Lemon Olive Oil Cake

This is a cake that I have wanted to make for a really long time! I’m a very traditional baker: flour, sugar, butter, etc. I’d seen recipes now that use olive oil instead of butter and I thought that would be very interesting and different. I’d even seen a recipe for lemon olive oil cookies, which used lemon-infused olive oil in the cookie dough. That seemed so interesting that I went and picked up some lemon olive oil. Of course now I can’t find that cookie recipe, but I’m sure I will eventually track it down!

I had a birthday at work coming up and I really wanted to use the lemon olive oil. I searched and found many cakes that used plain olive oil and that was usually paired with oranges. So I picked this recipe and did a little bit of adapting. I used lemon zest, obviously, and used half plain olive oil and half lemon olive oil. I also figured that 1-1/5 cups of lemon juice would really be a lot (and be REALLY strong), so I used the juice of 3 lemons and then water.

Since I am taking this to work for a celebration, I haven’t had a taste of this yet! It baked up beautifully so I am really expecting this to be a bit hit. I think that the lemon flavor will be strong but not over-powering. I love a good lemon cake and I happy to give this new version a try.

3 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
3 cups sugar
3/4 cup mild extra-virgin olive oil
¾ cup lemon olive oil
Zest of 3 lemons
Juice of 3 lemons, plus water to make 1-1/2 cups
Confectioners’ sugar, for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-15 cup Bundt or Angel Food Cake pan.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and set aside.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the eggs on medium until well-combined, about 1 minute. Slowly add the sugar and continue beating until thick and pale yellow, about 3 minutes. On low speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture and then the plain olive oil, then another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the lemon olive oil, and then the final 1/3 of the flour mixture. Do not over beat. Pour in the lemon zest and lemon juice/water mixture and stir to bring the batter together.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 1-1/4 hours, until a cake tester comes out with a few moist crumbs. Check the cake half way through the baking time; if the top is browning too quickly, cover lightly with foil.

Transfer the cake to a wire rack and cool for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely on the wire rack. Cover and let it sit overnight. Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.

Recipe adapted from Arctic Garden Studio

Espresso Delights

I’ve discovered that at times I am a bit too reliant on technology. I’m a librarian and while I rely on electronic resources so much, I can always work without the technology. (I just might be less efficient.) I should be as wise in regards to my baking. I wasn’t able to post cookies last Friday as I had no power. This week, the recipe that I was planning to make was safely stored on Pinterest. Which is great until your Internet is out. Oh well, time to figure out Plan B.

When I get home from work in the afternoon, I often browse through the cooking magazines that I have on the bookshelf. These are usually fairly old, as I tend to purchase magazines around the holidays when there are lots of baking recipes! I had recently looked at Ultimate Cookies and Bars, which was a special holiday publication from 2010. It has great recipes and I had noted a couple of recipes that I wanted to try. I grabbed it and looked for something great to make, and I stumbled on this recipe for Espresso Delights.

These cookies would be perfect to serve with afternoon tea or coffee: petite butter cookies flavored with espresso powder and chocolate. The ingredients are simple but the flavors are perfect together. My house smelled wonderful when these were baking. This doesn’t make a big batch of hearty cookies, but that’s ok. I really like simple cookies sometimes!

1 cup butter, room temperature
2/3 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups flour
1 ounce semisweet chocolate, ground
Powdered sugar and cocoa powder, for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter for 30 seconds until light. Add the powdered sugar, espresso powder, vanilla and cinnamon and mix on medium until incorporated. Add the flour and stir on low until combined. You may need to mix the last bit of flour in by hand. Stir in the ground semisweet chocolate.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on the prepared baking sheets; press down to flatten the dough slightly. Bake for 12 minutes, until the cookies are set and bottoms are lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Combine a small amount of powdered sugar and cocoa powder and dust over the cooled cookies.

