September 12, 2010

Baked Donuts! 100 calories per donut!

I was kind of nervous about trying this recipe out. It’s a little time consuming. I made the dough and cut out donuts/holes the night before and then stored them in the fridge. I let the dough get to room temperature for about an hour. I baked some/I fried a few, and guess what? I liked the baked ones much better! The fried ones got a little too done on the outside and not cooked enough on the inside, whereas the baked ones stayed nice and fluffy!

This recipe made 36 donuts/holes. Here’s the stats for 1 donut + 1 donut hole:

Calories computed using www.caloriecount.com

I looked up various recipes and put together ideas from a bunch of them and with what I had on hand. The only thing I had to buy was the evaporated milk, so that was cool!

For the dough:

1 1/3 cups evaporated milk (I used fat free)
1 packet dry active yeast
2 TB. margarine or butter, melted
2/3 cups sugar
2 eggs
5 cups flour
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla

In a small skillet, heat the evaporated milk until its warm (not boiling or scalding, but where you can still put your finger in it and not get burned).

In your mixing bowl, add the warmed milk and yeast, stir and let it sit for 5 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients into the bowl and mix using a dough hook until the dough pulls away from the sides. Leave in a warm place to double in size (about an hour)

After it has doubled in size, roll it out to about a half inch in height. I don’t have a cookie cutter, so I used a small juice glass and to make the donut hole, I used the top of a water bottle my kids use to take to school.

I used the top of a water bottle to make the donut holes

My son Mark making donuts using a small juice glass

After you’ve cut out as many donuts as you can, just gather up the dough and roll it out again and keep going until all the dough is gone.

This is what they looked like before baking

From here, you could let it rise again for 45 minutes. Since I was making them the next day, I just stored them in the fridge on a cookie sheet. I put a piece of parchment papers in between the layers to keep them from sticking.

This is what they looked like after baking

In 2 lunch bags, I had one bag with cinnamon and sugar and another bag with powdered sugar. After they are done baking, you can spray them with Pam Cooking Spray so the powdered sugar will stick or cinnamon and sugar will stick. If you are making a chocolate glaze, just dip it in the glaze.

My son Mark made a glaze with melted chocolate chips, a little evaporated milk and powdered sugar, mix until smooth.

My daughter Claire dipping the donuts in powdered sugar!

It was definitely fun, especially since it was raining outside so what better way to spend a little time on a Saturday morning. The only bad part??? All the dishes and mess to clean up!