marble glazed donuts

My mom loves donuts, as do I, and I have many memories of us happily eating donuts together! From when I was in high school and we would (quite often!) get donuts from Happy Donuts down the street; fast forward to the time we took a trip to Boston with my daughter and the three of us had donuts for breakfast almost every day that we were there. (The three of us later took a trip to New Jersey together and spent a morning searching for donuts to eat for breakfast!). So when I saw this PureWow post right before Mother's Day last year, I knew I had to make them!

And even better, the recipe was for baked donuts, not fried!

For the glaze, I used lemon juice (instead of milk, which the recipe calls for), and I was glad that I did because it offset the sweetness of the glaze perfectly. And while the glaze was simple to make, I had a hard time dipping the donuts without making a mess! Guess I need more practice!

After dipping, I let the donut dry on a wire rack to let the glaze set. I think in the future, I would make the glaze a bit thicker, and I would also use a knife or something to smooth out the edges of the glaze to get a cleaner donut without messy drips.

While the donuts came out soft and fluffy, they unfortunately did not come close to the texture of fried donuts. The only other time I've made baked donuts was when I made these pumpkin donuts, which had a denser moist texture that more closely resembled (cake) donuts. But still, these weren't bad, and of course we at them all up anyway.

Hope you had a happy Mother's Day!

baked pumpkin donuts

Last year for Halloween, I made fun jack-o-lantern cookies, based on jack-o-lanterns that we had actually carved at our house.  And the year before, I made jack-o-lantern cupcakes with a spiderweb frosting.  But this year, I didn't have time to make anything elaborate!  I was, however, able to whip up a quick batch of baked pumpkin donuts on Halloween Day!

I've been meaning to use these donut pans that my friend Reggie gave me for Christmas a while back, but never had a chance until now!  For the donut batter, I found a great recipe at Kirbie's Cravings, and they were a breeze to make!  You basically just combine all the wet ingredients, and then add the dry ingredients, and then you're done!  

After filling the donut pans 3/4 full, I baked them for 15 minutes and they were done.

After they cooled for a bit, they went for a quick dip in a cinnamon and sugar mixture.

And then, they were ready to be eaten!  

They turned out really moist and flavorful, had great texture, and were full of pumpkin flavor.

I shared a few with my neighbor Cindy, and I just love the picture that she posted on Instagram!

I had enough batter to make some mini donut as well, using this pan (also from Reggie - thanks Reggie!)

One thing to note is that these donuts are best eaten the day they are made.  I ate some the next day and they were quite soggy.  But it wasn't anything that a quick dip in cinnamon sugar couldn't fix! :) Perhaps next time I'll store them unadorned and then dip them in cinnamon sugar until right before serving.

One last note, I also used the same batter to test out baking them in muffin tins, topped with a brown sugar and cinnamon crust before baking, and these still tasted great the next day!  

Enjoy!