Recipe from Ultimate Cookies and Bars

Cinn-ful Sweet Potato Cookies

I was challenged to try and make cookies with a typically savory ingredient: potatoes. There are some cookies out there that call for potato starch, but that didn’t quite fit the bill for what I wanted. I used Google Image Search to see what sort of potato cookies I could find and I found a number of recipes with sweet potatoes. I knew I had some canned sweet potatoes in the cupboard, so I figured I would give them a try. (You could always use pumpkin if you don’t want to use sweet potatoes.)

The original recipe for these was vegan, using coconut oil, but I just decided to use butter. I used the butter at room temperature and it didn’t fully incorporate, but in the end that didn’t seem to matter. The dough is very soft and sticky so chill these before you bake them or you will end up with a sticky mess. Topping the cookies with a pecan half is optional, but I think that adds a lot. You could also add other bits to the dough if you wanted: chocolate chips, nuts or dried fruits.

These cookies are very soft and cakey. They bake up into these perfect looking cookies, which was a nice surprise. The cinnamon and the sweet potato is a great combination and the pecan adds crunch. I made mine quite large, as my recipe only made 2-1/2 dozen rather than the 3-4 dozen that the original recipe made. I suppose these cookies would be perfect for fall baking, but they are wonderful any time of the year.

2 cups flour or whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup cooked, mashed sweet potatoes
1 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
Pecan halves, for topping

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Add the sweet potato, brown sugar, maple syrup, and vanilla and mix on medium until combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and stir in the flour mixture, stirring just until combined. Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.
Drop the dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheets. Top each cookie with a pecan half.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until they are just beginning to brown around the edges. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Recipe from Alisa Cooks

Candied Pecan Cake with Bourbon Whipped Cream

I made this cake for a colleague’s birthday. I love making cakes for people and I try to pick something that I think they will enjoy. Most of my colleagues are female but this cake was for one of my male colleagues, so I didn’t want anything too fluffy. I figured pecans are always a good choice, and the same can be said for alcohol-spiked whipped cream.

This cake is a simplification of a Martha Stewart recipe: her cake was 3 layers and had a browned butter pear filling. I knew that would be good, but make the cake a bit on the fragile side. I know 3 layer cakes are hard to transport so I found this cake recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s book and used it instead. I just added the candied pecans. It turned out great!

Making candied pecans has to be about the best smelling thing ever. My house smelled so good! I actually made this cake twice; I made it for his actual birthday but work was cancelled due to the snow and ice we had. It wasn’t fresh by the time we went back to work so I made a new cake to take. So my husband and I got to try to the cake by itself and it was so tasty without the bourbon whipped cream. Together with the whipped cream, it was fantastic. The recipe may look longer, but it was very easy to put together. The next time you need a celebration cake, give this one a shot!

2 cups chopped pecans
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
¾ cup buttermilk

1 cup chilled heavy cream
2 tablespoons bourbon
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Candy the pecans: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss together the pecans, butter, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg; spread on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast, stirring once, until toasted, about 10 minutes. Let cool.

Make the Cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter two 9-inch round cake pans and dust with flour. Line the bottom of the pans with waxed paper.

In a small bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter until light. Add the sugar and beat on medium for 3 minutes. Add the eggs and egg yolk, one at a time, beating for one minute after each addition. Stir in the vanilla.

Reduce the mixer to low and add the flour mixture alternatively with the buttermilk, adding the flour mixture in 3 additions and the buttermilk in 2 (begin and end with the flour mixture). Reserve ½ cup pecans for assembling the cake; stir in the candied pecans. Divide the batter between the prepared pans.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes in the pans before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the whipped cream: Whisk cream, bourbon, and powdered sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form.

Place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread half of the whipped cream on the top of the layer. Sprinkle with half of the reserved candied pecans. Top with the second cake layer and mound the remaining whipped cream on top of the second layer. Garnish with the remaining candied pecans. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe inspired by Martha Stewart. Cake recipe from Baking from My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

I’m sorry that I was away for most of last week. The Seattle area had the forecast of the worst snow storm in ages and we really got hit fairly hard. We had a lot of snow for Seattle (we don’t usually get much) and then we had an ice storm. I lost power for 2 days so I was unable to post anything. Here’s a picture of the tree outside my dining room window, covered with ice.

