How To Make Your Weekend Amazing! aka Baked Vanilla Bean Donuts

Homemade donuts on the weekend are pretty special around my house.  I know it is probably easier to buy a box of donuts from the store but they don't have the same fresh taste as homemade.  The cake in this donut is so moist and slightly sweet.  The not too sweet taste might be why I prefer this donut recipe.

This is a tried and true recipe.  I have made this particular one about 5 or more times and each time they are perfect.  The ingredients for this recipe get dumped into one bowl which makes cleanup a breeze.  The cake is lightly brown but tender inside and they fall right out of the pan without sticking.

The glaze for this recipe is new to me but i have to say it is preferred to the others I have used in the past. This glaze recipe doesn't call for corn syrup which is a win in my book.

Confession: I hate to sift ingredients before mixing but I think that it is very important when making a glaze or thin icing. If I don't sift the powdered sugar I end up with little lumps and then my donuts don't look like they belong in a bakery case.

I am posting a photo of what I consider to be essential tools for this recipe.

I love my silicone tipped whisk, donut pan and my icing bags.  If you don't have piping bags for icing handy then you can use a large ziploc baggie and cut the tip off.  I find that this method is almost essential when placing the batter in the donut pan.

Ingredients:

Original recipe here

Servings: 12-14

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 24 minutes (12 minutes each batch)

Donut Batter

2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean scraped (optional but recommended)
2 eggs
3/4 milk
2 Tbsp butter, melted



Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Spray pan with baking spray or brush with melted butter to grease (quick painless release of the cake donut is what we want).
Melt the 2 tablespoons butter and set aside to cool. Once the butter is no longer hot, add all the ingredients to a bowl and stir.  Stir just until combined so that the cake remains soft.  Place the batter in a ziploc or a decorator bag, snip the tip and pipe the batter in the donut pan.  Only fill each circle of the pan 1/2 way. Bake for about 12 minutes (should be lightly golden) and then let sit in pan a few minutes before placing the donuts on the cooling rack to cool completely.

*If you don't have the vanilla bean I would still make this recipe.

Glaze:
Original recipe here
Servings: 12-14 donuts
Prep Time: 10 minutes

1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp unsweet cocoa powder
2-4 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Sift the powdered sugar and cocoa powder into a bowl with a wide rim.  Add 2 tablespoons of milk and vanilla.  Whisk to combine.  If the glaze is still thick add 1 tablespoon of milk at a time until glaze is thin and spreadable but not runny.

Dip each donut top in the glaze and give a twist as you pull up.  Place on foil or wax paper for at least 5 minutes while the glaze firms up.

These should be eaten within 2 days.  If covered for too long the glaze will soften.

Enjoy!!