October 23: Baked Spice Donuts, 3 Ways

Today. What can I say about today? It's cool and breezy. The leaves are bright hues of orange, red, yellow, and green-- the color palatte of autumn. Tonight is the long-awaited season premier of Walking Dead (who did Negan kill? We shall soon find out!)

It's a day for football (not for me; football isn't my thing. But my husband LOVES it and is actually at the game as I type this.) It's a day for leaf raking. It's a day for fang-wearing.

AND it's a day for DONUTS!

Oh yes, donuts.

But not the (delicious) fried kind. Because, for one thing, I've already told you I don't like frying things at my house (no matter how good they end up tasting). [Oh, and guess what? The night I made those fried bat wontons? The damned oil ruined my favorite pair of navy khaki pants! When I was dealing with the grease after it had cooled down enough to handle, it spilled all over the counter and splashed on my pants. I'm still quite bitter about it. So no fried donuts.] For another thing, they're really quite bad for you and there's no real way to justify a family of four (or, today, three) finishing an entire batch of them in one afternoon.

So that's why I deal in baked donuts, friends. They don't ruin your fave pants and, after you've gorged yourself on donuts, you can still fit in your fave pants. Hurrah!

I've been baking my own donuts since I bought the Sally's Baking Addiction cookbook. In fact, I feel safe in saying that her Baked Powdered Donuts recipe is the one I've made the most times. My girls LOVE those powdered donuts. (Even my picky older daughter who loathes yogurt and from whom I had to hide the fact that one of the ingredients is yogurt...Not to worry. She knows now. And guess what? She STILL loves them.)

The recipe I made today is a cross between these and these.

I was jonesing to try the newer Chai Spiced variety, but the girls get goofy if I stray from their favorite. (Though, it should be noted, I've made--and they've enjoyed--the chocolate donut holes and the chocolate and vanilla glazed varieties, too. Both of which you can find at Sally's blog. But their favorite remains the powdered kind.) Thus, I decided to compromise and throw some of the chai flavors I wanted into the base recipe they love so much, and to vary the coating so they get their powdery fun and I get my sugar and spice and everything nice. Guess what? IT WORKED.

Baked Spice Donuts - 3 Ways

Yield: 6 large donuts & 6-8 small donuts

Ingredients:

For the donuts- 

1 cup (125g- weigh it! I beg you) all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cardamom
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 Tablespoons melted butter, slightly cooled

For the coatings- 

NOTE: these are approximate measurements. You may need more or less of each depending on how many and what size donuts you coat with which ingredient. Because my girls prefer the powdered sugar coating, I coated all 6 of my large donuts and 1 of the small ones in that; and I coated 3 each of the small donuts in the cookies and the sugar.

1-2 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2-4 Tablespoons chai spiced sugar (use the recipe "for rolling" section of this delicious Chai Snickerdoodle recipe. You'll have some leftover, but you won't mind. Trust me.--btw: I made these last Christmas and they were ah-mazing!)
2-4 Tablespoons reserved spiced cookie-graham cracker crumbs from the crust of the Nutella Pumpkin pie I posted the other day

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray donut pans lightly with cooking spray (I use Pam's Baking variety for my baked goods) and set aside.

2. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and spices. Set aside.

3. In a different medium bowl, whisk together egg, milk, butter, yogurt, vanilla extract until smooth.

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is moistened. Batter will be thick, but don't over mix.

5. Set up a freezer baggy in a glass. Scoop the batter into the freezer bag, snip the tip, and pipe into the donut pans. Fill no more than 1/2-2/3 full or you risk having a teeny, tiny donut hole shape in the middle of your donut (and you'll get fewer donuts).

6. Bake for 9-10 minutes, until donuts are lightly golden.

7. While donuts bake, clean your dishes and set up your coating station. In a small bowl, melt 1-2 Tablespoons butter. In another small bowl, add your cookie crumbs (to one side) and your spiced sugar (to the opposite side). Finally, in a ziplock baggie or storage container with a lid, place your powdered sugar. (I was at the end of my bag of powdered sugar, so I just left it in the bag.)

8. Shortly after the donuts come out of the oven (while they're still warm), you'll coat them.

For the powdered donuts: Place the donuts (I prefer doing them one at a time since the batch is small) into the powdered sugar and give it a shake so they're coated.

For the cookie-coated and sugar varieties: Dip one side in the melted butter. Then dip the buttered side into either the crumbs or the sugar. (The butter makes it stick AND taste delicious.)

I tried to get spooky and copy picture I saw on the internet of pressing some plastic fangs into the donuts... but as you can see from my photo, the fangs were a bit too strong for my tender donut and cracked it apart. So I aborted mission on that and just let the girls wear the fangs. (Which was a big hit!)

And there you have it! Fresh, delicious, warm-from-the-oven donuts with your choice of toppings. I can't decide between the spicy crunch of the cookie coating and the buttery sugar coating as my favorite. Honestly, none of these toppings will fail you. I'd call that a Sunday success!!!