Hard to beat blueberry muffins, isn’t it? They are so classic and it’s hard to make them different. I can’t say that these are that different, but I was really please how they turned out so I wanted to share them with you. These are mini muffins, which are just as cute as can be when they are baked. You also use a different baking method, hot at the beginning, which makes for nice peaked muffins.

The batter for these muffins is standard, but the topping is a little different. I really liked the topping with the large amount of cinnamon. I think it really added a lot. I had most of the streusel topping left over so feel free to cut the recipe in half or use the remaining topping for another use. I had planned to make some streusel topped bar cookies but I never got around to it. That happens when your life is messed up by the weather.

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
4 tablespoons butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Grease 24 mini muffin cups.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, egg, and milk. Add to the flour mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the blueberries. Fill each muffin cup with about 1 teaspoon of batter.

To make the streusel, combine the sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles sand. (I use the food processor for this.) Sprinkle the muffins with the streusel.

Bake at 500 degrees for 5 minutes. Immediately lower the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for about 7 minutes more, or until muffins test done.

Recipe from Sweet as Sugar Cookies

Bread Pudding Muffins

The Grand Central Bakery is a local institution with locations in Seattle and Portland. I’ve had their cookbook for over a year, purchasing it on the recommendation of a friend. I’ve only made a couple of things from it because, while the recipes sounded good, I hadn’t really been to a Grand Central location to see the baked treats in action. My sister in law just moved to a new place in Portland and they live one block from Grand Central Bakery and we stopped in to take a look. Wow! I will be making many things from this book. Everything looked so good!

I actually made these muffins right after Christmas, and I dressed them up for the holidays. I’ve just given you the original recipe here, but I made mine with cinnamon chip bread, nutmeg, and eggnog in place of the heavy cream. In all honesty, you couldn’t taste the eggnog all that much, but they were still very good. I wasn’t sure how bread pudding, which is traditionally quite soft, would work as a muffin, but it did. If you like really custardy bread pudding, this isn’t it. I’m ok with that as I like bread pudding a little on the drier side.

This was supposed to make 12 regular sized muffins, but I made 18 regular muffins. Maybe mine are small; the ones at the bakery did look a little bigger. Fill them really full and they will look great. The ones that we’re as full looked a little scrawny. They kept fresh for a couple of days, but they were best when warm and fresh. So if you find yourself with some extra bread at home, these muffins are a really tasty way to use it up!

1 pound crusty bread
½ teaspoon cinnamon
6 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1-1/2 cups milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
Powdered sugar

Cut the bread into 1-inch cubes. Put the cubes in a large bowl and toss with the cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, heavy cream, milk and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture over the bread cubes. Stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or overnight).

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line 18 muffin tins with paper liners.

Scoop about ½ cup of the bread pudding mixture into the paper-lined muffin tins. Each cup should be fairly full.

Bake for 45 minutes, rotating the muffins half way through the baking time. The muffins will be light golden brown when they are done. Dust with powdered sugar while warm.

Recipe from The Grand Central Baking Book by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson

Pancetta and Parmesan Tassies

I don’t do a lot of savory baking, but I’m trying to expand my horizons. I like this type of savory snack, but I’ve never really made them myself. I saw this recipe and we were having company over so I thought that I would give it a try. They were a big success so I think I will try more recipes like this.

I’ve made a lot of sweet tassies and they always look impressive. They do take a little bit of extra care and patience. Squishing the dough up the sides of the mini muffin cups is fairly tedious and since this makes 24 tassies, it takes some time. Other than that these aren’t too hard. Trader Joe’s carried 4 ounce packages of diced pancetta, so that was ready to go. I even bought chives, which I of course completely forgot to use. Of well, they were good without the chives, too.

The beauty of these tassies is that you can make them in advance, which is what I did. They were just great fresh out of the oven, but they were good at room temperature as well. These are little savory bites of perfection and are a great choice for entertaining.

