Baked Doughnuts

So for the new year, I too am trying to eat healthier, and drop some pounds. As a diabetic, I am trying to watch the sugar intake as well. The trouble with that is that I have a desserts blog. I haven't quite figured out how I am going to work it all out, seeing this is a desserts blog. Maybe I can come up with a way to make them with less sugar but still taste good.

I ran across these baked doughnuts a while back on Tartelette's blog and knew that I wanted to try them. I envisioned them to be nice and fluffy like a Krispy Kreme doughnut, but healthier since they were baked, not fried. The recipe also called to dip them into melted butter immediately after they baked and then rolled into cinnamon and sugar. I chose to dip them into a buttery glaze, so that they would be like a glazed Krispy Kreme. These did not turn out that way. They tasted fine, but the texture of them reminded me of a sweet thick pizza crust.
Maybe I didn't let them rise long enough on the second rising. I may try these again, but if I do it will be with whole wheat flour. The wheat flour is a new thing to me too. I have never used it.

Baked Doughnuts

1 1/3 cups warm milk, 95-105 degrees (divided)
1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
2 Tbsp butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 cups all purpose flour
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 tsp salt

optional topping:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and sugar and set aside for five minutes or so to let it proof. Stir the butter into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt-just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. Adjust the dough texture by adding flour a few tablespoons at a time or more milk. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.

Transfer the dough into a buttered or oiled bowl, cover, put in a warm place, and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2 inch thick on your floured counter top. With a 2-3 inch cookie cutter, stamp out circles in the dough. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes-start checking around 8 minutes. While the doughnuts are baking, place butter in a medium bowl. Placed the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl.

Or...dip the tops in this glaze..

Creamy Butter Glaze

1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups confectioners sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4-6 Tbsp hot water

Melt butter and then whisk it in a medium bowl with confectioners sugar, vanilla, and hot water. Dip tops of doughnuts and let set.