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A Feast For The Eyes

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Homemade Baked Doughnuts

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Who doesn’t love a freshly made doughnut? Instead of a deep-fried treat, these “doughnuts” are baked. Once baked, they were rolled in cinnamon sugar. With a cup of coffee, they actually tasted better the next day. We found them to be a satisfying way to enjoy a doughnut without all the fat gram guilt.

Who doesn’t love a fresh doughnut?  I recall the first time I walked inside a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. It was the late 90’s and we were in Southern California.  My son’s eyes grew as big as doughnuts as he watched freshly baked doughnuts coming out of vats of oil, and then roll down a conveyor belt and into a glaze “jacuzzi”.  As we both bit into a warm doughnut, we were in sugar heaven.  I don’t want to think about how many fat grams we indulged in, but they sure were good!


I spotted a Doughnut pan f I must have picked it up and set it back down several times.

 

Still, a baked treat can’t be all that bad. Can it?  I settled on making a recipe for baked doughnuts. I had a bag of Arrow Mills Organic Pastry Flour, so I decided to use that instead of cake flour.  According to their website site, “it is made from soft wheat berries grown each Spring in the fertile San Luis Valley of Colorado, Arrowhead Mills Pastry Flour provides a finer texture and lighter consistency with low gluten content. It’s perfect for flaky and delicate pastries and cakes.” I keep 1% buttermilk on hand, so I decided not to use buttermilk powder.  
 
Since the doughnuts won’t be deep-fried, I read that it’s important to heavily grease use a non-stick spray– even though the pan is non-stick. Done.
 
The pastry flour is unbleached.  Though it has whole grain, it’s milled very fine.
So, here are the dry ingredients– pastry flour (you can use unbleached all-purpose, but pastry flour is supposed to yield a tender cake), nutmeg, cinnamon, baking powder and sugar. For the wet ingredients, I used 3 Tablespoons of 1% Buttermilk, and 3 Tablespoons of canola oil (instead of vegetable oil). 
 
I believe I’ve mentioned my addiction to the King Arthur Shopping Website, and I’m not paid to say so.  I’ve also touted my fondness for their Buttery Sweet Dough Bakery Emulsion.  I can best describe the aroma as smelling like yellow cake batter. Trust me, you want to drink it, but I add a teaspoon of this to most of my baked goods.  (Otherwise, I recommend adding 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.) Pour the liquid ingredients all at once into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined. 
Gently fold the batter, to avoid working up the gluten. (That makes for tough pastries, ya know).  You can see the wheat in the flour, because of the dark brown color.  There is pastry flour that has less wheat it in it, so use that if you prefer. Some reviewers suggested pouring the batter into a ziploc bag (I was too lazy busy to dig out my pastry bags).
 
 
I was cautioned not to overfill each well, or the “hole” would fuse together and it won’t look like a doughnut. I think you could spoon these in just as well.

Bake the doughnuts in a preheated 375°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes. When done, they’ll spring back when touched lightly, and will be quite brown on the top. (Mine took about 9 minutes.)

Remove the doughnuts from the oven, remove them from the pan, and allow them to cool on rack. To me, they looked like flat muffins. I wasn’t sure if I was impressed.  I could have dipped them in melted chocolate and called it a day.  I could have sprinkled them, and that would have been lovely.  But, I’m trying to make these as guilt-free as possible.

I decided to go with cinnamon-sugar. Since the doughnuts weren’t fried in oil, I spritzed them, lightly, with some water (rather than melted butter).
 
 
 
That did the trick!  
 
With a freshly brewed cup of coffee, I gave them a taste test.

 

TASTING NOTES:  At first bite, I thought the doughnut was less than exciting.  I questioned my wisdom in using a whole wheat pastry flour.  They were tender, yes, but I wasn’t digging the wheati-ness of the flavor.  I was underwhelmed, as was my husband. But, wait!  The very next morning, something magical happened when I tried them again.  The doughnuts were stored in an air-tight container, the night before.  The flavor had changed, and to the better!  In all honesty, these baked doughnuts won’t fool any kind of doughnut connoisseur.   But, with a cup of hot coffee these remind me a bit of Mexican Churros (without the grease).  
 
I see possibilities with this recipe, and I’ll try them again.    This recipe is less fussy (and less caloric) than my Homemade Glazed Doughnuts. I supposed, these are muffins disguised as doughnuts! They’re also easier on the arteries and waistline, and that’s a good thing.  On a scale of 1-5 for flavor, I give these 3 1/2 stars. With some tweaking, next time, I think these could earn an extra star or two.
 
