Baked Vanilla Donuts

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The kids needed donuts.

We ran out of Eggo waffles a few days ago and I kept saying I’d get to the store to get more but I hadn’t had a chance, so to make it up to them, I offered to make something for for breakfast. “Donuts!” they cried.

They wanted the mini donuts, but the process for that is a little more involved than I wanted on a sleepy Sunday morning, so I suggested big ones instead. One pan, one pass through the oven, and done. Terms were agreed upon, negotiations relying primarily on vanilla and glaze, and the kids went off to play while I got things ready.

First task: melt the butter.

melted butter

I set that aside to cool, and got the dry ingredients together, starting with all purpose flour, which is rarely used in my kitchen. But this was not about making a HEALTHY breakfast, this was about a Sunday morning treat. So to the flour I added cane sugar, baking powder, cinnamon (a full teaspoon instead of a quarter), and salt.

dry ingredients

I whisked, then got out another bowl for the liquid ingredients. I used 1% buttermilk, an egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (my new discovery), and added in the melted butter.

liquid ingredients

I stirred well, then added it to the dry ingredients and mixed just until incorporated.

donut batter

The batter seemed too thick to just spoon in, but not thin enough to pour, so I decided to use one of my new piping bags. I’d piped in my baking class the day before, so with the pastry chef’s tips fresh in my mind, I folded the edges over my hand and scraped all the batter in.

batter in pastry bag over my hand

I piped the batter into the pan, and discovered that I’d used an unnecessarily decorative tip. (What can I say, it was the biggest one.)

decorative piping

I used an offset spatula to smooth things out a little.

dry ingredients

I popped the tray into the oven, and got the glaze together, a simple whisked mix of powdered sugar, vanilla, and 1% milk. (Yes, I’m having shadow issues with my photos. Working on it.)

glaze

The donuts were done in about 10 minutes, I waited for them to get nice and springy.

donuts in pan

I let them sit in the pan for five minutes, then flipped them out. Despite how hot they were, I managed to pick up each one and get it dipped into the glaze. It was drippy but fun. Then I grabbed a pinch of sprinkles in my fingers and scattered them across the tops.

donuts with glaze and sprinkles

donuts with glaze and sprinkles

They looked good, and they smelled good, but did they taste good? I needed them to pass the kid test, since I’d already bungled things by forgetting to buy Eggo waffles for my poor deprived children. I called them in.

Juliet with donut

Nathaniel with donut

Mission accomplished!

donuts with glaze and sprinkles

donuts with glaze and sprinkles

Another successful donut experiment. I’m so glad I bought that pan that I kept insisting I didn’t need. I want to make pumpkin donuts next but that’s a hard sell where the kids are concerned. Maybe if I add sprinkles…

BAKED VANILLA DONUTS RECIPE

Comments

  1. Thanks for linking to my recipe! Not sure why wordpress just pinged me on this now, like 3 mos later, but hey, donuts are always good 🙂 Yours look excellent!

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