Ever since I saw Baked Doughnuts recipe in Sally’s blog I have been meaning to bake. For one or the other reason I have been stuck in a lazy rut. If it was not for “We need to Bake” group, I might have not posted this time too. I do bake occasionally but the thought about sitting in front of the laptop and writing about it is not been something that I look forward to these days. Its probably because the weather was bad for long, we never had a good Spring. Summer is short, so want to make the best use of it. Baking and Blogging have taken a back seat.
While at college, Doughnuts have been my breakfast for so many days. Crispy on the outside;soft fluffy interior topped with glazes ….yummm!!! Just because they are usually fried I try to avoid making them often.I was happy to see the baked version when Aparna posted it on Facebook. I was finally able to bake it yesterday and just when I was about to wrap up my post, I was not able to connect to the internet. So I had to postpone my post for today.
Ensure that your dough is atleast 1/2″ thick before cutting it out. Also please be careful while transferring it to a baking sheet, they might lose their shape very easily. While cutting, do not twist them too much as they might not rise properly. These tasted good. Since these are healthy I might make them again but my favorite would always be the fried ones. So here it is Baked Yeasted Doughnuts.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup superfine sugar
- 1 cup warm milk (45C/115F)
- 3/4 tbsp instant yeast (or 1 tbsp active dry yeast)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup cake flour (or 1tbsp cornstarch + enough all-purpose flour to make up to 1 cup)
- 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 100gm cold butter, cut into 1 inch cubes
- For the topping:
- Glaze of your choice
- AND/ OR
- Jam for filling doughnuts
Instructions
- Using a processor to knead helps but you can do this by hand.
- Put the sugar, milk, yeast, salt and vanilla in the processor bowl and pulse to mix well. Add the cake flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour and process, adding a little more of the flour as necessary till the dough is thick and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
- Now add the butter pieces one at a time and process till there no large chunks of butter are left in the bottom of the bowl. Now add a little more flour until your have a soft, pliable and elastic dough that is most but not overly sticky.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased large mixing bowl., turning it to coat well. Cover with a damp towel and let it rise till double in volume. This should take about an hour.
- Punch down the dough and roll out to a thickness of 1/2" thickness. Cut out doughnuts using a doughnut cutter or whatever you have on hand to cut out 3” diameter with 1” diameter holes. If you’re making doughnuts to fill with jam, then do not cut out the holes. Place the doughnuts and the holes on parchment lined or lightly greased baking sheets, leaving at least 1” space between them.
- Re-roll the scraps and cut out more doughnuts. I used the last left over scraps of dough by pinching of bits, rolling them into balls and baking them too.
- Let them rise for about 20 minutes or till almost double in size and then bake them at 200C (400F) for about 5 to 10 minutes till they’re done and golden brown. Do not over bake them.
- This recipe makes about 12 to 14 doughnuts and holes.
- Take them out of the oven and immediately brush them with the melted butter and then dip them into the cinnamon sugar mixture. If filling the doughnuts with jam, let them cool. Put the jam into a piping bag with a writing nozzle/ tip and press into the doughnut from the side and gently press out the jam into the doughnut till it starts oozing out. Jam doughnuts do not need too much jam to fill them. If glazing your doughnuts, let them cool completely and then dip one side of the doughnut in the glaze of your choice and let it set.
- For the Vanilla Glaze - Mix 1/2 cup of confectioner's sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract. Add enough cream to make a thick batter.
- For the chocolate - Melt 1/2 cup of chocolate chips in the microwave or use a double boiler.
Thanks Aparna for the recipe:)
