Doughnutmuffins with jelly

I'm not good at making muffins. I somehow always over-stir the mixture and end up with massive, tough muffins. Why is it so difficult? I don't understand.... I never have any problem with cupcakes.

Because making muffins always ends in a disaster I haven't tried to make muffins in a while, but this week I thought I could give it another go. I found a recipe in "How to be a domestic Goddess" and thought why not?

I started making the batter and it looked okay! I was becoming more and more optimistic. Could this really work? Could it be possible that I had finally achieved making muffins? I put the muffins in the oven and waited until they were done. I then had to take the muffins out of the tray and roll them through melted butter and then through sugar. But as I tried to lift the muffins out of the tray I noticed something had gone wrong.... the jelly, which was supposed to have stayed in the middle of the muffins, had leaked down to the bottom... making it impossible to get the muffins out of the tray in one piece. All the muffins had a huge gaping hole on the bottom. Great....

But I was still determined to make this a success, albeit a slightly smaller success. So I rolled the muffins through the butter and the sugar. Let them cool for a while and called the girls. And then we tried the muffins... the girls liked them, but unfortunately I didn't. The same thing that always happens had happened again. The muffins were like a brick. Massif, tough and chewy.... with a large gaping hole in the bottom....

So I am currently trying to decide if I have to give muffins another go. Is it possible to create a batch of edible muffins or am I doomed to brick like muffins? Does it become easier with practice? If a recipe doesn't work for me I usually don't try it again. I don't like having to try a recipe again and again.

What to do...what to do...