Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

Recipe base here. This was not the actual link I used, however I remember the one I did use say that Ina Garten was the delightful culprit, and it does look similar to what I remember.

Cinnamon is one of my preferred spices... in bread, however I find it rather banal in cakes and confectionery.

Trying to transport my memory back to that point in time, I remember that the donuts stuck to the pan more so than when I made the VanVan ones. Perhaps because of the temperature difference, perhaps because of the batter itself. 

They truly were beautiful

Anyhoo, any little bumps, cuts and bruises were cleverly disguised by the cinnamon sugar coating. I wanted to indulge my lazier side and just coat one side, but then decided that would be half-arsed, so coated both sides.

I was making these the same day as I was making Choco Donuts, so wasn't thrilled by the prospect of immediately cleaning donut tins - which is surprisingly tricky - so that they were ready for next use. For that reason, I made two trays' worth (12 donuts), and made muffins out of the remaining batter. Whilst the batter is not offensive when baked in muffin form, I find it a bit tougher than I would like, so this is purely a last resort.

Once I am certain of whether I will stay in Sweden, I will decide whether to invest in two more tins, as this will better suit the quantities I must make.

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Cheesy Onion Donuts

Recipe base from The Kitchy Kitchen, link here

It's been a while since I made these so I'm going by my memory here.

I was thoroughly enjoying my donut adventure, and was quite intrigued by this recipe for savoury donuts I came across. I am trying to work out how I did, as it isn't on my Pinterest, but I imagine that app had something to do with it.

The flavours included in the recipe were sound: jalapeno, nice: green onion, good; cheese, jackpot!

I started to think something had gone awry when half of the cheese was left unaccounted for, and there were general grey areas in some parts of the method.

Not a spicy in the donut as I would have liked

I plugged through, and got as frustrated as I ever have been trying to make a suitable batter and then transferring it to the tins. Manage it I did, and everything was more or less ok... until I tried to remove them from the tins to cool completely. The cheese topping made this a real challenge, and as recommended by the recipe I returned them to the oven to melt the cheese further.

It was a massacre, cap'n!

This just resulted in 'plasticising' the cheese, into a texture that I didn't much appreciate.

I was quite annoyed at the whole exercise, and was ready to write it off... until I tasted the most mangled donut. It. Tasted. Amazing. The flavours were on point, and can even be ramped up a notch for more Oomph. The method just wasn't quite right, and I am sure a few personal flourishes were omitted, unknowingly confusing the instructions.

This definitely is a recipe I need to work on, as it has great potential.

Choco Donuts

The second donut recipe I tried. I made 6 of these on a Friday evening, and got 1. There were none left. I guess the ghost got them.

First batch

This double chocolate baked donut recipe was fairly straight forward for the batter, and the glaze was an unusual mix as it included honey (unusual to me at least), however it had a beautiful shine to it, so I am not complaining.

Second Batch

I found the resulting donut to be a little bit dry, so felt the buttermilk needed to be increased for my next attempt.

In for the close up

I made them again for my colleagues, and as with all things chocolate, they were certainly appreciated.

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

VanVan Donuts

So I'm obviously not publishing these posts in chronological order.

THESE vanilla bean donuts were the ones to christen my new donut pans. I had printed off a few recipes, and these were the ones that seemed most straightforward in terms of ingredients and quantities.

The recipe said it yielded 14, and I believe I got 15. Squeezing power! This refers to the fact that for ease of transferring the batter to the tin, it is easiest to craft a makeshift piping bag by filling a zip lock plastic bag, and cutting a corner off. I reckon if I'd been more efficient (as I am now), I could have gotten one more out.

The recipe instructions gave an unusually high baking temperature of 425°F which translated to nearly 220°C. In the recipe's defence, the baking time was about 2/3 the time I'd seen on other recipes.

Cutenuts

Whilst the donuts were fully baked, they had a strange two tone effect from being overbaked on the rounded part in the tins, and very pale on the exposed upper part. I also had mixed feelings about the flavour versus the texture: the flavour was very good and overcame the bake, however the texture was a bit 'claggy', so perhaps more fluid or less flour would benefit this recipe.

As much as I was dissatisfied, I could
NOT STOP EATING IT

I also had fun with my new Wilton colours that came in the mail, and dyed two parts of my glaze: one part a gentle pink colour and the other a fun light blue. As I am not given to frou frou, yet I am still trying to make my baking look a bit attractive, this is the ideal type of cake to decorate as it just takes a dip in the glaze and some sprinkles for an effortless yet eye-catching look.

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Pumpkin Donuts with Browned Butter Maple Frosting

Recipe based on The Cafe Sucre Farine (LINK)

So I have a new obsession. After over six whole months, maybe even a year since I realised they existed, I decided to expand my baking collection with donut pans.

I have been fascinated about the concept of baked donuts since stumbling across a recipe for Strawberry Buttermilk Donuts on one of my rare Google+ tours.
I have tried my hand at a couple of donut recipes, however seeing as it was the week leading up to Canadian Thanksgiving, I decided to celebrate this serendipity into making Pumpkin donuts.

#nevertheartist

The recipe was quite fiddly, and used the microwave more than I like to (which is never), and to be honest, I am not so keen on the Pumpkin flavour, so I probably wouldn't attempt this recipe again.

Munch

I messed up the frosting by combining all the ingredients before it got fly-zapped, sorry, microwaved, rather than adding the fine sugar last. I'm not sure if this was the reason the frosting was quite grainy, but either way it wasn't my favourite texture.

Me: 2, Pumpkins: 0

Pumpkin Cookies

Based on the recipe on Yammie's Noshery (LINK to be added)

Now that it is Autumn, everyone around me seems to be going crazy for pumpkins. The notion of pumpkin being used in sweet foods is a novelty for me. It wasn't a vegetable - or squash - that I grew up with.

I mean I knew what a pumpkin looked like, I wasn't oblivious about Jack o' Lanterns, but I had no idea it was but one member of a large family.
I remember bursting into somewhat unreasonable laughter at the comical butternut squash that was being bought by a supermarket customer at the store I worked at. I really had no idea what it was!

Being me, I refused to have anything be alien to me, so I strove to make squashes my friend. Butternut squashes. Not so much pumpkins.

Now I work in an international company, and as a nice way to finish the first 'quarter', they celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving that coincided with the time. Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! Well, it certainly felt that way.

I decided to clamber on to the bandwagon in the misguided belief that I would suddenly appreciate and love pumpkin flavour.

I tried Pumpkin Donuts (please see next post!), and found that this recipe for pumpkin cookies would conveniently use up the rest of the puree I had from my open can.

From the oven

The recipe was straightforward, nothing to complain about, however this is the second time I have tried a cookie recipe from Yammie, and my quantities vary quite widely from hers. I guess my standard cookie size is a bit bigger than hers, and she does tend to vary from type to type, although the ingredient quantities/batter size stay more or less the same.

Taster

I know I keep making the mistake of trying warm cookies, but I did it again, and found that the taste was not for me. Not the same situation for my colleagues, who really appreciated them.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess!