These are to die for donuts. They are not your ordinary donuts. They are mini donuts and they are baked (not fried in oil).
I made about 1 and half dozen of these donuts (because one round of baking in one tray yields 18 pieces). And I must really say that homemade baked donuts are really less sinful in taste. First and foremost, the process of baking is different, they weren't soaked in oil during the frying process.
The recipe is pretty simple: flour, eggs, milk, butter, sugar, and yeast. A little wait for the yeast to make the dough rise before shaping them into the mini donuts baking molds. The classic toppings is, of course, icing sugar. Today I used sour cream to cream them into a consistency that is smooth and flowing. Then add your favourite toppings. The favorite toppings today is the Chocolate Rice topping.
Ingredients
- 5 cups of all purpose Flour
- 2 envelopes of Yeast (7g x 2)
- ⅓ cup of Granulated Sugar
- 1 ½ cups of Whole Milk, warmed to about 46 °C
- ¼ cup of Unsalted (vegan) Butter, melted
- ¼ cup of (vegan) Shortening, melted
- 2 Eggs
- Pinch of Salt
- 3 ½ cups of Powdered or Confectioner Sugar
- 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
- Sour Cream, as needed til you get the consistency desired
Preparation
1) In a small bowl, add the warm milk and sprinkle over 1 tsp of sugar and the yeast. Allow the yeast to proof for about 5 minutes or until it starts to foam.
2) In the bowl of a standing mixer, add the sugar, eggs, salt, melted butter and shortening, mix either by hand or with a dough hook. I made this lot by hand and it was really easy. Add the yeast mixture and incorporate it in.
3) Add the flour, mix on low until the flour is incorporated, increase the speed to medium and mix the dough for about 4 to 5 minutes or until the dough is nice and smooth.
4) Place the dough into a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and place it somewhere warm to double in size (this can take about 2 to 3 hours). I just 'eyeballed' it.
5) Dump the dough onto a floured surface, punch it down, roll it out to a ½ inch thickness.
6) Lay a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper and sprinkle some flour on each one.
7) Using a donut cutter or a biscuit cutter and a smaller one, cut out your donuts, place them on your baking sheets, placing them a couple inches apart, cover them with a lint free towel and let them rise in a warm spot for about an hour or until doubled again. For this step, since I am using the mini silicon baking tray, I rolled them into smaller strips, and form them into a circular loop the size that fits in the baking tray.
8) Prepare the glaze. Whisk together the vanilla and sugar adding 1 dollop of sour cream at a time until you get a consistency that's runny enough to dip the donuts in but thick enough for the glaze to stick to them.
9) Place them into the preheated oven temperature at about 170 °C for 8 minutes.
10) Using a little skewer pick, lift each one from the baking sheet, place them on a cooling rack.
11) To glaze and decorate your donut, place a cooling rack on a baking sheet. Coat one or both sides of the doughnut in the glaze and place them on the cooling rack to set.
Viola! Enjoy your donuts while its fresh (for me, I like them immediately! Cos' they're simply irresistible!)
Substitution
1. Gluten-free flour can replace all-purpose flour
2. Gluten-free baking powder to replace baking powder
3. Other glaze or toppings of your choice can be use to replace chocolate rice toppings
4. Use vegan shortening or vegan butter