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Homemade Baked Doughnuts

Who doesn't love a freshly made doughnut? Instead of a deep-fried treat, these "doughnuts" are baked. Once baked, they were rolled in cinnamon sugar. With a cup of coffee, they actually tasted better the next day. We found them to be a satisfying way to enjoy a doughnut without all the fat gram guilt.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time12 minutes
Total Time27 minutes
Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Baked Doughnuts
Servings: 12 doughnuts
Author: Debby – www.AFeastfortheEyes.net

Equipment

  • 1 Non-stick Doughnut Pan

Ingredients

  • 1 cup Unbleached Pastry flour or 7/8 cup Unbleached All-Purpose Flour (see note)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 tablespoons dried buttermilk powder* If you don't have buttermilk powder on hand substitute 2 tablespoons buttermilk or yogurt for the water– and I used 1% buttermilk.
  • 2 large eggs
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons water

Instructions

  • For a non-stick doughnut pan, preheat to 325F
  • Whisk together all of the dry ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
  • In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, oil and water (or buttermilk or yogurt) until foamy.
  • Pour the liquid ingredients all at once into the dry ingredients and stir just until combined.
  • Butter or grease the doughnut pan; non-stick pan spray works well here.
  • Note: even though the pan is non-stick, since the doughnuts are low-fat they may stick unless you grease the pan first. Fill each doughnut form half full.
  • Bake the doughnuts in a preheated 375°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes. When done, they’ll spring back when touched lightly, and will be quite brown on the top.
  • Remove the doughnuts from the oven, remove them from the pan, and allow them to cool on rack.
  • Glaze with icing, or coat with cinnamon-sugar or any non-melting sugar.

Notes

Using pastry flour will make a more tender doughnut.
Tried this recipe?Mention @afeastfortheeyes or tag #afeastfortheeyesblog!
debby

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Comments

  1. Susan says

    Oh dear. They look so good. My mouth is watering. I have to make a confession. I have never, ever tasted a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Nad I have not eaten any kind of a doughnut in probably 12 years. (Since I retired from a place that was always overflowing with them) Do I miss them, you betcha. Just can't let myself do it. ;(

    Reply

  2. A Feast for the Eyes says

    Susan, you're probably lucky you haven't had a Krispy Kreme doughnut. They are evil! I don't eat doughnuts very often, but every so often, the craving hits. Mini doughnuts are a small indulgence. Go ahead, try one!

    Reply

  4. bellini valli says

    You have hit my sweet spot Debby. Here in Canada Tim Hortons still has a corner on the market even if their doughnuts get smaller and smaller (perhaps that's a good thing). My absolute favourite is with cinnamon and sugar. Nothing beats a fresh doughnut in my books.

    Reply

  5. The Short (dis)Order Cook says

    Now that I have a fryer, I'm so into making fried doughnuts, but I'd give these a spin. It's funny you discovered the "secret" to making these taste just right – patience! You need to be willing to wait a bit to eat them. Isn't that something many of us who cook could use more of.

    I never got the KK thing. I've always been underwhelmed by the few KKs I've tried. Maybe it's because I've never had the hot glazed. My favorite doughnut is Boston Cream and the KK version is TOO SMALL and the cream tastes weird. I'm all about DD – if my waistline would only cooperate and not expand when I eat them.

    Can't wait to see your further experiments with these.

    Reply

  6. Joanne says

    I tend to avoid donut shops as well because…let's be real, if I get some I'm not just stopping at one. These baked donuts look amazing though! Especially with the cinnamon sugar outside!

    Reply

  7. Simple Simon says

    Your doughnuts looked delicious. What a great idea to spritz them with water instead of the butter dipped method of adherence. So glad they turned out fine the next day.

    Reply

  9. Frieda says

    I'm glad you "splurged" on buying this mini doughnut pan! You had a coupon, after all!

    Thanks for the tutorial and recipe ~ I just got a mini doughnut pan and have been scouring the web for recipes as well.

    In spite of the flavor, your sugar coated doughnut looks delicious!

    Reply

  12. Allie says

    Well they sure look good! Even if they weren't fooling your taste buds. And I love the donut pan, so cute. I think it was a great investment. They remind me of apple cider donuts. Have you ever tried one? They make them in the fall here and you can get them at apple orchards and places where you pick pumpkins. Not sure if that was a Jersey thing or not. I'd love to try them!

    Reply

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