Donut Day!

Happy Saturday! It’s been way too long since my last post. This next one is a yummy one though! Recently I had donuts on my mind. This was probably because I was doing a health and fitness challenge, so anything sugary was sounding great. One of my best friends came over for a baking day today, and she humored me by assisting in making donuts. We tried two different recipes that I found on Pinterest, strawberry cake donuts, followed by banana donuts with a chocolate glaze.

We started with the strawberry since these donuts could come out of the pan immediately, and I needed to use the same pan for both recipes. For this donut, we greased and floured the pan and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

I mixed the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt) in one bowl. In a second bowl, I whisked together the wet ingredients (buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla, and eggs) and then added in the strawberries. I combined the bowls together and stirred the batter with a wooden spoon.

Using a large spoon, I scooped batter into the pan, filling each hole 2/3 full. They baked for 11 minutes, until a toothpick came out clean. I let them sit in the pan and cool for three minutes, and then I inverted the pan on a wire rack, to let the donuts continue to cool outside of the pan.

While they cooled, we worked on the glaze. My friend chopped up strawberries, while I pulsed freeze dried strawberries to a powder in my food processor. We combined these two things with powdered sugar and then added a little bit of buttermilk to create a glaze. (The original recipe did not use any liquid – it said to let the strawberries rest and that the liquid from them would help create a glaze. I found that my mixture was slightly moist and mostly crumbly. It needed milk or water, so we used buttermilk since that was already on hand.)

I dipped the top half of each donut in the glaze and then placed them in the freezer (on parchment paper) for five minutes to set. Then I transferred them to a container, after trying one of course!

Next, we moved on to the banana donuts. These were our favorite! It tastes like a very moist banana bread, and the chocolate glaze is delicious on it. I reset the oven to 350 degrees and sprayed PAM on my clean donut pan.

I began by mashing my bananas with a pastry cutter. I added sugar, an egg, vanilla, and vegetable oil and mixed these together well.

Meanwhile, my friend worked on the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, she combined flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. (The original recipe calls for nutmeg, which I am highly allergic to, so we left this out!)

We mixed the wet and dry ingredients together and then spooned the mixture into the donut pan. This recipe made six large donuts, and there was no batter left over. We baked the donuts for ten minutes, until a toothpick came out clean. Then the donuts sat and cooled in the pan.

To create a glaze, I mixed powdered sugar, Karo corn syrup, vanilla, and cocoa powder. I used 3 Tbsp of water, as well as a little bit of milk to thin down the mixture. It was really thick and probably could have used a little more liquid, but I didn’t want it to get runny. Using a spatula, I spread the glaze onto each donut and then topped them with chocolate sprinkles! We immediately tried one, and it was delicious!

Baked Strawberry Donuts
Adapted from the Kitchen of: Cooking Classy

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp butter (room temp)
2 c flour
½ c sugar
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¾ c buttermilk
¼ c + 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2/3 c chopped strawberries

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a donut pan and sprinkle lightly with flour. (Shake off excess flour.)

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center and set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, vegetable oil, vanilla, and eggs. Pour into the well and mix with a wooden spoon. Fold in strawberries. Spoon batter evenly into each well, and bake for 11-13 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for a few minutes, and then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once cooled, dip the top halves into strawberry glaze. Transfer to the freezer to set, about five minutes.

For the glaze:
Ingredients:
3 c powdered sugar
½ c chopped strawberries
½ c freeze dried strawberries, crushed to a powder
Buttermilk (to thin down glaze – a Tbsp at a time)

Directions:
In a mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar, strawberries, and powder. Add buttermilk, one Tbsp at a time, to create a glaze.

 

Banana Bread Donuts with Chocolate Glaze
From the Kitchen of: Something Swanky

Ingredients:
2 bananas, mashed
3 Tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
¾ c flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Whisk together the bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla, and vegetable oil. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, until a batter forms.

Pour the batter into a greased donut pan. Fill each cavity ¾ full. Bake for 10 minutes and let cool completely before removing from the pan. Top with chocolate glaze.

For the glaze:
Ingredients:
1 ½ c powdered sugar
1 Tbsp corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla
1-3 Tbsp water (for consistency)
¼ c + 2 Tbsp cocoa powder

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together in a mixer, using the water to get the desired consistency. Use a spatula to spread on the donuts and then top with sprinkles!