Maple Spice Glazed Donuts

Ryan & I love donuts...but I would say Ryan is definitely even more of a donut fanatic than I am. You basically cannot leave a donut lying around without him eating it - so it's no wonder that neither of us could wait until breakfast to eat one of these magical little circles of cake. 

Now that I know how easy donuts are to make, it will be incredibly tempting to make these all the time.  However, since they are baked, and you can play with the ingredients to make them even healthier - somehow they doesn't seem as bad for you. :)  I look forward to trying different flavors of donuts and you could also certainly substitute some of the milk and butter with Greek yogurt. These spiced cake donuts are a bit reminiscent of fall flavors but still delicious any time of year.  

What's your favorite kind of donut? :) If you love donuts as much as we do - you should definitely try making them at home!

Maple Spice Glazed Donuts

Makes 6 donuts

Ingredients:

Maple Glaze 

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup pure maple syrup

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla or maple extract (optional)

Spice Donuts

1 cup white-whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

1/3 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup almond milk

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Spray a donut pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.

Make the glaze first: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and maple syrup together, whisking occasionally. Once the butter has melted, remove from heat and whisk in the sifted confectioners' sugar. Set glaze aside and allow to cool and thicken.

For the donuts:  Melt butter in a medium bowl.  Add vanilla, brown sugar, egg, and milk and whisk together.  Whisk in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and salt into the wet ingredients. Do not over-mix. The batter will be very thick.  (You could mix the dry & wet ingredients separately but I’m a fan of just using one bowl and simplifying the process.  Who knows if I’m completely ruining them that way or not but it’s easier!)

Spoon the batter into a large Ziploc bag and snip a corner of the bag to pipe the donut batter into each donut cup of the pan, filling 2 ∕ 3 –3 ∕ 4 of the way full.  You may have to scoop some out with a spoon to even them out if it is too difficult to pipe them with the bag.

Bake for 9–10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool for about two minutes and transfer to a wire rack set on a large piece of parchment paper or on a large baking sheet.

To glaze, simply hold the donut and dip into the glaze. Place the glazed donuts back on a wire rack to let the glaze drip down.  If you want to add swirls or stripes with the remaining glaze, you can add a little food coloring and drizzle lines across the glazed donuts.  I found that this makes a lot of glaze and I may have over-glazed them so next time I will either scale the recipe down or simply use less on the donuts and save the extra for something else.

Donuts are best served immediately. Leftovers keep well covered tightly at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction