Baked Powdered Donuts

Face it: we all have our guilty pleasures. Most of the time those pleasures have to do with food. I actually have a set of foods that I cannot buy at all unless I want to eat the entire bag/box in one sitting for instance, doughnuts. I cannot buy any kind of doughnut whether it be glazed, powdered, or chocolate coated because I seriously will start off with only eating one and 10 minutes later I’m left with an empty box of doughnuts.

At least I admit I have a problem. That’s the first step, right?

 

Anyways because this is the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats I figured I might as well post about one of my all-time guilty pleasures.

These donuts were absolutely fantastic and the nutmeg makes them taste extra Christmassy. And these are baked, not fried, so that makes these a little healthier, right? Oh who am I kidding, I ate them all anyways (no shame)

I found that the moisture in the donut soaked up the powdered sugar pretty quickly, so if you go the powdered sugar route, coat them in powdered sugar right before serving.

As always, many thanks to Brenda from Meal Planning Magic for hosting the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats

 

Baked Powdered Donuts
Slightly adapted from Salad in a Jar
Makes 8

Ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
1/3 cup milk
¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
1 large egg
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Powdered sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a donut pan with cooking spray.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, yogurt, egg, oil, and vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry. Mix until just combined.

Spoon batter into a piping bag or ziplock bag with the tip snipped off. My batter was very runny so plan accordingly. Fill each donut cavity half way with batter. Bake 8-10 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched.

Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack to cool completely. As the donuts cool, place about ½ a cup of powdered sugar into a ziplock bag. Place a completely cooled donut in the bag, close the bag, and shake until the donut is coated in powdered sugar. Repeat with the remaining donuts.

Glazed Doughnut Muffins

It has been over a month since I last posted…. I would tell you why, but then you would just be reading about how school has taken over my life, which in all honesty it really has. I have been studying and working on homework and getting tutored almost every waking hour. I hardly have time for proper meals (Hello, Mr. P&J, same time same place tonight?)

I just don’t have time to think about baking anymore. I knew this was going to happen, which is why I made a whole bunch of goodies specifically for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats prior to school starting. I know I should make the actual blog a priority, but I just love Christmas so much!

Anyways, these are the bestest muffins for Christmas. I gave some to my sister’s boyfriend and the first thing he said when he bit into it was “This tastes like Christmas!”. So I think these muffins are perfect for the kickoff of the 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats.

These sweet glazed doughnut muffins are perfectly seasoned with nutmeg and cinnamon, the two most perfect Christmas spices. And these muffins also taste great for several days (if they last that long). I personally loved eating my way from the bottom up, saving the sweet, crusty (terrible descriptive word, I know) glaze.

Also, look at those speckles in there! I love speckled things, just saying.

And many thanks to Brenda, writer of Meal Planning Magic, for hosting this year's 12 Weeks of Christmas Treats!

 

 

Glazed Doughnut Muffins
Slightly adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen
Makes 6 Muffins

Ingredients
Muffins
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp. canola oil
1/4 cup sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. baking soda
3/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/8 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk

Glaze
1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1 tbsp. hot water

Directions
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Line 6 muffin cups with paper liners or grease tins with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, beat butter and oil with a wooden spoon until smooth. Add sugar and stir until smooth. Add the egg and beat until combined. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt and vanilla until combined. Fold in the flour, alternating with the milk, starting and ending with the flour. Stir until just combined (a few lumps is ok).

Evenly distribute the batter between the 6 prepared cups (I used my medium-small cookie scoop to portion out the batter and got 4 scoops to fit in each cup with minimal left over batter). Bake in the center rack for 15-17 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Cool muffins in the tin for about 5 minutes before removing from the pan and cooling on a cooling rack to cool completely. Dip the tops of each muffin into the glaze once cooled.

To make the glaze: in a medium bowl, combine the melted butter, confectioners sugar, vanilla, and hot water. Whisk until smooth.

Note: the glaze starts to sink into the muffin the day after making them, but it doesn't alter their taste at all.

Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Donuts

The last three weeks have been so well for lack of a better word, like hell. I’m allowed to say that on the Internet, right? Well I hope so, because I’m not deleting the word because that is how my life has been. I know that my last couple posts have been about how school is rough and is taking over my life, and you’re probably not interested in how I’m struggling, but this is a way to vent, either that or cry, which I have done a few times.

