Nigella Challenge: Jam Doughnut Muffins

These go down a treat every time I make them. They're such unassuming little morsels.

I do prefer these in their mini form. This is a personal preference (who doesn't like cute, small food though?) and

From the 'Childrens' chapter in How to be a Domestic Goddess I bring you the ultimate sugary delight. Soft cake and sweet jam, rolled in buttery-sugar. And only 30 minutes making time (including baking!).

• 125ml milk
• 85ml vegetable oil (not olive - I used rice bran)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200g self-raising flour
• 100g caster sugar
• 12 tsp strawberry jam (you could use another berry if you prefer, or try out Nutella or peanut butter)
• 100g unsalted butter 
• 150g caster sugar 
• 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

Preheat oven to 190C. Line a 24-hole mini muffin tin with patty cases or grease a 12-whole ordinary muffin tin. If you make mini muffins, you'll get about a tray and half total, so put your extra batter to the side while you do the first batch (to completion - rolling in sugar as well).

Place flour and caster sugar in a bowl. In another bowl/jug, whisk together milk, oil, egg, and vanilla using a fork. Pour the liquid into the dry ingredients and gently fold together. Don't over mix or you'll end up with a tough muffin.

Half fill each muffin hole with batter, then spoon in 1/2 a teaspoon of jam (use a full teaspoon for the bigger muffins). Top with more batter. There's no need to be exact with the jam here - you can add more or less if you really wanted too. You could even leave it out if its not your thing.

Bake for 15-20 minutes - depending on you oven, both sized muffins could take anywhere in this time frame. My experience has been about 15 for mini ones, and 20 for the big ones. Just keep an eye on it as they turn quickly.

While they're baking, get on with melting the butter. Pour it into a small bowl to make the next step easier. In another small bowl place your white sugar. I like pasta plates as they're quite shallow which makes them easy to get into.

When they muffins are done, and while they're still hot, take each and roll the top in the melted butter and then in the sugar. Place on a rack to cool. If you made the bigger version, cover the whole muffin in butter and then roll in the sugar.

These are best eaten hot, but that doesn't seem to deter anyone from hooking in once they've cooled. They actually travel quite well. I couldn't recommend them any further except to tell you that I ate about 1/4 of them before they even made it to the cooling rack!