Pancetta and Parmesan Tassies

½ cup butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 egg
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 ounces pancetta, cut into 1/4-inch dice, cooked and drained
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add the flour; beating on low speed until blended. Shape into 24 balls and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 24 mini-muffin pans.

Place the dough balls into the cups, pressing on the bottom and up the sides to form a cup; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, egg, and salt. Evenly sprinkle the cooked pancetta into the pastry cups; top with 1 teaspoon of parmesan. Evenly drizzle half-and-half mixture over cheese and sprinkle with chives.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then carefully remove the tassies from the muffin pan.

Serve warm; if made in advance the tassies can be reheated in a 350 degree oven for 5-10 minutes.

Recipe from The Galley Gourmet

Granola Bars with Jammy Bits

I’ve always wanted to make granola or granola bars, and now I can say that I have! I eat a lot of granola on a daily basis and I just don’t know why I haven’t made it before. I guess I’m pretty picky about granola and when you make it yourself it makes a pretty big batch. I’d hate to be stuck with a big batch of granola that I didn’t want to eat.

I had bought these Jammy Bits from King Arthur Flour a while back and I still had half a package sitting in the cupboard. I’m trying to clean things out after the marathon of Christmas baking so I wandered over to the King Arthur Flour site to see what ideas I could find. They linked to this recipe for granola bars and they seemed like a winner. I could use up the jammy bits and I’d get a chance to try making granola.

This recipe calls for sticky bun sugar, which I didn’t have, but the King Arthur website gave a substitution, which is what I have written into the recipe. For the nuts/coconut, you can use any combination. I used the combination they suggested, but I might try this with hazelnuts and even chocolate chips. I lined my pan with foil and I would suggest not doing that as it was hard to remove from the sticky bars. Cut them while they are warm or you won’t have a chance! I used honey in mine, but you could use something else. I might try using golden syrup next time. I think the flavor of the honey is very strong in these, which I like a lot. Not a bad first try at making granola.

Granola Bars with Jammy Bits

3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 2/3 cups rolled oats
1/3 cup finely ground rolled oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, optional
½ cup sliced almonds
½ cup chopped pecans
½ cup shredded coconut
1 cup Raspberry Jammy Bits
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 cup honey, maple syrup, or golden syrup
1 tablespoon water

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Lightly grease a 9" x 13" pan.

In a small bowl, stir together the sugar, 2 tablespoons honey and 2 tablespoons melted butter. In a large bowl combine the sugar mixture, oats, ground oats, salt, cinnamon, nuts, coconut and Jammy Bits.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the vanilla, 4 tablespoons melted butter, ¼ cup honey, and water. Toss the wet ingredients with the oat mixture until the mixture is evenly crumbly. Press evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake the bars for 25 to 30 minutes, until just starting to brown and are bubbly around the edges. Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.

After the bars have cooled 10 minutes, use a knife (or bench knife) to cut the bars while they're still warm. Let cool completely before removing from the pan.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Roasted Squash Soup with Sweet Potato and Parsnip

For this round of the recipe swap, we changed things up a bit. Instead of submitting a recipe, the participants submitted their entire blog and then the recipient got to choose the recipe. I’m quite curious what will be selected from my blog! I have my favorites but it’s interesting to see what others like. I received the blog Cheese Curd in Paradise in the swap and there were many good looking recipes to choose from.

I looked through the blog and got some ideas and then I had my husband look and we both had spotted this recipe for squash soup. It contained flavors that we both like. Plus, my husband had received an immersion blender for Christmas and this recipe provided the opportunity to use it. It’s such a fun tool and I recommend picking one up if you are at all interested. They’re a lot cheaper than they used to be.

I tweaked this recipe a bit, and didn’t measure the ingredients very closely. With cooking, you can get away with that! Not measuring while baking is bad news. I substituted butternut squash for the acorn squash as I had one on hand. The originally recipe called for cream, but I just used milk and I don’t think it made any difference. The soup is so thick from all the vegetables; you could also make this vegan if you wanted. I really enjoyed this and it I can wait to make it again. Thanks for the great recipe Ashley!

