Baked Carrot Cake Donuts

.  Easter, Easter, Easter.  Oh, Easter.  How you have snuck up on me!

Shocking?  Not quite.  To me, it seems like the various holidays creep up on me faster and faster every year.  Good or bad thing?  I haven't quite decided yet.  I'll get back to you on that.

Anyway, we all know how fun holiday-themed goodies are.  And being the try-to-be seasonal baker, I obviously want to take advantage of the once-a-year opportunities I have to make certain things.  Because, duh, one can never make a pumpkin dessert in the Spring!  That is simply preposterous.

So my goal for this upcoming week is to pump out a couple of Eastery desserts and possibly even a little round up of past Easter-themed goodies I've made.  You may have to hold me to that though so I actually get it done.

When I think of Easter, my mind immediately jets to Carrot Cake.  That classic Carrot Cake with a dollop of thick, rich cream cheese frosting [queue in the drool].  Carrot Cake is actually one of Robbie's favorite cakes, so this time of year is particularly good to him.  I was personally never a huge carrot cake fan until I was older, I think the fact that the cake literally has carrots in it made me think there was no way it could be good.  But once I took a chance, I never turned back!  It got me.

So because of my [and Robbie's] love for Carrot Cake, I'm especially excited to share with you..ta dah!..Baked Carrot Cake Donuts.  But wait!  This isn't just any old Carrot Cake recipe.  Nope.  Well yeah, Jess.  It's a donut.  Yes, you are correct.  But!  There's also a few added ingredients that make this Carrot Cake Donut uber special.  Let's just say pineapple, nutmeg, and toasted walnuts are a few of those uber components.  Intrigued yet?  You should be.

These donuts were just too good.  I must say, they are extremely light and fluffy, you won't get that dense donut most of you are probably thinking of.  They're much more cake-like, but absolutely perfect for a morning treat that won't put you in a food coma.  I likey  .

My Notes:

• I chose to ground up my walnuts because I thought it would look much prettier than the huge chunks.  But feel free to leave the walnuts in larger pieces and you don't even need to toast them if you don't like.  Completely up to you!
• When making the frosting, make sure to have your cream cheese and butter pretty soft, otherwise you'll end up with a chunky frosting like I did.  If this does happen, I popped my frosting into the microwave for a few seconds to break down the chunks.

Adapted from BrueCrew Life

Ingredients:

Donuts:

1/2 c. butter

2/3 c. brown sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 egg

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2/3 c. vanilla yogurt

2/3 c. crushed pineapple, drained (save juice for frosting)

2/3 c. finely shredded carrots

2 c. all purpose flour

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1-1/2 tsp. baking soda

Pineapple Cream Cheese Frosting:

3/4 c. toasted walnuts, ground

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 tbsp. butter, softened

2 tbsp. pineapple juice

3/4 c. powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375°F.  Spray donut pan with non-stick cooking spray; set aside.  For the donuts, cream together butter, sugar and salt in large bowl.  Add egg, vanilla extract, and yogurt and beat until smooth.  Stir in pineapple and carrots.  
2. Sift together flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, and baking soda.  Slowly add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, beating on low speed until combined.
3. Fill a ziploc bag with donut batter, snipping off one corner.  Pipe batter into prepared pan, filling cavities 1/2 full.  Bake 10 minutes.  Let cool in pan before removing to wire rack.
4. Place walnuts onto baking sheet and bake about 8 minutes or until fragrant.  Let cool on baking sheet.  Place walnuts into food processor and pulse until walnuts are ground (don't ground them too much, some larger pieces are still desirable).  Set aside.
5. For frosting, beat cream cheese, butter and pineapple juice in medium bowl until smooth.  Slowly add powdered sugar until smooth.  Frost cooled donuts as desired and sprinkle with ground walnuts.

Yield: 18 donuts

Chocolate Hazelnut-Crunch Donuts

.  So these are a first.  A first baked donut, that is.  And they most definitely will not be the last.

I mean c'mon, read that name.  Look at these pictures.  How could they not be good?  Actually, how could they not be fabulously addicting?  I'm still punching myself for not trying baked donuts sooner.

So where to begin?  First, these are insanely easy.  Yes, there are a couple of assembly steps but I promise that not one of them is difficult.  And by the end of the process, all of the elements come together seamlessly.  In perfect baked spiced donut-chocolate frosting-candied hazelnuts harmony.  Drooling yet?

I actually came across this recipe over at the little epicurean.  Her pictures are absolutely gorgeous, so it didn't take much convincing to bookmark this recipe and get to bakin.'  And what came out of this 'maiden voyage' was pure deliciousness.

I must forewarn you that these donuts are not the yeast donuts many of you are used to.  Rather, these are much more dense and cake-like, though scrumptious nonetheless.  The donuts themselves are wonderfully spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon, fabulous complements to the cold winter weather.  And the glaze?  Not your traditional frosting but I was quite surprised at how well the chocolate glaze melded with the donuts and oh yes, the candied hazelnuts.  You probably don't need much explanation there.  But I will say that the chocolate glaze and hazelnut combination is extremely reminiscent of the ever-so-popular Nutella.  As if you need more convincing to try these out.

The only complaint I have about this recipe is that it only makes six donuts.  Six?  Hmm, definitely not enough for our house.  The two of us alone did some damage on these babies.  So next time I will most likely be making two batches.  My waistline may have objections though  .

My Notes:

• You can find dried buttermilk powder at most grocery stores, albeit it is a rather old looking container so it may not be easy to spot.  I found a picture of a brand of dried buttermilk powder online, so that was really helpful to me when looking for it [check out the link I included for picture from a blog I found]. 
• Apparently pastry flour is not easy to find, so I had to get my Google on and figure out how to recreate it.  I used directions from JoyofBaking.com that yielded 2 cups of pastry flour  [1-1/3 cups all purpose flour + 1/3 c. cake flour] and then took out the 1/4 cup the recipe calls for (I know, a waste of ingredients, I'm sorry).
• And apparently, again, hazelnuts are not very easy to find either!  So, I kid you not, I sifted through a giant container of mixed nuts to find the hazelnuts I needed.  Now, I don't exactly recommend doing this because it's expensive and annoying.  So if you aren't able to find hazelnuts, I have an out for you.  Target sells the most fabulous Butter Crunch Cashews that are basically the exact same thing you'd be making here.  We had some of these at our house so I chopped up a few and used them to top some of the donuts as well.  They're ridiculously fabulous and pre-made!
• If you use raw hazelnuts with skins on, toast them lightly in a 325F oven for about 7 to 10 minutes.  Rub the toasted hazelnuts between a kitchen towel to remove the skins.  Once cooled, roughly chop them up.

From the little epicurean

Ingredients:

Donuts:

3/4 c. all purpose flour

1/4 c. pastry flour

1/2 c. sugar

2 tbsp. light brown sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

3 tbsp. dried buttermilk powder

2 large eggs, at room temperature

3 tbsp. vegetable oil

2 tbsp. water

Candied Hazelnuts:

1 large egg white

1 c. hazelnuts, blanched, lightly toasted, and roughly chopped

2 tbsp. sugar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

Chocolate Glaze:

3/ 4 c. semiseet chocolate chips

3 tbsp. unsalted butter

1 tbsp. light corn syrup

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 375F.  Lightly grease donut pan.
2. Whisk together all purpose flour, pastry flour, sugar, light brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, and dried  buttermilk powder.  Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil and water.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until batter is smooth and and there are no traces of dry ingredients.
4. Transfer batter to a large piping bag fitted with a large tip or plastic bag with one corner snipped.  Pipe batter into donut pan, filling each cavity about half full.
5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until cake springs back when touched.  Remove from pan and let cool on wire rack.
6. For hazelnuts, heat oven to 325F.  Hand whisk egg white until foamy.  Add in chopped hazelnuts and stir to coat evenly.  Sprinkle sugar, salt and cinnamon over nuts.  Spread nuts evenly on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake 10 to 15 minutes, stirring halfway through, until golden (if chunks have formed, break into smaller pieces).  Set aside.
7. For glaze, melt chocolate, butter and light corn syrup in bowl in microwave until smooth.  Let the chocolate cool slightly and then dip tops of donuts into mixture.  Sprinkle with candied hazelnuts.

Yield: 6 donuts

Chocolate Cake Donuts with Chocolate Crackle Glaze

. All right, fellow friends and bloggers, I need your help.

With donuts.

Probably weren't expecting that, huh?

This weekend I set aside some time for baking and nothing else.  No work.  No pups.  No boyfriend.  Just a few hours that I could spend in the kitchen doing something I truly enjoy and haven't had as much time lately, as I would like, to devote to it.  I wanted to try my hands at something that took a little more attention, a goodie that I've been putting off for just a day like this.  Narrowing down my options actually wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Thankfully (but still mourning), the misfortune of Borders, I snagged three new baking books [all for $80!] a couple of weeks ago that I still hadn't tried out yet.  Not even one measly recipe.  So whatever I was doing, it was coming from one of these three books.

And then I saw it.  One of my new gems, The Craft of Baking by Karen DeMasco, had the most mouthwatering pictures of donuts [or doughnuts, as the book calls them], I had ever seen.  Thick, fluffy, cakey, chocolate donuts, with drips of chocolatey glaze running down the sides.  Irresistible?  I think so.  I'd wanted to try homemade donuts for longer than I could remember, and here was my chance!

Hmmmm.  Somewhere, something went wrong.  Because I definitely did not end up with donuts looking or tasting like my above description.  I mean, certain elements turned out great.  But my donut-making skills are in need of some fine tuning.