Anyways, after Wednesday last week everything got a lot better. I was actually able to relax and just enjoy life. That’s when I decided over the weekend I would catch up with baking. I made three things over the weekend and I plan on making something later in the week so I can take it to my aunt’s house for Spring Break (yeah, four more days ‘til Spring Break – I honestly cannot wait!). Oh and I also had enough time to sit on the couch and read for four straight hours. I started and finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower in those four hours. It’s a really nice and easy read for anyone looking for a book recommendation.

For those of you who came for baked goods, here you go: chocolate glazed chocolate donuts!

Yes, these donuts were the first thing I decided to bake over the weekend because baked donuts are as easy as 1, 2, 3, really.

The sun was out too, so I think I got some pretty decent pictures out of the experience.

If you leave off the chocolate glaze, you better not tell me because I will smack you upside the head, because this is the BEST chocolate glaze I have ever tried. The glaze is nice and thick and is just pure heavenly. As I was glazing the donuts, I caught my roommate’s attention and she was just speechless. I let her east the rest of the glaze with a spoon, because I’m nice like that.

The chocolate donut part is also really delicious. I usually have trouble finding chocolate flavor in chocolate cake type things, but with these donuts I could definitely taste the chocolate.

So if you’re having a really tough week, take just thirty minutes out of your schedule and make these. They will help a lot; trust me.

Chocolate Glazed Chocolate Donuts

Adapted from Food, Family, and Finds

Makes 6 donuts

Ingredients

1 cup (120 g) unbleached all-purpose flour

¼ cup + 1 tbsp. (60 g) sugar

¼ cup (20 g) unsweetened cocoa powder

½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

¼ cup + 3 tbsp. milk

1 egg, room temperature

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Grease a 6 cavity donut pan with cooking spray.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Make sure the cocoa powder lumps are broken apart. Add the milk and stir. Beat in the egg, vanilla, and butter. Stir until smooth.

Fill each donut cavity about 2/3 full. I used a small cookie scoop and each cavity had about 3-4 scoops in it. Bake in the center on of the oven for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the donut. Allow the donuts to cool for 5 minutes before removing onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Once completely cooled, top with glaze.

To make glaze: whisk together 1 2/3 powdered sugar, 3 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, and 3-4 tbsp. milk.   

Baked Red Velvet Donuts

So Valentine's Day is just two weeks away, and I'm going share some love-dovey, chocolatey, and all things pink goodies. I hardly ever sync with the holidays on this blog, but by golly I'm going to try this time. So here we are, talking about red velvet donuts!

Red velvet anything just sounds so fancy, don’t you think? The only red velvet cake I have ever had was over this past summer, on my trip to London. The frosting was absolutely delicious, but the cake part was sad, very, very sad.

However, that letdown has not stopped me from saving a few red velvet recipes. I like trying new things (when it comes to baking at least), that and my need to be fancy fueled my need to make something red velvet. 

These donuts cannot be any simpler to make. I believe these were in and out of the oven in about 30-40 minutes starting from measuring out the flour to popping them out of the tray.

These donuts are firm enough to hold their shape when dunked in milk, but soft enough to be enjoyed without any kind of dunking involved. A tinsy hint of chocolate shines through these donuts, and it is oh so lovely. These are not too sweet either, lending most of the sweetness from the lovely thick glaze that sets on top.

Red Velvet Donuts

Slightly adapted from Taste and Tell

Makes 5 donuts

Ingredients

Donuts

1 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

1 cup + 2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour

½ tbsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

¼ tsp. salt

¼ cup sugar

1 egg white, room temperature

¾ tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ cup buttermilk

1 tsp. red food coloring, (I used AmeriColor Super Red)

Glaze

1 tbsp. hot water

1 cup confectioner’s sugar

½ tbsp. milk

¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 6 cup donut pan with cooking spray; set aside.

In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, melt together the butter and chocolate. Stir occasionally until the two start to melt. Continue to stir until fully melted into one another. Remove from heat and let the chocolate mixture cool.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the egg white and the sugar until frothy. Add the cooled chocolate and whisk until fully incorporated. Add the vanilla, buttermilk, and food coloring. Mix until combined.

Gradually fold the dry ingredients into the wet, mixing just until combined. The batter will be very thick and puffy. Transfer the batter into a piping bag or ziplock bag. Cut a corner and pipe the batter into the greased donut cups. Bake for 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the donut. Cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, dip in the glaze.

To make the glaze: stir the hot water, confectioners sugar, milk, and vanilla. Use immediately. This will make enough to glaze the tops of all five donuts with a little left over.

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts with Cinnamon Glaze

It’s definitely starting to get cooler here. Every morning when I go to my car I see the windows are covered in condensation and when I drive I’m surrounded by fog. It kind of makes me feel like I’m in a horror movie. It’s kind of cool, yet kind of creepy in the same way. It’s cool because Halloween is just around the corner, but creepy because all I see on the roads are two little beams of light in a swirl of mist.

