Instead of needing to chill, roll, and cut out a dough, all you need to do here is mix up a quick batter. It has the same sweetly spiced flavor as the donut, but the crumb is a bit less dense, though still cakey.
This will make twelve regular-sized muffins, and the baking time is pretty brief, about fifteen minutes.
While the texture and taste of the muffin itself might make you think of an old-fashioned donut, the thing that really brings it home is the simple glaze. While the donuts are cooling you just whisk together butter, vanilla, powdered sugar, and hot water…
… and then dunk all those muffin tops twice. Dunking them once and then letting the glaze harden before you go in to dunk again ensures that the glaze actually stands out. Waiting until they’re nearly room temperature helps too – you don’t want to run the risk of the glaze sinking right into the muffins so you miss out on that bite of sugary crust when you first bite into one!