Here's what I think happened.  And please keep in mind I've never made donuts before, so don't laugh...

• I rolled my dough out way too thin.  The directions said to roll the batter out to about 3/4-inch thick.  Mine were easily less than 1/2-inch.  This pretty much doomed every succeeding step, huh?
• The recipe specified a high-sided skillet [which I have a skillet, but not sure if it was 'high' enough], so I just used one of my basic pans.  Since it was smaller [and I didn't want to overwhelm myself], I only fried one donut at a time.  The recipe also said to fry three at a time, but I'm not sure if this makes a difference?
• The peanut oil was way too hot to begin with.  I fried the first donut for about 45 seconds [total] and let's just nicely say that it looked like a piece of coal.  I rechecked the temperature of the peanut oil and the gauge flew off the charts.  Whoops.  Once I got the temperature down and lessened the frying time to about 30 seconds [total], the donuts turned out much better.

I had to show the burnt donut because it's quite comical!

• But remember how I scorched that first donut?  Well, after tasting, both Robbie and I agreed there was a little char-taste to everything.  Uh, gross.  I HATE char.  Can't stand it.  Never will.  Especially on a supposedly sweet donut.  Did I ask for grilled donuts?  I don't think so.  I know, mom, you will beg to differ [she's one of those people who likes burnt marshmallows].  But char is not welcome in my world.  Anywho, I'm not sure if that char taste was due to the first burnt donut or if I simply kept the donuts frying too long?

All in all, I think my biggest mistake was rolling out the dough too thin.  Everything had to be adjusted from there on out and I obviously didn't handle that loop too well.  Dang it.  

You can see that I made a few mistakes, so I need some donut-making advice ASAP!  What's the best thickness to roll out the dough?  What's the best oil to use [peanut, vegetable]?  What's the best type of pan to use?  How do you know when a donut is done frying?  Should you swap out the oil if you burn any of the donuts?  Is there a reason why the donuts were a tad bit oily?  HELP!

Now don't let my donut troubles steer you away, the recipe itself is fantastic.  I can vouch for this because even though we had slightly charry-tasting donuts, the insides were absolutely wonderful.  Like the picture I described, the insides were subtly chocolatey, light, and fluffy.  And the glaze that I have yet to mention?  Perfection.  Completely rich and so simple, rounding out the chocolatey goodness to a 'T.'  So no fault goes to the recipe, only to my amateur novice pre-beginner-donut-maker mistakes.  

So if anyone can offer me any advice, I would greatly appreciate it.  Or if anyone tests out this recipe, please tell me about your experience, what you did differently, etc.  I'm desperate to hear because I will be trying these out again.  I won't let the donuts defeat me.

From The Craft of Baking

Ingredients:

Donuts:

3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

3 tbsp. unsalted butter

1-3/4 c. cake flour

1/2 c. sugar

1 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/3 c. plus 1 tbsp. buttermilk

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

Chocolate Crackle Glaze:

1 c. powdered sugar

2 tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/4 tsp. salt

Peanut Oil, for frying

Directions:

1.  In heatproof bowl, melt chocolate and butter together until smooth; set aside.

2.  In large bowl, whisk together 1 cup flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  

3.  In separate bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, and egg yolk.

4.  Make well in center of dry ingredients.  Pour in buttermilk mixture, and using a spatula, fold two or three times.  Add the chocolate mixture and fold together until dough is smooth and shiny. Sift the remaining 3/4 cup flour over the mixture and fold to combine well.

5.  Transfer dough to large piece of waxed paper.  Place second sheet of waxed paper on top and roll out dough between the paper to 10x12-inch oval, about 3/4-inch thick.  Set the dough, still between waxed paper, on baking sheet and freeze until firm enough to cut (about 30 minutes).

6.  Remove dough from freezer and remove top sheet of waxed paper.  Dust dough with flour and replace waxed paper.  Flip over dough; remove the now top sheet of waxed paper. 

7.  Lightly coat a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray.  Using a floured 3-inch cookie cutter (or inverted drinking glass), cut out donuts.  Cut out centers with floured 1-inch cookie cutter.  Transfer donuts and donut holes to baking sheet.  Re-roll scraps and repeat to make 10 donuts and 10 donut holes.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 1 day.

8.  Before frying, prepare glaze by whisking together powdered sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla extract, and salt in wide, shallow bowl.  Add 2 tablespoons hot water and whisk until smooth (glaze will be thick).  Set aside.

9.  In large high-sided skillet or wide pot, heat 2 inches of oil to 350°F.  Working in batches of 3, fry donuts about 45 seconds per side or until cooked through (fry donut holes about 35 seconds per side).  Transfer donuts to paper towels to drain and immediately dip one side of donuts into glaze.  Transfer to rack, glaze side up, and let sit until glaze sets (about 3 minutes).  

Yield: 10 donuts and 10 donut holes