I love a good challenge! And what a fun challenge this was. Do your remember the show, "Sugar" hosted by Anna Olson? Well, it was an awesome show and I'm a HUGE fan of Anna Olson. She's not only an incredible baker, she's Canadian too! And for a while, she ran a monthly bake-off challenge where she'd pick one of her recipes and invite you to recreate it, with your own twist. This particular challenge involved her Jam filled Doughnut Muffins.
At the time, I had never even heard of a doughnut muffin, much less made one. I was intrigued...This Glazed Carrot Cake Doughnut Muffin was the delicious result of that bake-off challenge!
Jump to:
I actually created these doughnut muffins a few years ago, around the time my Mom and Grandma were coming to town for a visit from Winnipeg. It was close to Mother’s day so I decided to have an early celebration.
This gourmet muffin is a orange mocha glazed carrot cake doughnut muffin with jam Mascarpone filling and candied carrots. Fancier than your typical muffin or doughnut, but easy to make and tastes like carrot cake. This donut muffin recipe is perfect for Easter, Mother's day or your next brunch or breakfast potluck!
🥘Ingredients
For this donut muffin recipe, you'll need:
- Milk
- White granulated sugar
- Vegetable oil
- Carrots
- Eggs
- Vanilla
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Cinnamon
- Jam (marmalade, apricot or peach)
- Confectioner’s sugar/powdered sugar/icing sugar
- Orange juice
- Walnuts
- Brewed vanilla coffee
- 1 recipe for Candied Carrots
📖Variations & Substitutions
Jam: My Mom’s fave muffin is carrot and my Grandma loves marmalade, which also goes so well with carrot (although I've made this with peach jam and apricot jam as well - peach being my fave).
Mascarpone: If you don't have mascarpone, you could substitute cream cheese.
Coffee: you can substitute regular coffee and ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract if you don't have vanilla flavored coffee
Although this donut muffin is as easy to make as any muffin, it's not your typical muffin. Therefore, I'm going to go as far as to give it the label "gourmet muffin" because it's fancier than your average muffin or doughnut. However, it's still not too fancy for a regular breakfast or brunch potluck and it's easy to make.
But if you want to bring something a little more elegant, that looks super yummy, it really is the PERFECT sweet treat for any breakfast or brunch potluck. In fact, I recently brought these carrot cake muffins to a breakfast potluck and I think it was the candied carrot topping that won everyone over. My husband actually couldn't get past the fact that I turned carrots into candy. He thinks it's my new super power 🙂 You can find my Candied Carrot recipe HERE!
🌡️Storing
These muffins will keep for up to 4 days in an airtight container, or can be frozen (in an airtight container) for up to 3 months. If you are going to make them in advance and freeze them, I recommend you wait until they are completely thawed to add the candied carrots. Although you can freeze them with the glaze, they present nicer when you glaze them after they are defrosted.
👪 Serving Size
This recipe for gourmet muffins makes 18. However, you can half, double or triple the recipe. Simply click on the blue serving size in the recipe card, select the number of servings and the recipe amounts will adjust accordingly. You'll just need additional muffin tins.
The best part is that these gourmet muffins, with a jam Mascarpone filling, orange mocha glaze and candied carrots, are part doughnut, muffin and taste like carrot cake! You can't go wrong with that combo. So, if you are looking for unique muffin ideas that are a little fancier than the usual and you LUV carrot muffins, carrot cake and donuts (and who doesn't?!), this carrot doughnut muffin is for you!
And if you love carrots in your baking, then give my other carrot baking recipes a try:
⭐ Reviews
Did you make this recipe? Please RATE THE RECIPE below!Please SUBSCRIBE (get my FREE E-cookbook) and be sure to FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST!
📋 Carrot Cake Doughnut Muffin Recipe
Ingredients
Muffins:
- 1 ½ cups 1% milk
- 1 ½ cups sugar
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cups shredded carrots
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Filling:
- ½ cup marmalade or apricot or peach jam
- 1 tablespoon mascarpone cheese
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Orange glaze:
- 1 ¼ cup confectioners’ sugar sifted
- ⅓ cup walnuts finely chopped
- 2 tablespoon freshly squeezed orange juice * can substitute any orange juice
- 1 tablespoon brewed vanilla coffee * can substitute regular coffee with ½ teaspoon vanilla
Candied carrots:
- See Candied Carrots recipe: https://foodmeanderings.com/candied-carrots/
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F (175C) and grease 2 muffins tins (or line 18 of the cups with paper liners) * I used the black & white damask cupcake liners as shown in post (above recipe)
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk the milk, sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla until blended. Add in shredded carrots. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and then add this to the wet mixture, stirring just until blended (a few lumps are okay).
Filling:
- Fill 18 muffin tin cups ⅔ full with the batter. Stir the jam, mascarpone and cinnamon together and drop a teaspoonful into each of the muffins. Scoop the remaining batter over top so that it covers the filling completely. Bake the muffins for about 30 minutes, until a tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
- Allow the muffins to cool for 20 minutes, before turning out to cool completely.
Orange Mocha Glaze:
- For the topping, whisk the ingredients together and spoon onto muffins, dividing evenly between all the muffin doughnuts.
Candied Carrots Topping:
- See Candied Carrots recipe: https://foodmeanderings.com/candied-carrots/
- Add candied carrots to top of muffin doughnuts, dividing evenly between all of them. Serve.
Notes
- Jam: My Mom’s fave muffin is carrot and my Grandma loves marmalade, which also goes so well with carrot (although I've made this with peach jam and apricot jam as well - peach being my fave).
- Mascarpone: If you don't have mascarpone, you could substitute cream cheese.
- Coffee: you can substitute regular coffee and ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract if you don't have vanilla flavored coffee
Elaine
Like you, I like a good challenge sometimes too (just not at 5 p.m. !) This is a stunning creation!
Terri Gilson
Thank you, Elaine! Yeah, I hate challenges at 5 pm too! It wasn’t rushed- just nice and relaxing ?
Leanne | Crumb Top Baking
Carrot cake is absolutely my favourite dessert, and this recipe would not disappoint! There's so much going on and it all sounds so delicious! Pinning to drool over later!
Terri Gilson
Thanks, Leanne! I love carrot cake too and the fact that my Mom loves it as well was very convenient 🙂
Bernice Hill
Ah potlucks, I remember them well. Hope we get back to normal soon...in the meantime, I'm over here snacking on muffins!
Terri Gilson
Yeah I sure miss potlucks, Bernice! Won't be long now, though...
Julia Pinney
This sounds wonderful! I love anything carrot cake, anything! These have so much going on, wow. Pinning for later.
Terri Gilson
Thanks, Julia! There is a lot going on 🙂 but the flavors work really well together!
nancy
you had me at carrot cake and then you mentioned donuts! OMG mindblow!! pinned!!
Joyce
Love it when people participate in food challenges. This recipe sounds good!
Terri Gilson
yes, food challenges are a lot of fun, Joyce!
amyg
I love carrot cake, but it's so much cake to eat. These carrot muffins are perfect for a snack and you can put the rest in the freezer for a treat another day. Thanks for sharing.
Vijitha
I LIKE your super power! Lol.. candies carrot sounds amazing! Carrot cake is our favorite, I bet these doughnut muffins are gonna be even better! Pinning this
Terri Gilson
haha! Yes, it's a great super power to have. If you love carrot cake, you won't be disappointed!