Donuts, Part Deux

While I preferred the taste of my first attempt at donuts--Bacon Cake Donuts that didn't quite taste like bacon but were still so delicious--I did prefer the look (i.e., the toppings) of my second donut attempt shown here. In this second attempt at baked (not fried!) dough, I pretty much just followed Wilton's Baked Cake Donut recipe on the back of my pan, except I doubled the amount of batter so I could have enough treats for my family and my coworkers. They were tasty, but I think the addition of a little bacon grease and brown sugar instead of white sugar really made a difference in the overall flavor (and color--this week's caked donuts turned out rather pale underneath the toppings). However, my second donut attempt still received many compliments and make a nice treat for anyone--especially with chocolate and sprinkles on top!

So if you'd like to recreate the recipe, I'll still share what I did below. The recipe for an awesome chocolate topping--also from the Wilton's donut pan but with a little more chocolate--follows!

Chocolate Cake Donuts

Ingredients:
4 cups cake flour, sifted

1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2 teaspoon salt

1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk

4 eggs, lightly beaten

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:

1.) Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray your donut pan with nonstick cooking spray or line a cupcake pan with paper cupcake liners (I got lazy and decided that instead of trying to fill my six-donut pan over and over again, I would make a batch of donut-flavored cupcakes to finish off the batter).

2.) In a very large mixing bowl, sift the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add in the buttermilk and eggs. Make sure your melted butter has cooled slightly before adding it last. Beat carefully until all ingredients are just combined--no more flour should be visible, but the batter shouldn't be overmixed.

3.) Fill your donut pan or cupcake liners approximately 2/3 to 3/4 full and bake for about 9-10 minutes (mine still came out pale at 10 minutes even though the original recipe calls for 7-9 minutes. And I did three separate batches in the oven rather than try to fit all my filled tins in there at once, so who knows why they still came out so light?).

4.) Let the donuts cool about 2-5 minutes before prying them gently from the pan with a couple of toothpicks. Place on a wire rack to cool completely before dipping them in a bowl of chocolate glaze and then a bowl of sprinkles. Recipe for Chocolate Glaze is below.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup plus 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

2 Tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions:

1). In a microwave-safe bowl, combine the 1/2 cup of chocolate chips, butter and corn syrup. Microwave on 50 percent power for 50 seconds.

2). Carefully remove the bowl from the microwave (it will be hot--I used potholders) and add the extra 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, stirring while you add. The mixture should turn from thin drizzle to thick frosting consistency. And it tastes as good as it looks!

That's it! But don't forget these key details in the donut-making process:

1. Donuts taste best when fresh. They will get stale quickly when left out and attempted to eat two days later. All is not lost, however, if you want to eat donut leftovers! Place them in an airtight plastic baggie to stave off staleness as long as possible! If all else fails, dip rock-hard donuts in coffee to instantly soften them up!

2. These donuts can be made into cupcakes! Because they rise so much (and because I got lazy), I thought it made perfect sense to try filling a few cupcake liners with donut batter too! It worked! Just be careful peeling off the paper as they tend to stick.

3. The dipping in chocolate and sprinkles is the fun part! I try to get just the right amount of glaze on each one, turning the donuts so they leave a smooth design of chocolate and an evenly spread sprinkling of sprinkles. If you really want to be daring, you can try the chocolate glaze on top of the Bacon donuts mentioned earlier. Use bacon bits instead of sprinkles to top the chocolate and enhance the bacon flavor. Doesn't that sound good?

4. Despite bacon, chocolate, butter and sugar...these donuts are healthy! Somewhat healthy! They're baked (not fried!) and made with all-natural homemade ingredients. So that's a start!

All-in-all, I'd say donuts are a success in my book no matter how you make them. It was a fun experiment for me to try, having never ever made a donut before this month! But I will definitely be baking them again!