Owen's Baked Mug Root Beer Donuts

So making baked donuts is similar to making muffins, you just get to use a fun pan :).  Anyway, these donuts Owen came up with were a hit with the boys, and they worked well.  I wanted my glaze to harden more, so I used the idea from Peabody for her glaze.  This will give you a nice frosting rather than the syrup we got :).  The calories are 311 per donut, and the boys gave them a perfect 10, and I gave them an 8.  We didn't have any root beer flavoring, this would be better with a root beer flavoring, but if you just like a sweet, semi-root beer donut, use vanilla extract like we did :).  Anyway, Owen loves root beer, so we made these donuts for him.  Here's what to do:

2 cans root beer, cooked to concentrate it  (it takes at least 20 minutes to cook it down to 1 1/3 cup)

2 1/4 c flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 t salt
1 c sugar
1 T vanilla (or vanilla and root beer extracts)
1 c concentrated root beer
2 T butter melted
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 c yogurt

1/3 c concentrated root beer
8 T butter
2 1/2 c powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 350.  Grease a donut pan or line a muffin tin.
In one bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
In another bowl, mix together the vanilla (root beer extract), concentrated root beer, melted butter, egg yolk, egg, and yogurt.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stir until just coming together, then place in the greased donut pan (or place in paper muffin cups) and cook for 10-12 minutes for the donuts.  Remove from the donut pan, let cool a few minutes, the dip in the glaze.

Cook the concentrated root beer and butter until the butter is melted, then stir in the powdered sugar.  Let cool a little then dip the donuts in it and let them cool.

Cook's Illustrated's Buttermilk Donuts

This is a simple donut recipe, since it isn't a yeasted donut, and it turned out really well.  The boys and I gave these a 9, and Aaron gave them a perfect 10.  He liked that they were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.  I got over my shortening aversion to fry these in shortening, since I trust those Cook's Illustrated people, but I don't know how often I will make these again, since you know I loathe shortening :).  I found this recipe in my Cook's Illustrated Baking book, and they really are the easiest donuts ever :).  Each donut was 335 calories, and we had some donut holes which were 112 each.  Here's what to do:

3 1/2 c flour
1 c sugar
2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1 t salt
3/4 c buttermilk
3 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
a can of vegetable shortening for frying
1 c sugar
1 1/2 T cinnamon

Beat 1 c flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon on low speed to combine.  In a small bowl, mix together the buttermilk, butter, eggs and yolk together.  Add the wet ingredients to the mixer, and beat until smooth, about 30 seconds.  Add in the additional flour gradually, until just combined.  Dough will be very moist.  Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/2 inch thickness while you heat the shortening to 375 degrees.  Continue rolling out the dough over and over until all is used, I had about 20 donuts with 6-8 donut holes.  Slip the rings into the oil, and fry about 50 seconds per side.  Remove the doughnuts, and let them drain on paper towel.  Stir together the cinnamon and sugar, then toss the donuts into the mixture after they have drained and cooled about 1 minute.  Serve.

Flour's Vanilla Cream Filled Donuts

This was a triumph for me.  I haven't ever made donuts before, and I am rather averse to frying, but donuts are something I can definitely get over my frying dislike for ;).  These are fabulous, full of flavor, and after I figured out how to properly get enough cream into the donuts, these turned out great.  I made more donuts than the recipe called for, and since I can never give exact calories for fried foods, I will estimate.  Each donut, for 12 donuts, was around 600 calories, but these are worth the calorie bomb, I promise!  These took a little while to make, but it was a fun experiment.  Next time, I will try to make them lighter, because they were a little heavy, but I think they would be better with practice :).

We all gave these a perfect 10, how can you go wrong with fried yeast dough and pastry cream ;)?  Anyway, here's what to do:

2 1/2 t active dry yeast

2/3 c milk, at room temperature

3 1/2 c flour

1 1/4 c sugar

1 t salt

3 eggs

7 T butter, room temperature, cut into 6-8 pieces

Frying oil

6 T heavy cream

2 c pastry cream

In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the yeast and milk.  Stir together briefly, then let sit for about 1 minute to dissolve the yeast.  Add the flour, 1/4 c of the sugar, the salt and the eggs and mix on low speed for about 1 minute.  Then, still on low speed, mix for another 2-3 minutes to develop the dough.  Add in the butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to mix for 5-6 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated.

Remove the dough from the bowl, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or up to 15 hours.

