Time To Make The Doughnuts

Sunday doughnuts have become a bit of a tradition in our house. We usually walk across the alley to the grocery store on the block next to us and pick out a few from their bakery, but after looking at the ingredient list(full of things that I cannot pronounce, soy, weird dough conditioners and such) on a packaged box of their doughnuts, I decided it was time to invest in a doughnut pan and start baking our own treats on Sunday mornings.

These were out first attempt-

And they were delicious. DELICIOUS I TELL YOU!

I used the following recipe from allrecipes.com, though I did swap buttermilk for milk and 2 teaspoons vegetable oil(many reviewers used 2 or 3 tablespoons of butter instead) for shortening. I omitted the cinnamon as well.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon shortening

I also used a 400 degree oven instead of the suggested 325.

Simply mix all ingredients together(I mixed the wet ingredients first then added the dry), grease your doughnut pan and fill each well about 3/4 full. A pastry bag with a round tip makes this task easier. Or, take a plastic sandwhich bag and cut a corner off. Bake 7-8 minutes or until doughnuts spring back when you touch them.

I made a glaze from chunky peanut butter(natural), milk and confectioner's sugar, but I never measure when I make glazes so I cannot give you specifics as far as that goes. Just glob some peanut butter into a small bowl, add a little milk and a little sugar, beat and continue to add milk and sugar alternately until you arrive at the consistency and taste that you want. I made my glaze nice and thin, so that it dried down to a thin, sweet but not sticky shell.

My mind has already begun racing with millions(or maybe hundreds...) of flavor combinations and icing alternatives. Tang and orange peels, bacon and maple, chocolate and bacon, coconut and lime, cookies and buttercream, lemon and Crunch Berries, gingerbread and cream cheese, chocolate and lavender, oh I could just die and go to doughnut heaven!

So be prepared to be assaulted with doughnut photographs on a weekly basis from here on out.

Sorry in advance to all of you on restrictive fad diets...Just pretend they are made of poop. Maybe that will help.