Today being my birthday, I wanted to try something new. And having never tasted a jam donut in my thirty eight years on this planet, I decided it was high time I did. But I had difficulty deciding which donut shop to visit. So I have reviewed ALL THE JAM DONUTS and I am sharing the results with you. You’re welcome.

I started the morning at Donut King with a mini jam ball, still hot from the fryer. Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt. Light and fluffy, not-quite-burny jam, and a general overdose of greasy sweetness. But it didn’t exactly beat a good cheese toastie for yummy naughty noms.

After a short walk to pretend I was burning off the calories, I picked up jam donuts from Bread Top and Krispy Kreme. I expect neither of these were baked on the premises as there was no oven in sight at Bread Top, and the Krispy Kreme was from a service station. But they were full sized donuts. I left it an hour to make sure I would appreciate them – avoiding the “perfume counter” effect of overstimulating the senses. Sadly, I had already been ruined by the fresh, warm, gooey mini jam ball. Both donuts were too sweet, and in fact were so cloying that I couldn’t finish either of them. Not for lack of stomach space, because I had room for a steamed corn cob at home half an hour later. They just didn’t do it for me.

And then I had a bright idea. What better way to appreciate a food than to try cooking it yourself? Google gave me Not Quite Nigella’s jam donut pudding recipe, but I wanted to know how to make the dough part of the donut too. I also wanted to know if I could make a nice vegan version. Because eating unhealthy noms can be compensated by doing it ethically. Or something.

Inspired by Taste’s jam donut muffins, I made five vegan and five regular jam donut muffins. Baked, not fried. Tell me what you think!

If you don’t have buttermilk, put 1tbsp lemon juice in a measuring cup, fill to one cup with milk, and let it sit for five minutes before using it. Buttermilk has a higher acid content than regular milk, which causes a reaction with the raising agent in the flour to produce a lighter, fluffier texture.

what you need

for jam donut muffins

1 cup self raising flour

1/3 cup caster sugar

Pinch of salt

90 mL buttermilk

40mL oil (I used extra virgin olive oil, but it really doesn’t matter)

1 egg

Raspberry jam

for vegan jam donut muffins

1 cup self raising flour

1/3 cup caster sugar

Pinch of salt

100mL soy milk (I used Bonsoy because I like the texture, but any dairy substitute will do)

40mL oil

1tsp bicarb soda

1tsp lemon juice

Raspberry jam

what to do

Preheat the oven to 180C (not fan forced).

Put the flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl and combine. Make a well in the centre.

Put the wet ingredients in another bowl (for the vegan version, combine the lemon juice and bicarb just before adding to the other wet ingredients) and combine.

Pour the wet ingredients into the flour bowl and mix til just combined. If you overmix, you’ll have tough donuts. Good for throwing at people who criticise your decision to wear fluffy slippers to the service station to buy milk at 10pm, but not as nice to eat.

Spoon a little muffin mixture into a greased muffin pan. Add a small dollop of jam (about ¼ tsp will do) to each muffin. Cover over with more muffin mixture.

Bake til just brown on top. The vegan muffins will bake faster than regular muffins – around 15 minutes instead of 20 minutes – and may not rise as high, but will still be evilly delicious and have a light, donutty texture.

Let the muffins cool for five minutes before removing from the pan. While still warm, roll the muffins in melted butter and then caster sugar (perhaps with some cinnamon added).

I dare you not to eat them all at once.