Baked, Not Fried: Make Doughnuts at Home
Photo: Alexandra Grablewski
Baked Doughnuts with Chocolate
Makes 20 to 40 mini doughnuts or 20 regular doughnuts
I enjoy both cake and yeast doughnuts, but when I’m making them at home, I always opt for the cake variety because they can be baked in the oven. They involve no yeast and no hot oil. High-temperature baking and a short cooking time yield light cakes with crisp golden exteriors, so these doughnuts withstand a nice dunking in milk or coffee. Using buttermilk ensures that every bite is moist, while the cinnamon and honey work together to give a warm sweetness. For an extra layer of decadence, add a quick chocolate ganache icing and sprinkle with pan-toasted coconut.
Doughnut pans are widely available in kitchen supply stores. They come in two sizes, regular and mini.
3 1/2 cups cake flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 1/4 cups buttermilk, at room temperature
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tablespoon honey
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted, plus 1 tablespoon for glaze
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, toasted
1. Set a rack in the center position and preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Grease a mini or a regular doughnut baking pan.
3. In a large bowl, whisk all the dry ingredients together.
4. In another bowl, mix the buttermilk, eggs, honey, and melted butter together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
5. Spoon the batter into the pan, filling just a little below the rim of the molds. Do not overfill.
6. Bake until golden around the edges, 5 to 6 minutes for minis, 10 to 11 minutes for regular doughnuts. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes, then transfer the doughnuts to the rack to cool completely.
7. Melt the chocolate and remaining 1 tablespoon butter in the top of a double boiler or in a bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.
8. Dip the doughnuts in the hot chocolate, sprinkle them with toasted coconut, and serve.
Excerpted from Sweet Paul Eat and Make by Paul Lowe Einlyng (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).
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