tailgate treats: glazed donut muffins

I was just going to spend the evening watching Monday Night Football with Greg and the cats, but instead I decided to write while WTTS is broadcasting the Lumineers concert live from The Lawn at White River State Park (i.e., downtown Indy).  I have ten recipes in draft form waiting for me to pay them any kind of attention and flesh them out so they can be posted and shared.  Join the list of things waiting for me to pay them any kind of attention.  Some things are hard to ignore like our hilarious little kitten, Winston who makes all kinds of squeaky noises and walks in circles around my feet (which has been a little disastrous for both of us at times) and our sweet grown-up cat, Rio who will just get up on the kitchen island and walk on my keyboard.  Other things like the ironing have plenty of room to be ignored in our big empty house.  So much so that when I finally toted the ironing board to the basement during college football on Saturday, I grabbed a pair of Greg's shorts that he forgot he actually owned since they were in the ironing pile since our trip to the beach in May.  You don't have to iron luon, luxtreme and silverescent the signature lulu fabrics that make up my wardrobe for a good 90 percent of my waking hours.  Greg's a trooper and has learned to throw things in his suitcase and iron them when he gets wherever he's going.  Sorry state of affairs.  Lucky for him I never ignore the laundry.  The one thing I start and finish with a real sense of urgency.  Said luon, luxtreme and silverescent pieces get just about soaking wet at spinning, yoga or tennis and demand to be washed.  Just ask the dishes, I won't leave them overnight, but I sure am happy to finish them about 2 hours after dinner when I've done something more fun (like write my blog as I'm doing now with the dinner dishes just hanging out waiting).  Yep, the big cat has now just rolled over on the cloth covered kitchen table, looked at me and sighed.

Here's a really good muffin recipe adapted from my lovely friend Amanda's LA cousin's blog, "Almost Perfect".  They were devoured at the Homecoming tailgate.  And not just because all the alumni sorority girls were drunk, they are quite tasty.  Yes, they do taste like a version of glazed donuts (haven't had one of those in truly years, but I can remember just fine) but they also remind me of spice cake.  If I get really ambitious, I might try to put an apple filling in them for the next tailgate.  I'll let you know how that goes.

I promise you I cook and don't just bake.  But I do bake often.  Life is short (and sweet)!  By the way, the concert is great.  Thanks, WTTS!

Glazed Donut Muffins

2 C all purpose flour
1 C white whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
3/4 C milk (mine is always skim and just fine here)
1/3 C lowfat buttermilk
10 T unsalted butter, softened
1 C sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

glaze
3 T milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C powdered sugar

Whisk together the flours, soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium bowl.  In a 2-cup measuring cup whisk together the milk and buttermilk.
Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Line 18 muffin cups with papers or spray with cooking spray.
Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time and follow with the vanilla.  Add the flour mixture and milk mixture alternately until just combined, scraping down sides of the bowl as you go.
Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes in the muffin tins.
Meanwhile, make the glaze by stirring together the milk, vanilla and powdered sugar.  Add more powdered sugar if glaze is too thin or more milk if it's too thick.  Dip muffins in glaze and turn upright to cool completely on a wire rack (put a sheet of waxed paper or parchment under your cooling rack or you'll be cursing me for your sticky counter).

Makes 18 muffins

ingredients

batter in the works

filled muffin tins (no papers, just sprayed with cooking spray)

muffins in the takeaway pan for the tailgate