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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Confessions of a lapsed foodie… and donut muffins

In the rush of managing two jobs and dealing with the harrowing moving process this summer, I wholly neglected my commitment to baking and cooking for quite awhile. I found myself short on time and lacking the energy to plan out and prepare my own meals. So I, Allie Demet, food blogger at large, spent no less than six weeks eating prepackaged meals, junk food, frozen pizza and whatever take-out I desired at the end of a long day.

Needless to say, this was certainly not the healthiest or cheapest way to eat, so I’ve devised a new program for this semester that will hopefully serve as a good model for college students as far as baking and cooking on a reasonable budget without compromising taste or quality. I’ll be sharing my time-saving and cost-cutting strategies and working on a set schedule of recipes. On Mondays, I’ll be making pastries and muffins (and the occasional savory breakfast fare); Wednesdays will be devoted to easy side dishes and salads; and Fridays are for hearty meals and main courses.

Donut muffins

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from Baking Bites

What, praytell, is a donut muffin? A sturdier, less cloyingly sweet, and in my opinion more satisfying version of your garden-variety donut. This recipe isn’t at all fussy, and it doesn’t have any ridiculously hard-to-find ingredients; in fact, you may just have all of the ingredients in your pantry.

You’ll need: 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 egg, 1/4 cup canola oil (vegetable oil is fine as well), 3/4 cup milk (skim, 1%, 2%–whichever you prefer), 1 tsp. real vanilla extract, 1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour or, my personal favorite, whole wheat pastry flour, 2 tsp. baking powder, and 1/4 tsp. salt plus non-stick canola or vegetable oil based spray and another 1/2 cup granulated sugar for dusting.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, beat the egg and the sugar until smooth. Then stir in the canola oil, milk and vanilla and set aside. Next, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt; add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined. The original recipe calls for portioning out the batter into 10 regular-sized cups, but I made six jumbo muffins and two mini-muffins (for sampling). It took the jumbo muffins about 30 minutes to cook, but do take into consideration that my current oven is over 20 years old and therefore entirely unreliable for establishing a standard cooking time.

As soon as the muffins come out of the oven, spray them with the non-stick canola or vegetable oil and immediately roll them around in sugar to coat them completely. The author of the original recipe brushed the tops of the muffins with butter, which is a slightly richer option.

I loved these muffins from the very first bite, and my roommates seemed to devour them immediately.

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