Cinnamon Sugar Baked Doughnuts

Happy Friday! I hope things are nice and crisp and autumnal where you are. We've been mainly housebound here for nearly two weeks now as the Wee Man and I have been poorly. We've both had a cold which I am sure we picked up from this kid at the baby swimming class. You know the one. His dad brought him out despite the solid stream of snot hanging from the kids nose. Cheers pal! So we've both had a cold and then to top it off Wee Man also got hand, foot and mouth. Fortunately he got over the cold fairly quickly and the hand, foot and mouth was mainly just hand and foot for him but the blisters, despite not seeming to bother him too much, looked awful. I haven't been quite so lucky as I've been concentrating my efforts and energy looking after Wee Man I haven't stopped to look after myself. Today I am finally feeling myself again and seem to be getting to the end of it but I have a cough which sounds like I smoke 40 a day. Dead sexy.

The only good thing about being poorly is the excuse to eat comfort food. Yep diet goes out the window a little when you just want to eat mash potato and gravy (one of my favourite things to eat when I'm feeling 'Meh'). I did make Ramen from scratch even the stock was homemade. That was tasty and I'm pretty sure was a craving induced from binge watching SORTEDfood which I have even got Mr R hooked watching too!
I had treated myself to a new bit of kit at the end of last month and I got to play with it a lot more being stuck indoors which was kinda key to this post - my new doughnut tin! I'd seen some of the people I follow on Instagram talk about them and their results looked great and if you follow me on Instagram you will have seen this photo from Halloween when I had been playing with baked doughnuts and marshmallow.

The doughnut is a very similar recipe to the one in this post (if you want to have a go just swap out 30g of the plain flour for cocoa and don't add any nutmeg) and the marshmallow cobweb is just regular shop bought marshmallows (you might have some left over from making my Unicorn Crispy Squares) that you heat up in the microwave and then stir until they are cool enough to pick up and then stretch and wrap round the doughnut to look like cobwebs or strips of bandage. These were delicious but I wanted to give you all the basic recipe in a classic form with the cinnamon sugar. Once you have this recipe down it's a great jumping off point to start experimenting with different flavours and different glazes.

The best thing about these doughnuts is that it is highly likely that you have all these ingredients already sat in your cupboards and fridge so it is super easy to make up a batch. This recipe is for a small batch and only makes around 8 so it is also very easy to sit and eat the whole batch as soon as you make it and have to make another batch to share with other people. The best thing is you don't feel quite as guilty when this happens because they are baked, not fried, so that almost makes them healthy right?! No I am not claiming that these are healthy by any means. You use melted butter to make the sugar stick to the outside. These are still very much a treat but hopefully one you feel slightly less guilty about.
The one draw back to making these, and it is a small one, is that you do need to buy the doughnut tin. Fortunately this is not a super expensive piece of kit. I picked my 6 hole tin up for under €10 and it is a very sturdy non stick metal tin which I expect to last me a long time. You can get silicon moulds but I have to admit I have not had good experiences with silicon moulds when baking. I have often found them flimsy and rarely non stick. This could be poor quality, human error or simply bad luck but I do recommend spending perhaps a little more for a rigid metal tin. If you want to make larger batches I would advise purchasing two doughnut tins otherwise you will get fed up of waiting for the tin to come out the oven so you can re-grease it and put the next batch in.

The texture of these doughnuts is light and cakey. They don't have much of an exterior crust as they take so little time to bake so when you take a bite you literally bite straight through the sweet crunchy sugar into the soft doughnut. I would advise using granulated sugar for these doughnuts instead of caster sugar. Granulated sugar has larger crystals than caster. It makes very little difference in the batter and you want the sugar crystals on the outside to give you some texture. They also look so pretty! The nutmeg in the doughnut batter adds a subtle hint of spice that isn't super obvious but you miss it when it's not there. It works really well with the cinnamon sugar and just helps to really elevate these doughnuts to the next level.

One last thing before we get to the recipe. Don't skimp on the butter when you are brushing the doughnuts before tossing them in the cinnamon sugar. It is the glue that ensures the sugary crust on your doughnuts as well as adding a richness. These are a treat after all! If you run low just melt a little more as needed. Did you ever play the game when you have to eat a doughnut without licking your lips to get rid of all the sugar? You won't make it through eating one of these without licking your lips!

Cinnamon Sugar Baked Doughnuts
Makes 8

Ingredients

85g Plain Flour
½ tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Ground Nutmeg
⅛ tsp Salt
140g Granulated Sugar
60ml Milk
½ tsp Vanilla
140g Unsalted Butter, Melted
1 Egg
½ tsp Cinnamon

• Preheat oven to 180°c
• Combine the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, salt and 65g of the sugar in a bowl.
• Melt the butter and brush the inside of the doughnut tin and set to one side. Allow the rest of the butter to cool slightly. 
• Combine the milk, egg, and vanilla in a jug and whisk. Pour in 70g of the butter and whisk to combine. Reserve the rest of the butter for later.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk to form a smooth batter.
• Pour the batter in to a jug and pour into the doughnut tin filling each indentation ¾ full. Any left over batter just set this to one side.
• Place the filled tin in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes.
• Whilst the doughnuts are baking combine the remaining 75g sugar in a bowl with the cinnamon.
• When the doughnuts are ready remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 2-3 minutes. To release turn the tin over and give it a sharp tap on your work surface. The doughnuts should fall out. If they don't release loosen them around their edge with a spoon (be careful not to scratch the non stick!)
• Brush the doughnuts liberally with the reserved melted butter, toss in the cinnamon sugar so they are well coated and place on a rack to cool fully.
• Repeat baking and sugar process with any left over batter.

For more images of my cooking adventures and sneak peaks of what's to come on the blog follow me on Instagram @_cooknoevil_