Baked Doughnuts

Today in Poland we celebrate the Fat Thursday, traditional Catholic Christian feast marking the last Thursday before Lent. Basically is a day dedicated to eating large quantities of sweets, especially the fried kinds. In my home there was no fat Thursday without dozens of doughnuts and faworki - deep fried stripes of dough sprinkled with powdered sugar. I was never a big fan of faworki, but doughnuts on the others hand....oh boy!

 

 

 

Today I didn't fry any doughnuts, I baked them! You know I'm trying to be healthy and fit, which is not very easy when you are playing a food blogger :) But I wont lie to you, these doughnuts are not the super skinny version, they were drowned in melted butter and cover with tons of sugar.

 

These baked doughnuts are really delicious, but unfortunately far way from the doughnuts I remember from my childhood days. Oh well, we can't have it all ! I recommend you try it for yourself and let me know what you think about them.

 

 

Baked Doughnuts

makes about 20

 

1 1/3 cup lukewarm milk

7 g dry active yeast

30 g butter, melted and cooled

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

5 cups cake flour

1 tsp salt

 

plus

100 g butter, melted

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

 

Method :

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a kneading attachment mix flour, yeast, sugar and the salt. Add eggs and milk, and mix on low speed until the dough comes together. Increase mixer speed to medium high and kneed the dough for 5 minutes.

2. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the butter, a little at a time. When the butter begins to blend in , increase the speed to medium high and kneed the dough for about 10 minutes, until it becomes smooth and glossy.

3. Transfer the dough to a lightly buttered bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and stand in a warm place until doubled in size. That will take 1-2 hours, depending on how warm your kitchen is. 

4. Punch down the dough and transfer to a lightly floured workspace. Using the palm of you hand flatten the dough to about 1- 1,5 cm thick.

5. Using a round pastry/cookie cutter cut out the circles of the dough, and then using smaller cutter cut out the center of the doughnut. Place ready doughnut circles on the baking sheet lined with a parchment paper, cover with a kitchen towel and let it rice for about 1 hour.

6. Bake in the oven preheated to 200C for about 10 minutes. They will look undercook, they wont brown.

7. Meanwhile, place the melted butter in a shallow bowl and in separate, medium size bowl mix together sugar and the cinnamon, set aside.

8. Remove baked doughnuts from the oven, and cool slightly, just until you can tough them without burning you fingers. Dip each doughnut in the melted butter and toss in the cinnamon sugar. VOILA!

 

The doughnut are best in the day they are made.

 

 

 

 

Happy baking!