Averie Cooks » Baked Vanilla Donuts with Vanilla Glaze

Baked Vanilla Donuts with Vanilla Glaze

by Averie Sunshine on November 7, 2011

When I bought my donut pan a few weeks ago, I didn’t know I was going to enjoy making homemade donuts as much as I have been.

But boy, I’m glad I finally got around to picking up that donut pan.

These donuts remind me of the Original Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnuts.

They donuts are baked, not fried, so they are not exactly the same as KK’s, but they’re remarkably similar. Let’s face it, baked and fried, apples and oranges, but you’d be surprised how similar these are.

Similar enough that when I gave one to Scott without saying anything other than just asking him his thoughts, the first words out of his mouth were, “This tastes like a Krispy Kreme doughtnut!”

That’s what I was hoping to hear because that equals success in my book.

If you’ve never had a KK doughnut, you’re missing out. And those tend to taste best at 4am after a long night out when the only thing that’s open is a Waffle House or the Krispy Kreme Drive-Thru and you’re living in the middle of no-wheres-ville South Carolina and you’re very familiar with the 24 hour KK drive-thru. But that’s another story.

No Krispy Kreme? No drive-thru?

No problem.

It’s probably better that way, anyway. And you can make these.

They are dense and yes, they are a ‘cake-style’ donut, but they are very moist. They are not cakey or dry like many cake-style donuts tend to be. You know those donuts that taste like you’re eating dry cardboard or ground up chalk?

These are not like that, at all. The texture of them is what you’d have if there was a marriage between a donut and a muffin top. Moist and dense.

For today’s donuts, I tweaked the Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze that I made last week. They were so reminiscent of Cinnabuns but it was time to make something more along the Krispy Kreme lines.

Where in the world have these been all my life?

No donut pan? Ok, well you should get one. I am not one to talk because I just bought mine last month but for $8 bucks at BB & B with a coupon or $10 without, but it’s a no-brainer.

And if you don’t have one and really don’t forsee yourself buying one, you can make these donuts as muffins instead. I tried that with the leftover batter because I could have made 7 donuts but instead I made 6 donuts + 2 small muffins.

But maybe looking at these will convince you to just buy the stinkin’ donut pan. I have no idea what took me so long, either.

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Baked Vanilla Donuts with Vanilla Glaze (Inspired by Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts with Vanilla Cream Cheese Glaze)

Ingredients:

For the Donuts

1 c all-purpose flour

6 tbsp white sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt (I omitted)

6 tbsp buttermilk

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp butter, melted

Yields: 6-7 donuts in this Wilton doughtnut pan. Pans vary by size but this is not a “huge” recipe. Double or triple, or halve (beat the egg and then divide in half) the recipe as desired. For the extra bit of batter, rather than waiting for my one donut pan to come out of the oven, I made two small muffins in a muffin pan with it. It took about 15 minutes for the muffins to cook through.

For the Glaze

1/2 c (or more) powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract (use more if you like a stronger vanilla flavor)

1-2 tsp Water, Milk, Half & Half, Cream, Heavy Cream, Vegan Milk, Coconut Milk, etc. (I used half & half)

Directions:

For the Donuts

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees and lightly grease or cooking-spray the donut pan (or muffin tin).

In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon (and salt).

Add buttermilk, egg, vanilla and melted butter. Whisk or stir to combine.

Use a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip (or a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off) to pipe the batter into a 6-donut pan. Or just be extra neat and do this with a spoon which is what I did.

Bake 8 to 11 minutes in the preheated oven, until doughnuts spring back when touched or until dough is set. Donuts will not be golden brown, but should be springy. (I always underbake my baked goods but in my oven these took 10-11 minutes to set up)

Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan, about 5 minutes.

For the Glaze

While donuts are baking or cooling, make the glaze by combining powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and liquid of your choice. Add the water or milk, one teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency is achieved.

Dip the donuts into the glaze while warm (or cool).

Add sprinkles or other extras at end as desired.

To make Gluten Free: use your favorite gluten free flour blend

To make Vegan: My suggestion would be to replace the buttermilk with almond milk or if you enjoy coconut milk, I’d use full fat coconut milk (because it’s thicker like buttermilk); increase the amount of baking powder and/or add baking soda, use melted margarine or Earth Balance, and use a flax/chia egg rather than regular egg.

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This recipe is so easy and yielded great tasting donuts. Like, you need these in your life, right now.

I loved that they were not fried because I just don’t make fried food. Not because of health or dietary objections. Oh no, that’s not the reason I don’t do fried food.

It’s because the thought of standing in front of a pot of grease and having it splatter all over me, my stove top, and stink up my house with that grease smell that lingers for days is a triple whammy.

No thanks. I’ll bake, sans grease. In 10 minutes of baking time I can have these bad boys.

From start to finish, making the batter, baking them, letting them cool for 5 minutes, and then glazing them, and even doing the dishes, it was a 30 minute project.

I also think making the glaze with some sort of cream, rather than water or milk, is best. That’s what I did because I love a good rich glaze. I want to try making the glaze with coconut milk next.

Interestingly enough, the donuts got better the second day. There were two donuts left over and 24 hours later, the glaze had really soaked into the donuts leaving them heavier, denser, and even more moist and rich.

If you like “light and airy” donuts that are really cakey and dry, don’t make this recipe. And definitely don’t let them sit with a glaze on them for 24 hours. But I actually love that really dense and heavy texture. I’ve always said I love leftovers.

They impressed the family, that’s for sure. I may have opened a can of worms because I am now hearing increasing requests to “please make donuts again.” Which is a good thing because now I can trial other recipes.

I really don’t know why I didn’t buy that donut pan sooner.

Questions:

1. Have you ever made donuts at home? Favorite recipe?

Up until very recently, no I hadn’t.

But now I’m a believer in at-home donuts because they’re no harder than making muffins or pancake batter and the donut base recipe + glaze combinations are endless.

2. What’s your favorite kind of donut to eat? Or where do you get your (favorite) donuts from?

As I said, I love Krispy Kreme donuts but haven’t had one in ages.

I have mixed feelings about Dunkin’ Donuts. Some of the stores (franchises) have great donuts and other locations have donuts that are not really the best. The quality of donuts seems to really vary from store to store in my experience.

My favorite donuts are simple ones, but with lots of frosting. I always need extra frosting. And need extra of my extra.

When a vanilla donut is done right, I am in heaven. I prefer vanilla to chocolate donuts and for the frosting, a good vanilla frosting or glaze is great. Vanilla buttercream or vanilla cream cheese frosting are great.

Sometimes I like chocolate frosting and some of the “boutique” donut shops have some really unique types of frosting like green tea chai spice frosting or lavender coffee bean frosting or what have you.

And I know this is crazy but I actually prefer my donuts without sprinkles. Sprinkles are pretty in pictures but for eating, I prefer donuts without sprinkles. But I wouldn’t say no to a spinkled donut or anything. I’m not a fool.

Have a great week!