Crate & Barrel's Basic Cake Doughnuts with Sugar Glaze

This evening is the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and since I am someone who celebrates both Jewish and Christian holidays, I get to enjoy all the fantastic meals that along with those occasions. Rosh Hashanah is considered the Jewish New Year and with it you are to reflect on the past year’s choices and plan how to make the coming year even better. You are also supposed to celebrate with a lovely meal that has sweet things in the menu in order to usher in a sweet new year.

For my birthday this summer, my mom bought me Crate & Barrel’s doughnut pan. This was my very first attempt at one of my personal favorite snacks, desserts, breakfasts…you get the idea! Since it was my first time I used this very simple of doughnut recipes and added the sugary glaze to mark tonight’s special occasion.

I didn’t have yogurt in the house so I substituted sour cream which does the same trick. I also didn’t have whole milk so 1% had to do today. I also don’t have a piping bag so I used the Ziploc plastic bag trick and filled a sandwich size one with the doughnut mix and it worked perfectly to make lovely circles in the doughnut pan without any mess. I had a little mix leftover so if you had a bigger pan this recipe could actually make 8 doughnuts, however, the glaze recipe was precise for just 6.

Ready for the oven ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

After 8 minutes, I carefully pressed on one of the doughnuts in the oven and it was springy and light even though the tops of the doughnuts were not browned. The Crate & Barrel pan mentions this is okay and that the bottom will become brown anyway. Once I took the pan out of the oven, flipped over the doughnuts to let them cool a bit, I saw the undersides were perfectly browned! The glaze took 2 minutes to whip up and I couldn’t wait to taste one! They are for dessert tonight, but I had to have a little bite and it was pure heaven. Cakey but not too thick and sweet but not oozing gooey frosting. I love them! Here are my doughnuts:

Cake Doughnuts with Sugar Glaze ©EverydayCookingAdventures 2013

Basic Cake Doughnuts with Sugar Glaze

From: Doughnuts: Simple & Delicious Recipes You Can Make At Home, By Lara Ferroni
Makes: 6-8 Donuts

Ingredients:

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF and lightly grease a doughnut pan with cooking spray.

2. Sift the flours and baking powder together in a bowl. Whisk in sugar, nutmeg, and salt. Now, using your fingers, incorporate the butter.

3. Add the milk, yogurt, vanilla, and egg. Stir until everything is just combined, making sure not to over-mix.

4. Using a piping bag, or zip-lock baggie with a corner cut out of it, fill each section 2/3 of the doughnut pan, being careful to leave the center posts cleared. Bake for 8 minutes. They will not look very brown on top but the underside will be quite browned.

5. While the doughnuts are baking, whip up the glaze (ingredients below) and set aside until the doughnuts have cooled. Once cooled, dip the donuts top and bottom sides in the glaze and let dry on a cooling rack with foil underneath to catch the drips.

FOR THE GLAZE: Enough for 6 donuts.