Another yummy donut recipe!

Chocolate Donuts!!!

Don't they look lovely??

They're a bit of work, but well worth it!  Dairy, soy, egg and tree nut free, as always!

And how do you ask, do I make these chocolate beauties?  Well, wait no longer, just scroll down a bit to find out!

The ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour (you could probably substitute with a gluten free mixture if you wanted to)
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk (we used SILK True Coconut, original, it's the only dairy free milk in the fridge right now)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg or replacer (we use half a teaspoon baking powder and two tablespoons water for each egg called for)
4 teaspoons butter, melted (we used canola oil, and they turned out fine)
2 tablespoons coffee (save your leftover morning coffee for this recipe!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

***Note, this recipe is for SIX donuts, so I doubled everything to make TWELVE***

In a bowl (I use my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer, but you can mix by hand), mix (with the wisk attachment) the milk, brown sugar, egg or replacer, oil, coffee and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and using a spatula (or paddle attachment on your mixer), blend until smooth. 

With a spoon (I use a spoon and a spatula), fill the donut pan about 3/4 full.  You can grease your tins, I don't and they come out fine, no sticking.

In a 325F oven, bake for 14 minutes (maybe a minute less or more, depending on your oven), the donuts will spring back when touched when they're done.

Let them cool on a wire rack.  I chose to simply dust icing sugar on top, but any ooey gooey icing would be great!  

And of course, I had a little help with the clean up!

Who would like a cinnamon bun?

There is nothing quite like the comforting aroma of cinnamon buns baking in the oven.  When I make these, they don't usually last more than a day in my home!

BASIC SWEET DOUGH

1 cup water
2 eggs (or egg replacer - I use 1/2 tsp baking powder and 2 tbsp water for each egg called for)
1/4 cup butter or margarine (we use Earth Balance Soy Free most of the time, but I used canola oil this time and they turned out fine!)
2 tsp salt
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp skim milk powder (we omit this entirely and it turns out fine)
2 tsp quick rise yeast (we use bread machine yeast)


Add ingredients as per your machine's manufacturer instructions, and choose the DOUGH setting.  Let it do it's thing.

Once the dough is finished, on a floured surface, roll out dough into a rectangle shape, or as close to a rectangle as you can get.  The bigger the rolled out dough, the more layers your buns will have!
Take about a tablespoon of melted butter or margarine, (we use Earth Balance Soy Free) and with a pastry brush, spatula or spoon, spread it evenly on the dough.  I tend to eyeball the brown sugar/cinnamon ratio, but I'd say I use about 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon.  Mix it well in a bowl, and cover your rolled out dough with it.  Make sure to get the brown sugar and cinnamon right to the edges.
Tightly roll the dough until you have one big "log" looking piece, and because I'm very particular with size, score with a sharp knife, 12 equal sections to cut.
This last batch, I'll admit, I only got 11 pieces.  Cut them, lie them on their side (so the cinnamon swirly part is up and down), and lay them in a greased baking dish.

Cover with a towel, and let rise in a warmish place for about an hour.

Bake at 375F for 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Now, my picture was taken prior to me drizzling icing over them, but I promise when I make more, I'll replace my picture with a nice frosted cinnamon bun one.

I was not completely satisfied with the icing recipe I had used this time, so I won't post it, in order to avoid anyone else's disappointment.

There are a ton of easy peasy cinnamon bun icing recipes though, from sticky gooey ones to cream cheese ones (which my family can't have, and although I'm pretty good at replacing foods to make them safe, cream cheese is one I simply cannot).  If you find one that you love, please let me know so I can try it too!

Enjoy!

Everybody loves Donuts!

Let me first start by saying, I had one extremely happy child today!  It's been over a year since he's eaten a donut, and the look on his face was priceless as he bit into this one.

I had decided to invest in a Donut pan, and it was money well spent.  I'll be using this often!

Baked Vanilla Donuts
~Egg, Dairy, Soy and nut free~

Ingredients

Vanilla Donuts
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup packed  brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk (I used plain Rice milk, and added 3/4 tbsp of vinegar to make "buttermilk")
2 eggs (I mix 2 tbsp water and 1/2 tsp baking powder for each egg called for)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoon melted butter (I used canola oil with no problems)

Glaze
1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk (again, I used Rice milk)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

*******

I used my Kitchen Aid Mixer, with the flat beater attachment, and mixed until the batter was smooth.



Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Lightly grease your donut pan.  I have an oil sprayer that I used.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugars, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla and butter. Stir until well blended.
Fill each doughnut cup approximately 3/4 full.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until donuts spring back when touched. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan.  Mine took 10 minutes and turned out perfect!

Flip donuts onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.  Place the wire rack on top of a piece of wax or parchment paper, and make your glaze.
I dipped the top of my cooled donuts into the glaze, and placed them back on the wire rack to dry.  The wax or parchment paper underneath catches the drips and makes cleanup quick and easy!

Tomorrow, we'll make chocolate donuts!

**Be creative with your icing!  Chocolate, Vanilla with sprinkles (check ingredients), Maple.........**

Recipe makes 6-8 decent sized donuts

Bread machine Cinnamon Raisin Bread

This turned out fantastic!!!  It didn't last long, that's for sure!

INGREDIENTS, add in order please.

1 cup warm water
3 Tbsp sugar
1 & 1/2 Tsp yeast

Allow this to sit in the bread machine pan for 10 minutes, yeast will become bubbly.  This is good!

Then add the following:
2 Tbsp butter or margarine (I used Olive Oil and it turned out great)
3 cups flour
1 & 1/2 tsp salt

Select basic setting and choose your crust color.  I chose light.

While this is mixing, toss 3/4 cup raisins in a bit of flour, this will keep them from clumping up in the bread machine.  I tossed 1 & 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon in with the raisins as well.

At the ADD NUTS/RAISIN'S beep (approx 20ish minutes into the kneading process), add your raisin/flour/cinnamon. 

Sit back and wait for it to bake! 

Let it cool on a wire rack, and let it cool before slicing or it will just crumble.

Easy and delicious!

Cranberry-Orange Muffins

INGREDIENTS

2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup cranberries (I used Craisins, it's all I had at the time)
1 egg  or egg replacer (I use 1/2 tsp baking powder & 2 tbsp water)
3/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup vegetable oil (any oil should work, I used grapeseed oil)
1 tsp grated orange rind


DIRECTIONS
Mix dry ingredients, then toss in cranberries.  Set bowl aside.
In other bowl, mix together remaining ingredients.  Pour wet ingredients into dry, stirring just enough to moisten.  Batter will be quite thick. 
Pour into greased muffin tins, about 3/4 full. 
Sprinkle a little bit of white sugar on the top of each muffin if desired.

Bake in a 400F oven for 15-20 minutes, or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean.

Apple Pull Apart Bread (Bread machine dough recipe)

This stuff is AMAZING!  (icing not shown on the bread)

What I did is made a basic sweet dough in the bread machine.

BASIC SWEET DOUGH

1 cup water
2 eggs (or egg replacer)
1/4 cup butter or margarine (we use Earth Balance Soy Free)
2 tsp salt
4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
3 tbsp skim milk powder (we omit this entirely and it turns out fine)
2 tsp quick rise yeast (we use bread machine yeast)


FILLING INGREDIENTS
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped finely
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp sugar

Combine filling ingredients, and set aside

Add ingredients in order listed, and select the DOUGH option.  Once the dough is finished, remove from the bread machine.  On a lightly floured surface, punch down the dough and cut into 2 equal pieces.  Cut each of those pieces into 8-10 pieces.  Roll out each small piece into a circle.  Put half a tsp of filling (see the rest of the instructions for ingredients for it) and pinch the edges together, kind of like a dumpling. 

Dip the balls into melted butter or margerine (I melted 2 tbsp of earth balance) and put 8 or so balls into a tube or bundt pan.  Spoon some of the apple mixture over the layer of balls, then repeat until you're out of dough.  Spoon any remaining apple mix over the top, let it fall in between the dough balls etc. 
Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. 

ICING
1 cup icing sugar
3 to 4.5 tsp hot water
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine icing ingredients.  Remove bread from pan to wire rack and drizzle icing over bread. 
Enjoy!

Easy and delicious chocolate dipped Pretzels!

OK so, I took the easy route and used Rolled Gold pretzel twists (dairy, egg, soy and nut free). 
This was so simple and tastes delicious! 






I had just under half a bag of Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips (free of most allergens)
I put them in a sauce pan combined with
1 tsp shortening (I use Tenderflake, but check your ingredients as not all brands are soy free)
over low/medium heat, stir until melted and liquidy.

Toss in your pretzels, one at a time, and lift out with a fork once entire pretzel is coated in chocolate.
Shake gently to remove any excess chocolate (does excess chocolate really exist?  there is never enough chocolate in my opinion!)
Lie flat on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Cool in the fridge until chocolate is set.

Simple!