Baked Doughnuts

You'd be surprised how soft & moist these are! 



Baked doughnuts, anyone? Personally I prefer the deep fried ones, heck anything deep fried is yummy in my books, but if you're looking to save on cooking oil and you loathe cleaning up greasy mess, these baked doughnuts are for you! One thing though, if  you're watching your calories, these may not be as low fat as you may think and in my opinion certainly not that much healthier. For sure you'll feel less guilty but don't be fooled just because these doughnuts are baked instead of fried. They are really in fact not much lower in fat if you look at the butter content in the recipe and  furthermore, these doughnuts need to be brushed with additional melted butter once baked to keep the crust tender. If you're watching your weight and every little calorie counts, you shouldn't be eating a doughnut in the first place anyway! But who's counting? Certainly not me, not now ... later maybe. Haha!


I am submitting this entry to 'Aspiring Bakers #8 - Bread Seduction' hosted by sweet Jasmine of  'The Sweetylicious' (Details here).
Baked any bread this month? Do join in the fun too!


Baked Doughnuts
(Recipe adapted from Doughnuts by Lara Ferroni)



Makes  10 to 14 doughnuts

Ingredients:

1 egg
¼ cup (60gm) granulated sugar
1 cup milk, heated to 115 °F (46 °C)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2½ to 3½ cups (300gm to 420gm) all purpose flour, divided, plus more for kneading
1 stick butter (4 ounces or 115gm), cut into 1″ cubes

Method:

In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the egg and sugar on medium speed for about 1 minute. Add in the milk, yeast, salt, and vanilla. Turn the mixer to low, and then add in 2 cups of the flour. Attach the dough hook and then on medium speed, add the butter one piece at a time until smooth. Reduce the speed to low, and then add the rest of the flour until the dough sticks to the hook and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. It should be soft and moist, but not sticky.
Turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Place in a mixing bowl coated with cooking spray and cover with a damp towel. Let rise until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
Punch down the dough and roll it out to about ½” thickness. With doughnut or cookie cutter, cut out 3″ circles with 1″ holes.
Preheat the oven to 400 °F (200 °C). On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, place the doughnuts 1″ apart. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 20 minutes.
Bake until light golden in color, 5-8 minutes. Brush with melted butter and then coat with icing sugar or glaze of your choice. Serve immediately. Doughnuts are best eaten while still warm.

Note:
I let my stand mixer do the kneading using  the dough hook on medium speed. I used  a mixture of bread flour and all purpose flour just because I didn't have enough of all purpose flour on hand. I used a total  of 3 1/2  cups flour. I also needed a longer baking time for my doughnuts to turn light golden brown about 12 minutes (but that's just my oven).