Roasted Squash Soup with Sweet Potato and Parsnip

1 butternut squash, split and seeded
20 ounces parsnips, peeled and chopped
2 large sweet potatoes
14 ounces chicken broth
1 cup milk
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Sour cream to serve

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the butternut squash on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, add the parsnips and continue roasting until both are soft. This could take between one hour and one hour, twenty minutes. Allow the squash and parsnips to cool slightly.

While the squash and parsnips cool, prepare the sweet potatoes. Scrub the potatoes clean and then microwave for 12-14 minutes, until soft.

Remove the squash from its shell and place in a large soup pot. Scoop the sweet potatoes from their skins and add to the pot. Add the parsnips, chicken broth, water, and spices. Heat the soup through and then use an immersion blender to puree soup until smooth. Add the milk and puree again. (You could also puree the soup in a food processor.) Season with salt and pepper.
Serve hot and garnish with sour cream.

Recipe from Cheese Curd in Paradise

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

Chocolate chip cookie cups filled with Nutella, how could you go wrong? I saw these and knew I had to make them right away. Sure it was a busy time and I had made all sorts of other things, but when you need to bake, you need to bake! This cookie fulfills my husband’s love of chocolate chip cookies and my love of Nutella. A winner all around!

These are really quite simple: make your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough and fill with Nutella or peanut butter. I thought about making it with Biscoff spread, but I love Nutella so much that I didn’t want to miss an opportunity to have that.

My only criticism of these is that by making them in regular sized muffin cups, they are quite large. Now, that’s not really a bad thing with a cookie but you could certainly make these in mini muffin pans. They are an impressive cookie and the people I served them to thought they were very fancy.

Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups

½ butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1-1/2 cups flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips
Nutella, for filling

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line about 18 muffin tins with liners.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugars together until just combined. Add the vanilla and the egg, stir until combined. On a low speed, mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the chocolate chips and mix until well distributed.

Scoop a tablespoon of dough into each muffin liner. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just golden. While the cookie cups are still hot, make a deep indent into the center of each cup. (I used the handle of my whisk.) Fill each cookie cup with Nutella (or peanut butter). Allow to cool before serving.

Recipe from Butter

Biscoff and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

After so much baking during the holidays, I’ve now had a bit of a break and I’m starting to get back in the swing of things. I can now explore all of the other recipes that I’ve bookmarked and pinned that aren’t Christmas cookies. I thought I would start with something that’s a twist on a classic, but very popular right now.

Biscoff Cookies are spice cookies from Belgium, and they became popular as they were served on airlines. They’ve been around a long time, but last year the company must have done a huge media blitz as they are so popular now. (Trader Joe’s makes their own version of these, too.)They’ve also come out with Biscoff spread, which is a peanut butter-like spread made with the cookies. I saw the spread being used by all these bloggers and I, of course, needed to get some. After much searching, I found it and I still haven’t used it. But I saw these cookies, which use the Biscoff cookies themselves. Yum, use cookies to make cookies!

This recipe is really a chocolate chip cookie recipe, except you add ground and chopped Biscoff cookies. Which just smell amazing when you are chopping them up. They have a lovely spicy aroma and when they were baking my house smelled so good! The recipe makes a lot of cookies, and I didn’t even make the cookies super small like I typically do. The cookie bits in the dough maintain their crunchiness, which balances nicely with the chewy, buttery cookies.

Biscoff and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups flour
16 finely ground Biscoff Cookies
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
16 coarsely chopped Biscoff Cookies
2 cups white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar until light and creamy. Add the eggs and then vanilla, mix until well combined.

In a separate bowl combine the flour, ground Biscoff Cookies, baking soda and salt. Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture, stirring on low just until combined. By hand stir in the coarsely chopped Biscoff cookies and white chocolate chips.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2-inch balls and place on the prepared cookie sheet and press to flatten slightly. Bake for 12-15 minutes until edges start to turn golden brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The Capitol Baker

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