Baked Breakfast Doughnuts

My sister-in-law gave my kids a cute little electric doughnut baker last Easter that is fun to mess around with on the weekends (think waffle maker with doughnut shapes inside the plates).

Here is the Babycakes maker we have:

Though we loved the idea of cute, quick doughnuts,  they always looked better than they tasted.  The recipe included with the maker was bland and had no texture.  So, we packed up the maker for several months until I found this thick and rich recipe for Baked French Breakfast Donuts.

I loved how simple it was to whip up and the flavor and texture was amazing.  This recipe calls for baking in a doughnut pan like this one I ordered from King Arthur Flour:

 

You could also make this batter into doughnut muffins or pipe into hot oil for an amazing churro! Hmmm, I just thought of that while I was typing. I'm going to have to make some of those...

Baked French Breakfast Doughnuts

adapted from Cooks

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature 

1/2 cup sugar 

1 egg, beaten 

1 1/2 cups flour 

2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup whole milk (I ended up using almost 1 cup to get a thinner batter)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter your doughnut pan. Set aside.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg; mix well.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk.
4. Fill doughnut tins half full. Bake 15-20 minutes. Take out of pan immediately.  Makes 6-7 big donuts.

Now, this is where the fun begins!  Once you remove the doughnut from the pan (or doughnut maker, or oil) you can immediately sprinkle with powdered sugar, or dip the tops in melted butter then into cinnamon sugar, or coat with a simple glaze of powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk.  We sprinkled our glazed doughnuts with sprinkles and mini-chips. (thinking out loud here...dip whole fried stick into butter then roll in cinnamon sugar for "churro" doughnuts!)

My favorite combo, however was to immediately dip the top into maple syrup then right into the cinnamon sugar mixture for a french toast topping.  Yum!