I love doughnuts, whether they are hot, freshly cooked & covered in sugar at the seaside or chosen from a massive selection at Krispy Kreme!
I have had a few doughnut baking experiments in the past, trying to replicate the crisp shell of Krispy Kreme & I also tried deep frying my own jam filled ones once! But cooking regular doughnuts using yeast has never turned out quite the way I wanted (I’m not that great at bread making either! I just can’t seem to get on with yeast!)
But this week I really fancied some doughnuts! I dug through my ever increasing collection of baking sheets and cupcake trays to find this doughnut tray I purchased a few years ago. I spotted it in TK Maxx and had to have it!
I wanted to create a light doughnut so had a flick through a few recipe books and looked around online to see what ingredients I could use to make for a lighter, baked doughnut. Buttermilk seems to be the answer to creating a lighter crumb; which is evident when I bake red velvet cake.
So for these doughnuts you will need the following ingredients:
280g Plain Flour
150g Caster Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
170ml Buttermilk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Large Eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp butter, melted
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Spray doughnut pan with non-stick cooking spray.
2. In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add the buttermilk, beaten eggs, vanilla extract & butter. Mix using an electric whisk or free standing mixer with paddle attachment, until all the ingredients are combined.
3. Spoon or pour the batter into each doughnut cavity until half full (They will rise nicely).
4. Bake for 10 minutes or until they are lightly golden and spring back when touched. Leave to cool in the tray for a few minutes then remove to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
I left the doughnuts in a sealed container overnight then dipped them in cinnamon sugar the next day. I found they were lighter & the sugar stuck to them better like this. You can make your own cinnamon sugar easily by simply mixing a cup of caster sugar with a teaspoon or 2 of ground cinnamon in a container, then drop the doughnuts in & dip them in the sugar until fully covered.
Serve & enjoy with a cold milkshake or cup of tea….scrumptious!
These keep well in a sealed container for up to a week.
