Baked Eggnog Donuts

Happy New Year! So many people swear off sweets and goodies at the New Year. You won’t find this blog changing to healthy things any time soon. I love baking and that’s not going to change. Try to eat the good things in life in moderation.

This recipe is sort of healthier, since the donuts are baked, but they are donuts and the contain eggnog so I don’t think they are really healthy at all. But I love eggnog and I had bought a donut pan this fall that I hadn’t used yet so I decided to give these a try. Right out of college I worked at a bakery where I fried donuts every morning at 3 am. I really hated that job and it was a long time before I could look at a donut again. I also lost weight because nothing kills an appetite like hanging over a vat of grease at 3 am.

Baked donuts are a lot friendlier to make. Just mix up the batter and go. I piped the batter into the donut pans and that was a lot easier than trying to spoon the batter into the pans. I found the pans that were the most filled yielded the best looking donuts, so feel free to fill the donut rings fairly full. These were such a good success for my first round of donuts. They also keep fresh for a lot longer than fried donuts, which was a nice surprise. I’ll certainly be making more donuts in the future.

Baked Eggnog Donuts

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 large egg, at room temperature
3/4 cup eggnog, at room temperature
1/4 cup applesauce

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons eggnog

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 2 donut pans (6 wells each) with nonstick cooking spray. (I only have 1 pan so I just baked 6 at a time.)

In a large mixing bowl whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. In a separate bowl combine the egg, eggnog and applesauce and beat until well combined. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture and stir to combine. The batter will be fairly thick.

Transfer the batter to a piping bag. Pipe the batter into the wells of the donut pans, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the donuts spring back when lightly pressed.

Transfer the pans to a wire rack and let the donuts cool for a few minutes before turning them out to cool completely.

Make the glaze: Whisk the powdered sugar and eggnog in a wide, shallow bowl until smooth. Dip the donuts into the glaze and garnish with sprinkles if you’d like. Allow the glaze to set before serving.

Recipe from Tracey’s Culinary Adventures