners, then spray the top surface with cooking spray. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cardamom, and orange zest. In another bowl, combine the butter, buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk until blended. Add to the dry ingredients and stir and fold together just until combined. The batter will be thick and a little shaggy.

3. Spoon about 3 tbsp. batter into each (standard size) cup, to come just over halfway up the cup. Scoop up 11/2 tsp. of ganache and place on the batter in the center of each muffin. Top with about 2 tbsp. of the remaining batter, dividing it evenly and making sure to fully enclose the ganache with batter. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove the muffins.

4. make the cinnamon sugar: Combine the sugar, cinnamon, and cloves in a bowl. Put the melted butter in a second bowl. Dip each muffin top in the melted butter and then into the cinnamon sugar mixture.

PER MUFFIN 375 Cal., 46% (171 Cal.) from fat; 4.6 g protein; 19 g fat (12 g sat.); 49 g carbo (1.6 g fiber); 257 mg sodium; 80 mg chol. LS/V