Lightly flour a baking sheet.  On a well-floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 12 inch square about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut out 12 donuts, arrange them on the baking sheet, and cover them with plastic wrap and allow them to rise for 2-3 hours, or until they are doubled in height and feel poufy and pillowy.

Heat 3 inches of oil to about 350 degrees, then in batches, fry the doughnuts for 2-3 minutes on one side, flip, then fry for another 2-3 minutes.  Transfer the doughnuts to a paper towel lined plate, and let cool.  Toss the donuts into the remaining 1 c sugar, then return it to the tray to cool completely.  

Whip the cream until it holds stiff peaks, then fold it into the pastry cream.  

When the doughnuts are completely cooled, poke a hole in each one.  Fit a pastry bag with a small round tip and fill the bag with the pastry cream mixture.  Make sure to squirt the filling all inside the donut, then serve.

Red Velvet Coconut Doughnuts

We had some delicious donuts/muffins today.  They are Red Velvet Coconut Doughnuts and they are too good.  Owen, Noah and I gave them a perfect 10, Aaron gave them a 6, since he doesn't like cake.  He ate more than one of the mini muffins, so he must have liked them okay :).  This was an easy recipe, and the frosting is delicious, although it made way more than we needed for the recipe.  I made a couple of changes to the recipe, I put in one less tablespoon flour, and added an extra tablespoon of cocoa powder, I changed the amount of oil to 1/4 c and added in 1/2 c sour cream, and I added in a lot of food coloring, because I like the deep red color.  I also didn't garnish with coconut, because I didn't think they needed it.  I love how these are traditional red velvet, but still with the coconut extract have something extra.  It really adds to the doughnuts.  Since I don't have two donut pans, I made 6 donuts, 12 mini muffins, and 3 regular sized muffins.  I had a hard time figuring out calories for these, because of the multiple sizes of the food and because we only used 2/3 of the frosting, approximately.  Anyway, if you follow the recipe with my changes and have only 12 donuts, and use all the frosting, the calories are 458/donut.  If not, the calories for the big muffins and the donuts with all the frosting are 367/donut and 229/mini muffin.  Who knows what the calories are with the smaller amount of frosting we used, but it's definitely less than what I put here since the frosting is where all the calories come from.  These are so moist and tender, and worth every calorie.  Yum! 
Tomorrow we're having some healthier muffins and some breakfast food.

Key Lime Donuts

We had key liime cream cheese donuts today for breakfast, and they were only okay.

They were easy and fast to make, but they weren't anything special, and we won't have them again. They received a 7 from all of us, and they were 286 calories per donut. Tomorrow we're having a steak salad.

Chocolate Glazed Baked Donuts

Donuts!  These donuts actually worked, and man were they great!  We found this recipe at tastykitchen.com, and they are Chocolate Glazed Baked Doughnuts.  Aaron said they are the best donuts he has ever eaten, including store bought ones.  He gave them a 10.  I also gave them a 10.  I altered the recipe a little, I left out the nutmeg and cinnamon in the donut recipe and added 1 t vanilla to it instead, and these baked up so well.  The calories were 513/donut, but I didn't use all the glaze the recipe called for, so I'm not exactly sure how many calories each donut were.  Regardless, the donuts are lots of calories, and worth every one.  I hope you can try them!  We're having some fish tacos and some chicken noodle soup tomorrow.

Cranberry Orange Cake Donuts

So today we had a spectacular flop :(  I made donuts for the boys for breakfast, and this is what they ended up looking like:

These were supposed to be Cranberry Orange Cake Donuts, and they are moist and super flavorful, really great flavor, I just could not get them to stay together.  I tried taking them out when warm, when that didn't work with the first one, I tried taking them out when totally cool.  Here are the results.  Six donuts made into crumbs.  I give this recipe a 4, because of the great flavor and the low calorie count, only 135 calories/donut, but the falling apart obviously doesn't work.  I did halve the recipe, and maybe that was the problem, who knows.  We won't be making this one again.  Tomorrow we're trying chili rice.

Gingerbread Donuts

We had donuts this morning.  I love my little donut pan, it makes baking donuts so easy.  That said, these gingerbread donuts were a little disappointing.  They tasted good, but they were like muffins, not donuts.  The snickerdoodle donuts we had recently were definitely better and more donut like.  Aaron and the boys said they preferred those, and we gave these between a 6 and a 7, mostly for the consistency.  Also, as you can see, the batter made enough for more than 6 donuts, so ours were a little larger and not very donut-shaped.  Anyway, the calories were 230/donut, and they were easy and tasted good.  The shrimp and noodles and squash are coming tomorrow instead of today.