What is the best way to reward coworkers who help you finish a project on time? Homemade baked goods.

I was charged with creating a “family tree” of employees. Should it be digital? Should it be on a wall in the office? Should we have people’s pictures, should it include their titles? How do we indicate role and department? How can new hires get a feel for who people are and what they do? It took weeks to collect all the photos and get the tree designed and printed. Then it was up to me to figure out how on earth I could get my coworkers to fill out their “leaf” with their name and what they do.

Naturally, baked goods came to the rescue. In my email plea for expedient participation, I noted that the first 10 people to return their filled-out leaf to me would receive something homemade. And it worked! Glazed doughnut muffins, like a denser Krispy Kreme doughnut, came to the rescue.

This is originally a King Arthur’s Flour recipe, but adapted by My Baking Addiction. It’s super easy (especially when you have a husband handy to grate all that fresh nutmeg for you!). As I noted below, I decided to double-dip these muffins in the glaze and it turned out wonderfully – I have no idea why someone would only want to single-dip!

Glazed Doughnut Muffins

For the Batter

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 to 1 ¼ teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste (I used 1 ¼)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup milk

For the Glaze

3 tablespoons butter; melted
1 cup confectioners’ sugar; sifted
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons hot water

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin. Or line with 12 paper muffin cups.
2. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.
3. Add the eggs, beating to combine.
4. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla.
5. Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.
6. Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.
7. Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they’re a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
8. In a medium bowl, prepare the glaze by mixing together the melted butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and water. Whisk until smooth.
9. When muffins have cooled slightly, dip the muffin crown into the glaze and allow the glaze to harden. As recommended in the adapted recipe, I glazed my muffins twice.
10. Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight. Muffins will keep at room temperature for about a day.

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Tags: cinnamon, nutmeg