Doughnuts, like these, and muffins are classic breakfast foods.
Pastries and baked goods are a classic, on-the-go breakfast item for many hurried, early-risers across America and other parts of the world. Two options that stand out among others as quick, filling breakfast foods are muffins and doughnuts. Either of those two will do to subdue those early morning hunger pangs, however the two foods are very different in other respects.
Ingredients
The ingredients required in the basic recipe for muffins differ somewhat from those required for doughnuts. Both pastries call for flour, eggs, salt, sugar, and leavening agents (baking soda, baking powder or both). However, doughnut recipes, in general, call for a greater number of eggs and a slightly larger amount of sugar than muffin recipes. Also, some doughnut recipes involve yeast instead of baking powder, an ingredient that never appears in muffins.
Method of Preparation
Muffins and doughnuts also involve very different methods of preparation. Making muffins is actually a more simple process than making doughnuts and requires fewer tools. Most muffin recipes require only one large bowl and a stirring utensil for mixing the dry and wet ingredients into a thick batter. Doughnuts, however, are slightly more labor-intensive because the cook must make the dough, roll it out and cut the doughnuts out with a doughnut-cutter. Then, the doughnuts must rest. In the case of yeast doughnuts, even more time and labor is necessary. Additionally, muffins are baked whereas doughnuts are usually fried (though there are recipes for both fried muffins and baked doughnuts).
Nutritional Value
There are a few factors that result in a slight difference between the nutritional value of doughnuts and muffins. For example, doughnuts are fried whereas muffins are baked. Doughnuts also usually contain a larger amount of sugar, particularly in the glazes and fillings that are used on and in them. However, muffins can also contains large amounts of fat and sugar, depending on the recipe.
Distribution and Other Differences
Lastly, muffins and doughnuts vary in how they are sold commercially. For example, there are several major chain restaurants that specialize in serving doughnuts.There are no major restaurant chains that specialize in muffins. There are, however, some major brand names in the muffin category, such as Otis Spunkmeyer.
Tags: muffins baked, amount sugar, baking powder, breakfast foods, doughnut recipes
