Baked Donuts

Who doesn't like donuts .... not any one that I can think of.

Donuts seems to be latest craze in Singapore. I remember the very 1st donut shop which opened up in Singapore. It's called Donut Factory. Their donuts came with all sorts of toppings - they even had a wasabi donut. Who would have ever thought of adding this to a pastry!

Customers would line up for an average of one hour just to buy a dozen or two of these goodies. The queques put me off and I only managed to gather some patience to join a Q after more than a year .... by then other donut shops started popping up all over the island!

But just think, donuts are fried ... is this healthy?? Hmmmm .... I guess having 1 or 2 a week ain't that bad right??

So ever thought of having a baked version - it'll definitely be much healthier but will it taste good? So when I came across this recipe whilst browsing through Tartelette's blog - it looked yummy from the pictures -I decided I must give it a try. The donuts turned out more bread-like texture than actual fried donuts. It tasted pretty good fresh from the oven, especially with a sprinkling of sugar and lots of cinnamon!



Baked Donuts
(adapted from 101 Cookbooks)

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups warm milk, 95 to 105 degrees (divided)
1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Method

1) Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer.

2) Stir in the yeast and sugar and set aside for five minutes or so to let it proof.

3) Stir the butter into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture.

4) With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt - just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. Adjust the dough texture by adding flour a few tablepsoons at a time or more milk. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth.

5) Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.

6) Transfer the dough to a buttered (or oiled) bowl, cover, put in a warm place, and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

7) Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. With a 2-3 inch cookie cutter, stamp out circles in the dough . Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.

8) Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes - start checking around 8 mins.

9) While the doughnuts are baking, place the butter in a medium bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

10) Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl. Eat immediately if not sooner.Makes 1 1/2 - makes about 2 dozen medium doughnuts.