Chai Spiced Doughnut Muffins

Yet another rainy day in the Lower Mainland...  I can't believe it's supposed to be July in a week!  What's with this weather???  Either way, the cardigan is coming back on, the couch blanket is coming back out and the water is boiling for a cup of hot tea.  It's the end of June and I'm making a hot cup of tea.  C'est deprimant...  

Well, I'm drinking the tea and all of a sudden I feel the need for a nice warm baked good to go with it.  Recently I've been cyber/twitter-stalking Vij's - a world-renowned Indian restaurant in Vancouver -  and craving the Indian flavors and spices but haven't been able to make it out to any of owner Vikram Vij's establishments.  How do I satisfy this craving???  The last time I had chai tea was at an Indian wedding and I couldn't get enough of the stuff!  The mixes of the spices were intoxicating so what better to go with my tea on this cold and wet June afternoon (so sad...) than a Chai-Spiced Glazed Doughnut Muffin!  Yum!

Tools needed:

• Stand mixer or large bowl with electric mixer
• Spatula
• Measuring bowls and spoons
• Large bowl
• Medium bowl
• Sifter or fine mesh strainer
• Muffin pan
• Muffin paper cups
• Spoon
• Whisk
• Cooling rack

Ingredients:
Muffins

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup cane sugar (granulated white sugar can be substituted)
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsps baking powder
• 1/4 tsps baking soda
• 2 tsps ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tsps ground ginger
• 1 1/2 tsps ground cardamom
• 1 tsps ground allspice
• 1 tsps ground ground cloves
• 1/4 tsps finely ground black pepper
• 3/4 tsps salt
• 1 1/2 tsps vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (regular all-purpose will work as well)
• 1 cup almond milk (regular milk, coconut milk or soy milk will work as well)

Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsps cinnamon
• 1/8 tsps ground ginger
• 1/8 tsps ground cardamom
• 1/8 tsps ground allspice
• 1/8 tsps ground cloves
• 3 tbs melted butter
• 1 tsps vanilla
• 1 tbs milk

Directions:
1.  Preheat the oven to 425 C and line muffin tin with muffin cups (or you can grease the muffin tin with olive oil spray or butter if you don't want to use the paper liners).


2.  In the stand mixer or large bowl with electric mixer, blend together butter, oil and sugars until smooth - approximately 7-9 min.

3.  Blend in eggs on low speed one at a time until blended thoroughly.  Add in cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, cloves, black pepper, salt and vanilla extract and mix until thoroughly blended.


4.  In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda.  

5.  Add the flour mixture and milk to the butter mixture in an alternating fashion, starting with the flour and ending with the flour.  Start with several spoons of flour, mix the batter just until blended, then add some milk, mix the batter just until blended, add some flour, mix just until blended, etc.  Once all of the milk is blended in, mix in the last of the flour mixture only until the flour has just disappeared i.e. do not overmix.


6.  Spoon the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cups - the batter should almost reach the top of the cup.  If you want perfectly round muffins, try to smooth the batter out so it's flat on top.


7.  Place in the centre of the oven and bake for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean i.e. no batter attached.

8.  Remove from the oven and let the muffins cool in the tin for 10 minutes before removing the muffins to a cooling rack.


9.  While the muffins are cooling, prepare the glaze: sift together in a medium bowl the powdered sugar, ginger, cardamom, allspice and cloves.  Whisk in the butter, vanilla and milk.  Whisk until smooth.  Set aside for muffins.

10.  Once muffins are cooled - about 15-20 minutes, dip the crown of each muffin into the glaze and let it drip for a few minutes before placing it back on the cooling rack to set.  Tip: place some old newspaper or parchment paper beneath the cooling rack so the icing that drips off can be easily be cleaned by disposing of the paper.  Once the icing has hardened, about 5-10 minutes, you can glaze them again but this is optional.  I chose not to since I don't need the extra sugar but the extra glazing does it give the muffins some really nice flavor so it's up to you!


11.  You can wait until the icing hardens or you can enjoy the muffins while they're still warm with icing - eat and enjoy!

(Recipe adapted from mybakingaddiction.com)