On a completely different note, I made donuts. Or is it doughnuts. I still can’t tell the difference. Maybe doughnuts are used for the fried variety because it’s actually dough. Yeah, I like that idea. These donuts (notice the spelling) are made in the super special donut pan that everyone and their mother now has, or at least it seems that way.

Like I said last week, I am on pumpkin mode right now. I can’t help but want to save, pin, mark, jot down everything that has to do with pumpkin. It is just an amazing flavor, especially when paired with all the good spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.

I got this recipe from the lovely Erin of Texanerin Baking. I’ve made one of her lovely treats on the blog already, and it was pretty dern good. These donuts are no exception. They are so soft and tender, like cake…only better. Say what? I don’t know. It’s funny how the same ingredients can yield totally different things. It amazes me every day!

Ok so back to pumpkin donuts. Like I said these are so soft and tender and the pumpkin shines enough to make your belly full of fall happiness. I also added a cinnamon glaze on top to give it a little extra cinnamon kick. The glaze I made isn’t too sweet and pairs perfectly with the warm flavors of this donut.

Happy Fall Baking!

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Donuts with Cinnamon Glaze

Adapted from Texanerin

Makes 6 donuts

Ingredients

½ cup + 2 tbsp. white whole wheat flour

1 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground ginger

dash ground nutmeg

dash ground allspice

2 ½ tbsp. canola oil

¼ cup brown sugar

1 egg yolk

½ tsp. pure vanilla extract

¼ cup + 2 tbsp. pumpkin puree

¼ cup milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray a 6 count donut pan with cooking spray; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together the oil and brown sugar. Beat in the egg yolk and vanilla until smooth. Beat in the pumpkin. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, followed by half the milk. Repeat for the remaining 2/3 flour mixture and milk.

Scrape batter into a piping bag (or do what I do and use a ziplock bag). *Helpful tip: place your piping bag/ziplock bag in a glass cup. Fold the tips over the cup for easy, mess-free sealing. Snip off the tip of your bag and pipe enough batter into the molds to fill between 1/3 and ½ full. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the donut.

Allow the donuts to cool in the pan for a few minutes before inverting them onto a cooling rack. If you have trouble getting the donuts to come out, run a toothpick around the sides of the outer circle and the inner circle. I feel the toothpick is better than a knife when it comes to the donut pan.

While you wait for the donuts to cool make the glaze. Combine ½ cup of confectioners’ sugar, a dash of cinnamon, ¼ tsp. pure vanilla extract and 2 or 3 tsp. of milk. Dip the tops of each donut into the glaze. Allow to dry for a few minutes, then go in for a second dipping to ensure a nice glaze.   

Chocolate Crumb Donuts

Senior ditch day: it’s pretty awesome. But I feel kind of guilty. I’m usually a really diligent person who never EVER wants to miss school, even when I’m sick. Even when I go on vacation and I miss a day or two of school I get all nervous and anxious because I know that everything important will happen on the day that I’m gone. It’s true. It’s like when your friend misses school and nothing happens, and then you miss school and you have a million things to do for homework and you’ve missed a bazillion tests. Yeah, that sucks. Anyways, at my school the Monday after prom is Senior Ditch Day. Of course it’s not regulated. I found it quite easy to ditch my first two classes, but I did eventually come for my math and physics class because those are my major classes that I can’t afford to miss. Now what did I do on my day off? Got up at 6 to take my sister to school, sat around the house, went to two classes, and did some grocery shopping with my mom. Yeah, I’m a rebel. But I also made donuts. Delicious chocolate donuts with an awesome chocolate streusel.
With finals coming up in just two weeks, graduation just around the corner, and my AP Lit test coming up, I know that my baking will be limited, so I wanted to make something simple, and Senior Ditch Day was the perfect occasion because these were in the oven in about ten minutes and only took about six to cook, so you can reach chocolaty donut heaven in less than twenty minutes.

I found these donuts on one of my favorite blogs. Darla is the genius behind Bakingdom. She creates all sorts of amazing cakes, cookies, pastries, and she’s a huge fan of Harry Potter, so she creates things like this, this, and this. Yeah. She’s amazing, and I love her blog (by the way, I hope to God that I don’t sound creepy because she most likely doesn’t know me at all).

