donuts!

There's nothing quite like a donut, right? :) I don't know why I even attempted to read a Krispy Kreme box however because there's like five things in them that I'm allergic to, unforunately. It's like Entemann's...I love Entemann's cheese filled coffee cake but that's the same story. However, I have found a replacement for Krispy Kreme! Make them myself!

My love affair with donuts has had a twisty (no pun intended!) history the last few months. In the beginning, I was just trying to cope with no meat in my diet which is a big enough to change. Then I started missing some of the more luxury items in my diet. Namely desserts. I have a major sweet tooth and almost everything in the dessert section has eggs in it, or rice flour (most pastries), or the lovely yeast mold.

My birthday came around in March and Maggie sent me this fabulous Babycakes Covers the Classics cookbook. It's from the Babycakes bakery based in New York City and it's a gluten-free vegan cookbook. Which is fabulous because that eliminates a lot of the things that I'm allergic to but at the same time, she replaces regular flour with rice flour, oil with applesauce, etc so while I'm loving the idea and concepts, it's been an interesting balancing act (can I just replace the applesauce with oil, or is there a legitimate reason to have applesauce in this recipe? She does have a section in the front of the cookbook regarding gluten vs gluten-free cooking so I can replace the rice flour with regular flour if you were wondering). How does this connect to donuts, you might ask? Well...see for yourself.

It really got me going! Just salivating looking at the cover of this cookbook! It has some really fabulous recipes in here (thin mints, Chips Ahoy gluten free, cinnamon buns, all kinds of pancakes). There were a few impediments to trying this recipes however.

First, no donut pan. In case you weren't aware, donuts are healthier now because we can bake them instead of frying them but you have to have the appropriately donut shaped pan to do so. I bought one after I moved as a treat for myself.

Second, this recipe is damn hard to convert to non-gluten free. I have yet to attempt it. It's the applesauce conundrum, as well as the rice flour AND other ingredients. In my eagerness to try my donut pan, I found other recipes (I will eventually try the Babycakes recipe, but in the meantime...).

(taken off the Internet and appropriately modified for my needs...has anyone else done that? taken two or three recipes off the Internet, melded them, baked them, and had their fingers crossed while it was baking?)

4 T butter, softened

½ c milk

½ t vinegar (rice vinegar or white)

½ t vanilla extract

1 egg

1c all purpose flour

½ c sugar

1 ½ t baking powder

¼ t salt

¼ t cinnamon

¼ t nutmeg

Melt the butter in a large bowl. Add the vinegar, milk, and vanilla and stir. Whisk in egg. Add dry ingredients until well blended.

Lightly spray donut pans.

Taking a sturdy Ziploc bag, fill it with the batter and snip an edge to pipe the batter into the pans (~2/3 full). Bake for 8 at 425 minutes or until tops spring back lightly. Cool on parchment paper.

I use white vinegar instead of rice vinegar (derived from rice...can't use it--also, you can use buttermilk instead of doing the milk/vinegar bit but I don't have buttermilk), and I have egg replacer that I used for the egg. I left out the cinnamon and trust me, the nutmeg gives these suckers a delicious flavor and it made my apartment smell fabulous. I did not cool on parchment paper. It's also a learning experience to fill in just the donut shaped bit on the pan and not fill in the center hole because I also did not use a ziploc bag but instead used my 1/4 c measuring cup to go around the mold.

They are fabulous. Amazing. I've been talking about my donuts for weeks to people and I think that they think I'm going crazy. These things are so great though. They're light and delicious and even taste mildly healthy, but that's probably just because I've extolled the virtues of them being baked and not fried. Also, in my first recipe excitement I didn't glaze them or anything, but that's next. And I do know some of the calorie counts and they're not anything like the Krispy Kreme variety, so here's to making your own donuts!

Bonus points (from the health.com version of the recipe):

Lemon Glazed: 

Combine 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice and 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, stirring well with a whisk. Dip 1 side of the cooled doughnuts into glaze; let cool on a rack, glazed side up.

Chocolate-Hazelnut: 

Melt 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate in a bowl in microwave until smooth. Dip tops of doughnuts into chocolate and place chocolate side up on a rack to cool. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts; let sit about 10 minutes.

Chocolate Swirl: 

Melt 4 ounces (1 cup) bittersweet chocolate in microwave until smooth. Fill a small squeeze bottle or zip-top plastic bag (snip a tiny hole in 1 corner of bag) with melted chocolate; pipe chocolate onto tops of doughnuts. Chill doughnuts until chocolate sets (about 10 minutes).

Or you can make a general glaze with confectioner's sugar and water and use that to attach to your donut cinnamon and sugar, or coconut, or sprinkles, or anything else you can think of.

Anyone rushing out to buy a donut pan? :)