I absolutely love doughnuts. I mean, who doesn’t? As a child, they were never something that my parents indulged in frequently but on the rare occasion, my mum would buy the cinnamon ones from Coles where I developed the unsurprising power to make a good handful disappear in not much time at all.

Nowadays, I have a love-hate relationship with doughnuts. I love how they taste but their high calorie count makes me (slightly) more hesitant to scoff quite so many as I did in my childhood. On a day-to-day basis, I generally stare lovingly at doughnuts behind the glass counters at Gloria Jeans, or even the slightly sad looking Krispy Kremes sold at my closest 7/11 whenever I go to fill up on petrol. Some days I find it extremely tempting to buy a deep fryer (homemade fried chicken! homemade doughnuts!?!?! homemade fries!!!) but I know I probably wouldn’t have enough self control to not deep-fry myself straight to the hospital. So you can probably imagine how happy I was to discover a six-ring doughnut pan at Peter’s of Kensington last Friday for only $15. Baked doughnuts definitely seem ‘healthier’ than their fried counterparts and, hey, I can put whatever I like in them!

Okay, full disclosure. I may or may not have made these doughnuts three times in one weekend. They are incredibly moreish but, more to the point, they’re so easy to make. 1 cup of self raising flour, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of milk and one egg, some oil and basic spices – I mean these are super cheap ingredients that most people are pretty much guaranteed to have on hand almost all the time. Plus, the batter is a snap to put together and they bake in about 15 minutes or less. That’s right, you could have piping hot fresh doughnuts in only 20 minutes! The only thing I will mention is that these aren’t as doughy and soft like fried doughnuts – they have more of a cakelike texture but, covered in glaze, they are still pretty easy to put away!

I am super excited to try out new doughnut variations armed with this doughnut pan – gluten free, sugar free, vegan, and of course there will be a couple of decadent versions to try as well.. I”m thinking: dulce du leche doughnuts, coconut doughnuts, white chocolate macadamia doughnuts, maybe choc orange doughnuts? Mmmm, possibilities!

Mix wet ingredients with dry to form the batter.

Spoon doughnut batter into tin and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly browned.

And now for the fun part, coating them in sugary goodness!

You can try coating them in a simple glaze (Krispy Kreme style).

Or try the classic cinnamon doughnut (toss them in a mixture of caster sugar with a few dashes of ground cinnamon).

Basic Doughnuts

Dairy free, nut free
Author: CookingCrusade.com

Makes: 6 doughnuts
Time to prepare: 5 minutes to make batter, 15 minutes to bake

Basic Doughnuts

• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 a cup milk (I used soy milk but feel free to use whatever you have on hand)
• 1 tablespoon vinegar (to sour your milk to turn it into buttermilk. I’ve only successfully used this with cow and soy milk, so unsure of results on almond, rice, etc. If you just have those on hand, I would recommend skipping the vinegar step.) If you have buttermilk on hand, you could of course use this in place of the milk/vinegar mixture.
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon oil (or melted butter or vegan butter such as Nutellex. I used macadamia oil, but you could use another mild flavoured oil such as soy bean or rice bran)
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of nutmeg (optional)

Simple glaze

• 1 tablespoon of butter, melted (I used Nutellex)
• 1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tablespoon of milk of choice, or water

Mix all ingredients together until it forms a thin icing. If you prefer a thicker consistency, add more sifted icing sugar. For a thinner consistency, add more milk/water. Dip (or double dip!) doughnuts into glaze and place on a plate and allow the icing to set.

Cinnamon sugar

• 2 tablespoons of butter, melted (I used Nutellex)
• 1/2 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

Brush cooled doughnuts with melted butter. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and dip in doughnuts. Serve.

Equipment needed: one bowl, one wooden spoon and one doughnut pan (I used a six doughnut pan by Wilton)

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and grease doughnut pan so it is ready for the batter (I used oil, you could use melted butter/non dairy spread.)
2. Sift flour into your bowl and add sugar, salt and nutmeg if using.
3. In a small jug, add your milk of choice, then vinegar and allow to stand for about 20-30 seconds. Crack egg in and beat into milk mixture. Add oil/melted butter to milk mixture.
4. Pour in your wet ingredients into your dry ingredients and stir with wooden spoon until completely mixed together.
5. Spoon doughnut batter into tin and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden and the doughnut springs back to touch.
6. Allow doughnuts to cool before adorning with frosting, dipping into glazes or rolling in cinnamon sugar. Enjoy!

This recipe doubles or triples nicely, but I only made enough batter to fill my doughnut pan once.

These doughnuts are incredibly versatile. You could sift in a few tablespoons of cocoa powder into the dry ingredients to make chocolate doughnuts, or you could add chopped nuts, or chocolate chips to the batter as well. Why not try adding a couple spoonfuls of grated zest from lemons, limes, or oranges to the batter to give it a bit of zing? You can also go nuts with the toppings – try dipping your doughnuts in chocolate ganache, then in crushed nuts? Or dip them into salted caramel or a cream cheese frosting? The possibilities are endless!

I attempted to make chocolate peanut butter fudge to sell at the Cake Sale vs Bake Stall, but it didn’t set, so I melted it down and dipped the doughnuts in the melted fudge to frost them in and they turned out not too bad! I will definitely try to adapt an easier version of this recipe to make again soon (instead of making fudge to melt!).

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