Baked Vanilla Doughnuts: Secret Recipe Club

This is my fourth post for Secret Recipe Club and I'm so excited to share it with you all!  Every month a part of being in Secret Recipe Club is to go around and read the other posts written and revealed on the same day in your group.  Every time I've been to this blogger's site I've thought, "Man, it would be neat to get her blog sometime!"  Then this month, I did!  For October I was assigned the blog Fake Ginger.  I've enjoyed this blog for quite some time now, and I actually already had a few connections to it already -- she's a fake ginger, I'm a real ginger; and about this time last year I was the winner of one of her awesome giveaways!  So it was fun to get assigned her blog after reading it for awhile and even participating on it as well.

I was especially excited to see that she had some posts about baked doughnuts.  I had been seeing baked doughnuts popping up all over the blog world in the last few months and I've been wanting to make some for myself.  The only problem was that I needed a doughnut pan.  Since we live near a Williams-Sonoma outlet, I tend to wait for things like this to show up there so I can get them at a discounted price.  I've been stalking the shelves and a doughnut pan hadn't yet arrived.  But, I was at another fantastic kitchen supply store -- Sur La Table and found a doughnut pan on sale for 3.99.  It was the long, cruller shape and not the typical round but I figured for 3.99 it's worth a try!

So I had the doughnut pan, all I needed was the recipe.  A few days later I got my Secret Recipe Club assignment and was thrilled to find baked doughnuts on Amanda's page.  I let Zach chose the flavor -- he picked vanilla with vanilla glaze, but if it were up to me I would have made her Peanut Butter Doughnuts with Chocolate Glaze recipe.  We had these for a lazy Sunday breakfast and they were amazing.  Nice and tender, great vanilla flavor and super delicious.  I love having them warm form the oven when the glaze soaks in a bit and makes them extra moist and sweet.  The only change I really made was to double the cinnamon since I love cinnamon.  Other than that it was great as is!

Baked Vanilla Doughnuts

from Fake Ginger

makes 3 cruller-shaped doughnuts (or 6 round)

Ingredients:

For doughnuts:

1 cup flour

6 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon butter, melted

For glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 – 2 teaspoons half and half
sprinkles (Sprinkles!  Who doesn't love a recipe that calls for sprinkles?!?)

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 325 degrees.  Spray your doughnut pan with cooking spray.
• In a medium bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Stir until combined.
• In a small bowl whisk buttermilk, egg, vanilla and butter until combined.  Pour buttermilk mixture into flour mixture and stir until just combined.  
• Portion batter into doughnut pan (3 crullers or 6 round doughnuts).  Bake 8-10 minutes for round doughnuts or 20-25 minutes for the larger/thicker cruller shape.  They should spring back when touched.  Let cool for 5 minutes in pan before removing.
• While doughnuts cool, make the glaze.  Combine powdered sugar, vanilla and 1 teaspoon half and half, stirring and adding half and half as needed to achieve the right consistency.  
• Remove doughnuts from pan, top with glaze and sprinkles and serve.

Check out the other recipes and blogs that are a part of this week's Secret Recipe Club reveal day!