Fun Friday ~ Eggless Baked Doughnuts With Chocolate Glazing

The first recipe that kept popping up when I was looking for eggless donuts was Radhika's and I had noted it down to try for this marathon. These yeast based, baked doughnuts are not a substitute for the ones you get from the famous American franchise stores but were like soft, spongy rolls. I noticed that most yeast based ones in the web world looked pretty much the same. I had to use extra milk than the recipe mentioned. Otherwise it is a foolproof one as the original recipe promises to be. Don't skip the glaze as these doughnuts are pretty much bland without the frosting. I glazed them with a chocolate frosting as my daughter loves it but any other glaze can be used. 

Servings: 10 - 12
Ingredients for the doughnuts:
1/2 cup milk (I had to use 1/4 cup extra.)
1.5 tsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups all purpose flour (1&1/2 + 1/2)
1 tbsp. corn starch
50 gm / Scant 1/4 cup butter
2 tsp. vanilla essence 
Ingredients for the chocolate glaze:
6 tbsp. chocolate chips / chopped chocolate (I used semi sweet chocolate chips)
2 tbsp. milk
1 tbsp. powdered sugar

Method:
* Pulse the 1/4 cup sugar finely and keep it aside.
* Warm 1/2 cup milk in a microwave for about 30 - 40 seconds. Stir in the yeast, salt and about 1 tbsp. powdered sugar (from above step) in the milk. Keep it aside for few minutes until the mixture turns frothy.
* In the mean while cut the hard, cold butter into cubes.
* To a mixing bowl add 1 & 1/2 cups flour, corn starch, yeast mixture, remaining powdered sugar and vanilla and mix. (At this point the original recipe mentioned that the dough would be sticky but mine was pliable.)
* Next add the cubed butter into the bowl and work it into the dough until all the butter is merged with the flour. (You don't need any mixer to prepare this dough as it is quite easy to incorporate the butter into the mixture.)
 
* Now add the remaining 1/2 cup flour and knead into a soft, pliable dough for about 4 -5 minutes. (At this point, my dough became dry because of the addition of flour and I had to add about 1/4 warm milk to work with it.)
* Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and keep it in a warm place until it doubles in volume.

* Deflate the dough when it rises. Flour your work surface and roll the dough into 1/2 inch thickness. Use a doughnut cutter or 2 round shaped cookie cutters (3 inched and 1 inched ones) to cut out doughnut shapes. Collect the scraps and repeat the process until all the dough is used up. Basically you cut 3 inch diameter rounds with 1 inched diameter holes.

* Transfer the shaped doughnuts onto a greased baking sheet. Cover them with a towel and allow them to rest for about 20 minutes.

* Preheat the oven to 400 deg F during the last 10 minutes of resting.

* Bake the doughnuts for about 10 minutes or until it turns golden brown. 

* Remove the doughnuts from the oven and brush them with melted butter. Let them cool for five minutes.

* Place the glazing ingredients in a shallow/wide microwave safe bowl and microwave until it melts, stopping at 30 seconds intervals. Let the glazing turn warm.

* Hold the doughnut upside down and dip it in the glaze. Lift and   quickly turn it so the glazed side is up. Decorate with rainbow or chocolate sprinkles if desired.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 51.

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