So all creepiness aside when I read about these donuts and saw the pictures, I fell in love. For some reason I wasn’t totally expecting these donuts to have a chocolaty flavor (I tend to have a hard time deciphering chocolate notes in cake-like treats for some reason), but I was wrong. These donuts have an awesome chocolate flavor. I ate four in just one day. I couldn’t help myself, I just wanted more, more, more! They can also be glazed, but I got lazy and didn’t feel like making a glaze, but I bet it would be perfect on these. So next time you find yourself with twenty minutes to spare, preheat your oven and get to baking because these really won’t disappoint you.

Chocolate Crumb Donuts
Adapted from Bakingdom
Makes 6 donuts

Streusel Ingredients
¼ cup brown sugar
½ tbsp. sugar
¼ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. cold unsalted butter

Donut Ingredients
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
¼ cup + 2 tbsp. milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1 egg
1 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

Directions
To make the streusel: combine the sugars, flour, cocoa powder, and salt. Rub the cold butter into the mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs. Put the mixture into the freezer while you make the donut batter.

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Grease a donut pan with cooking spray.

To make the donuts: combine the flour, sugars, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, vanilla, egg, and melted butter. Pour the liquid mixture into the dry. Whisk or fold the wet ingredients into the dry mixture. The batter will be kinda sticky and want to form together (basically it will look like a giant chocolaty blob).

When the batter has come together fill a piping bag (I used a zip lock bag with a hole cut out of the corner). Pipe the batter into the donut molds of the donut pan. Retreive the chocolate crumb mixture from the fridge and add as much crumb as you would like to the tops of the donuts.

Place in the oven on the middle rack and bake for about 5 minutes. Let the donuts cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Whole Wheat Baked Doughnuts

I am oh so very excited about today’s post!

You see, I got this new thing that has been sneaking into blogs slowly, but surely. I personally think it will take over cake pops, maybe even cupcakes.

Wanna know what this marvelous thing is? It’s the baked donut. No, it’s not a yeasted dough which you cut out and bake (which would be cool to do sometime), but these baked doughnuts are made in a donut pan. I’m in love with this pan. 

I haven’t had a traditional, deep-fried, glazed doughnut in about a year and a half. I don’t eat much (if any) fried foods. The last time I ate at a fast food restraint was last summer when my family and I were going to see a play in New York and we needed to get some grub, fast. I don’t remember it being particularly great. But before last summer, I hadn’t had fast food since the first semester of my sophomore year in high school; it’s now the second semester of my senior year. I just don’t like the weird bloaty feeling that it gives and because I haven’t had the stuff in so long, the smell kind of repulses me.

Boy, did I get off on a tangent. Here I am writing about gross fast food when I should be talking about these delicious donuts. By the way, have you noticed I’ve been switching the spelling from donut to doughnut? Yeah, that’s because I have no clue how to spell it and Good doesn’t help because pictures of doughnuts pop up for each spelling. Sigh. Oh well.

So these donuts are healthy, but just because they are healthy, don’t turn your nose up at them. Like I said before, these babies are baked in a special pan. (Don’t have that pan? Click here. Izy didn’t have a donut pan either and she made an awesome one out of tin foil.) Also, instead of using all-purpose flour, I used whole wheat flour because 1. I have about half a bag full of the stuff and I need to use it, and 2. I thought it would give a nice flavor and color to the doughnuts, and I was right!

The batter is so easy to whip together, seriously. The batter came together in about 5 minutes, tops! And it’s really not a messy recipe either. Don’t you hate it when you dirty up like all the bowls in your house? Yeah, this one dirties up like two and that’s counting the measuring cup.

The doughnuts have a sweet, yet hearty flavor, due to the whole wheat, and probably taste best within a few hours after they have been baked. After about 12-16 hours, they get a little sticky (the powdered sugar that I put on could have something to do with that), but they still tasted wonderful. I can’t wait to keep trying out different donut recipes because to me, these doughnuts rival their fried counterpart.

Whole Wheat Baked Doughnuts

Adapted from For the Love of Cooking
Makes 6 donuts

Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup + 2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ cup buttermilk
2 tbsp milk
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Coat the donut pan in nonstick spray and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In another bowl (or a measuring cup) stir the buttermilk and milk (I used a combination because I was using buttermilk powder and I was too lazy to convert the powder to make two tbsp of buttermilk. You can use all buttermilk if you wish.), egg, vanilla and butter. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry and mix until well combined.
3. Fill a piping bag (I just used a zip lock bag and cut a hole in the corner) with the batter. Fill each donut compartment about half full with the batter. Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the donut feels soft when poked. (My doughnuts did not spring back when they were poked, but they were nevertheless done.) Cool in the pan for about 2 minutes. Invert the doughnuts onto a cooling rack to cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.