Time to Mess Up the Donuts

After dropping off youngerSon at his college dorm last week, I celebrated consoled myself and theHubby by another attempt at making donuts.  Shutterbean has a yummy-looking recipe for chocolate donuts.  Actually,  dipped in glaze and kissed with toasted coconut, hers are ever-so-more-elegant that they deserved her more formal spelling of doughnuts. Mine weren't, so they are spelled the more casual style.

Shutterbean recommends using cooking spray as the greasing agent.  Normally, cooking spray gunks up a non-stick pan, at least in my house, so I dabbed olive oil on a paper towel and lubed up 3 mini-donut pans.  At 12 minis per pan (don't bother taking off your shoes) that's 36 potential mini-donuts.  I missed the part about a yield of 12 minis, as in only one pan's worth. I also missed greasing a few (and by few I mean most) spots here and here.

Big mistake, even with a supposed non-stick pan.

TIP ALERT!  Shutterbean suggests to fill a freezer-type plastic bag (a food storage bag is too thin and might burst during the piping step) with the batter and pipe it into the molds.  This is truly a great idea and one you should definitely follow.

Despite filling the molds 3/4 full each rather than 2/3 as directed, 18 molds were filled with potential donut, so it's a good thing I overdid the pan prep thing.  ANOTHER TIP ALERT!  Add water to the empty molds in a donut (or muffin) tin to avoid the possibility of overheating and discoloring the empty molds and burning the adjoining donuts (or muffins).

By the way, I made these donuts parve, so I substituted coconut milk mixed with vinegar for the buttermilk, and veggie oil for the butter.

I didn't bother icing or coconut-ing the donuts  Yes, the donuts did taste great unadorned and yes, the toppings would have been the icing on the ... er... donuts, but since they were anything but a work of art, I didn't bother.  Turned out I was right, since they were all scarfed up by late afternoon.

Chocolate Glazed Donuts (Normally) Dipped in Coconut
Slightly adapted from Shutterbean
Makes 12-18 mini-donuts (or 6 full-sized)

cooking spray
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. table salt
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 Tbl. apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
3 Tbl. vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners’ sugar, plus more if needed
2 Tbl. coconut milk, plus more if needed
1 loosely packed cup toasted flaked coconut

Preheat oven to 325 F.  Coat donut pan(s) with cooking spray.Set aside.  In a small bowl stir the coconut milk with the vinegar.  Set aside as well.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.

Kind of artsy-looking.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk coconut-vinegar mixture, sugar, egg, oil and vanilla until smooth.

Add wet mixture to flour mixture and whisk just until completely combined and mostly smooth.

I used a gravy ladle for greater control.

Ladle batter into a large freezer plastic bag. Press out air, then seal bag.

This is the neatest I've ever been.

Cut off a corner and squeeze batter into prepared donut molds, about 3/4 full each.

Bake for 10 minutes for mini-donuts or 15 minutes for full-sized, or until doughnuts spring back when lightly pressed. Cool in pan on rack 5 minutes, then carefully remove donuts from baking pans onto a cooling rack (you might have to run a knife around edges). Allow to cool completely.

Uh-oh ...

If you more successfully removed the donuts from the pan, combine confectioners’ sugar and and 2 tablespoons coconut milk in a small mixing bowl.   Stir until consistency is thick. If too thin, add more sugar a tablespoon at a time. If too thick, stir in coconut milk a teaspoon at a time until desired thickness is reached.

Dip one side of a donut into icing and allowing excess to drip back into bowl. Place on cooling rack, icing side up; immediately sprinkle with coconut.  Repeat with remaining donuts.  Let icing set before serving.

Or just eat 'em plain.