Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins – tender, melt in your mouth muffins rolled in cinnamon sugar. They taste like little cinnamon donuts!
These muffins are perfect on their own or with hot chocolate or a cup of coffee, but they also make a great breakfast served with breakfast hash and fruit salad.
These cinnamon muffins are a favorite recipe from when I was a little girl. We called them French Breakfast Puffs. I remember helping my mom make them.
My younger siblings usually had the job of rolling them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. That’s the job I give my kids now. They enjoy it because they get to lick their fingers when they are finished.
These are delicious and taste like cinnamon sugar donuts. The nutmeg in them adds such a great flavor, so don’t leave it out!
To make them a little healthier, I just brush the tops with butter, then roll them in the cinnamon sugar. It sticks to the bottom of the muffins just fine even without the added butter.
If you roll the whole muffin in butter, they are sinful, but simply divine!!
HOW TO MAKE CINNAMON DONUT MUFFINS
For a full printable recipe card and detailed ingredient amounts, see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
Ingredients needed:
- butter (I always use salted butter.)
- sugar
- egg (I use large eggs.)
- vanilla extract (Imitation vanilla works just fine for this recipe.)
- milk (I use 2% milk, but any milk will work.)
- all purpose flour
- salt
- baking powder
- ground nutmeg
- ground cinnamon
- PREP – Spray 10 muffin cups with non-stick cooking spray. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- WET INGREDIENTS – Cream butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl till fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and milk.
- DRY INGREDIENTS – Add the dry ingredients and stir gently just until moistened.
- BAKE – Spoon batter into 10 muffin cups. They will be about 2/3 full. Bake at 350° for about 18 minutes.
After 2-3 minutes, dump out onto a cooling rack. - CINNAMON SUGAR COATING – Mix the cinnamon and sugar in a shallow bowl. While still warm, brush the top of the muffins with melted butter, then roll each muffin in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- SERVE – We prefer these muffins fresh from the oven. If we have leftovers, we heat them in the microwave for a few seconds.
PRO TIPS:
- Don’t use muffin liners for this recipe because you will be rolling the muffins in cinnamon sugar.
- If your flour is packed down in the container, give it a whisk before measuring. Too much flour leads to dry muffins.
- As with all muffins and quick breads, you want to use a light touch when stirring in the dry ingredients. Overworking the flour develops the gluten, making your muffins tough instead of light and fluffy.
- Make your own cinnamon sugar by mixing up 1 cup of sugar with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon (or more). Store it in a small container. When you finish your jar of cinnamon, don’t throw it away! It is perfect for this.
HOW TO STORE CINNAMON DOUGHNUT MUFFINS
These muffins are definitely best served hot from the oven, but they will keep for a few days. Store them in an airtight container at room temperature. The cinnamon sugar mixture will start to melt into the muffins and they may become sticky, but they still taste fine.
CAN I MAKE THESE IN A MINI MUFFIN PAN?
Yes, you can. You will get 2 1/2- 3 dozen mini muffins, depending on size. They will only need to bake for about 10-12 minutes. You will need more melted butter and cinnamon sugar mixture for coating the muffins.
MORE EASY MUFFINS:
- Apple Cinnamon Muffins with Crumble Topping
- Sour Cream Banana Muffins
- Strawberry Nutella Muffins
- Orange Blueberry Muffins
- Whole Wheat Muffin Recipe
- Brown Sugar Muffins
Recipe originally published October 2, 2009. Updated March 2026.
Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut Muffins
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup butter, softened to room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup milk
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
Topping
- 2 Tbsp melted butter
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray muffin tin with non stick cooking spray; set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl till fluffy. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and milk.
- Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg in a small bowl. Gently stir into the butter mixture just until moistened.
- Fill greased muffin cups about 2/3 full. Bake at 350° for about 18 minutes, or just until a toothpick comes out clean.
- Stir together the cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. While muffins are still hot, brush tops with melted butter, then roll muffins in the cinnamon sugar coating.
Notes
- If you want to brush the entire muffin with butter, you will need 1/3 cup of melted butter. Nutrition information is based on using just the two tablespoons of butter.
- Leftover muffins can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.
- These muffins don’t rise up super tall, so if you prefer you can make 8 large muffins. Increase the baking time by a couple minutes.
Nutrition
If you love cinnamon donuts, you need to try this donut muffin recipe. They’ve been a family favorite for decades for a reason!
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it takes FAR TOO LONG to get to the recipe. Please put a skip to button. Reading it once was nice but now I just wanna make muffins 🙂
There should be a “jump to recipe” button at the very top of the post on the left. As bloggers, we have to leave lots of tips, or we get overwhelmed with questions from frustrated beginning bakers. But the jump button should allow you to just skip to the recipe if you are confident to make them without reading the post. 🙂
Saw this recipe this morning and decided to try it. Came out perfect love the sweetness it was just the right amount of sugar and I would make this again. Thanks for sharing.
I used an apple spice instead of nutmeg and actually it came out really good and everyone loves it, thanks.
I wanted to make Izzy’s, but I didn’t know the nutmeg. Is there anyway I could substitute the nutmeg?
You can try using cinnamon, but they won’t be quite the same. There isn’t really a great substitute for nutmeg. They will still be tasty with cinnamon though.
Give your muffin tin a break from the pastries, and use it for something savory instead. Give ’em 10 minutes in the oven, and you’ll have an easy breakfast to heat up all week. Morning coffee, meet your new best pastry friend. You’ll start with a flat piece of dough and cut strips along the side, slather on cream cheese and sugar, dump blueberries and sliced almonds on top, then carefully braid the dough over the fillings. Easy breezy!
Just made these and not in love with them. The only change I made was to put cinnamon in batter instead of nutmeg. They came out a strange consistency and look like english muffin texture. My son thinks they taste like sugar cookies so that’s not bad. Just disappointed overall.
They are not the same without the nutmeg, but that shouldn’t have changed the texture. All I can think is that maybe you overmixed them. Sorry you didn’t love them.
I made them using Bob Mills GF 1-1 flour and I also added a pinch of cinnamon to the batter. Worked great, but the actual muffin was a little lacking in flavor so I will add more cinnamon to the batter when I make them again!
Glad to hear they worked with the gluten free flour! And I bet they would be great with added cinnamon.
Randomly came across your recipe this morning when looking for something to make the family beside: pancakes, waffles, French Toast, and crepes. I wanted to make Cinnamon Rolls, but didn’t have time for the dough to rise. The kids loved it! Quick and easy. Cleanup was lightning fast too. Definitely going on the breakfast rotation. I’ll have to make a double batch next time as everyone wanted more!
I always have to make a double batch, my kids practically inhale these! 🙂
Amazing! My family loves these little donut muffins!
So glad to hear it Dolly! They are definitely a favorite at my house. 🙂
These are coming along good… but if you love cinnimon add a pinch to the batter
Keep posting your lovely recipes, thank you for sharing. I’m going to try one of your brownies this Friday for a church get-together.
I just tried this recipe, used dark brown sugar instead of regular white sugar. They were so easy and quick to make and I love the result. The muffins tasted more like scones and not too sweet but I thick it’s perfect either with coffee/tea or with some jam on the side (I know weird taste to some..lol)
Keep