Recipe: Mini Cinnamon Doughnuts with Brown Butter Drizzle

I'm late to the brown(ed) butter party, I know. But either way, here's my offering. Baked doughnuts, rolled in cinnamon sugar and topped with a drizzle of browned butter glaze. These doughnuts took me an hour to make from start to finish, which is a feat in itself. With minimal mess and effort, these mini guys are great if you're short of time.

And if you haven't tried browned butter before now, its essentially burnt melted butter...sounds appetising? No, didn't think so. But when you call it beurre noisette it sounds heaps better! In recipes it lends a rich, nutty depth and smells incredible.

Cinnamon sugar doughnuts
(Recipe adapted from Lakeland, makes 6 mini doughnuts)

75g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
55g caster sugar
60ml milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp olive oil (you could substitute this with 10g browned butter instead)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Cinnamon sugar coat:

60g unsalted butter, melted
60g soft brown sugar / golden caster sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

Browned butter glaze:

250g icing sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 tbsp milk

Heat the oven to 160 degrees and lightly brush a doughnut pan with oil. If you don't have a doughnut pan you could use a small cupcake tray or similar instead.

Add the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon to a large mixing bowl and gently whisk. (This does the same job as a sieve, but much easier). Add the sugar and stir together.

In a separate bowl or jug, whisk together the milk, egg, oil and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well.

Using either a teaspoon or a piping bag, fill each doughnut hole 3/4 full with the batter. Bake in the oven for 8 - 10 minutes, until firm and springy to touch.

Prepare the cinnamon sugar coat whilst the doughnuts are baking. Put the melted butter in one bowl, and the sugar and cinnamon mixed together in another. When the doughnuts are slightly cooled from the oven (this should take only a few minutes as they're so small), gently dunk each doughnut into the butter before rolling in the sugar mix. Place on a plate and leave to cool.

For the glaze, start by making the browned butter (notes below). Use a pan with a light colour bottom to monitor the colour of the browning butter easier. Place on a low heat and leave to melt, stirring occasionally. The butter will foam up and start to brown. Continue to watch and stir (occasionally) as the butter turns from a lemony-yellow colour, to a golden tan and then toast colour. This should only take a few minutes for this small amount. Remove from the heat and pour into a heatproof bowl to cool slightly.

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the salt. Continue to add the wet ingredients and whisk together. Start with 2 tablespoons of milk and add more as necessary to get a smooth, glossy glaze.

Use a piping bag or spoon to drizzle over the cooled doughnuts.

N.B. Browned butter is the result of the butterfat and milk solids separating when melting. The milk solids will sink to the bottom and start to brown first. These dregs are perfectly fine to use in recipes, providing you don't burn them. However, I drained them for this glaze as it would look a little unsightly. But, in a cookie dough, for example, they would be completely fine.

How to: Hollandaise

Not exactly the best thing to make to go with your Sunday brunch in a swelteringly hot kitchen. But I like to think its worth it, and I'm sure your eggs do too!

For a change, I made a little gif of the process - this includes all the mess I made and rescuing the too-hot mix with some ice cubes!

Peanut Butter Spelt Cookies

    Recently I've been aware that I should start thinking of ways to lessen my dependence on sugar. I've got to a stage where if I open a pack of biscuits, I will eat the whole lot. If I open a bar of Dairy Milk, I will eat the whole lot...and I'm talking about a big bar, daily! 

   I can't pretend to know a whole lot about refined sugars vs. naturally occurring sugars. But, I'd like to think that baking with naturally sweet ingredients can be just as tasty. I'd like to be a little more aware of ingredients and to have the knowledge to chose the healthier option - not always, of course! I love a treat from my favourite Bea's or the odd bar of Dairy Milk.

   I searched online for some cookie recipes that used ingredients I already had in the cupboard. I'm not very good at using up things, especially as the first time I've ever had tahini was in halva flapjacks I made recently. What else am I meant to use it for? So when I came across this recipe on Sweetest Kitchen, I got my apron on straight away and got mixing.

   These cookies use wholegrain spelt flour which is known as being much easier for your body to digest than regular flour due to its high water solubility. Its also rich in fibre, protein, complex carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. I've only ever baked with spelt twice before, some bread and lemony hazelnut and blueberry muffins, so after baking these cookies I'm excited to try it in more recipes.

Peanut butter spelt cookies

(Adapted from Sweetest Kitchen)

     195g wholegrain spelt flour

     1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

     1 tsp sea salt

     185g natural peanut butter

     60g hulled tahini

     50g pure maple syrup

     60g margarine

     1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

     Few drops of almond milk

     Handful of unsalted peanuts

• Heat the oven to 180 degrees and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
• Mix the spelt flour, bicarbonate of soda and sea salt in a large bowl.
• In a separate bowl combine the peanut butter, tahini, maple syrup, margarine and vanilla extract.
• Pour the peanut butter mixture into the flour mixture and fold to combine.
• I added a few drops of almond milk to help combine the mixture and added some peanuts to add crunch to the cookies.
• Drop small rounded balls of dough onto the baking tray and give a little squish with your palm to flatten.
• Bake for 10 - 15 minutes, until slightly soft. They will harden as they cool.

As I love salt and sweet flavour combinations I decided to top these with a drizzle of melted cacao...not as bad as my usual slab of Dairy Milk!

   If anyone has any healthy recipes to recommend then I'd love to try? How shall I use the rest of my spelt flour and tahini?

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

This post has been sitting in my drafts since last week, oops! I was certain I'd published it. So here it is anyway...

   I've had a case of the Baking Blues recently. Not much in the way of inspiration and a few failed attempts of baked treats over the past week or so. I decided the only way to overcome this was to get back in the kitchen and start again.

   This week I've been working night shifts and I always like to bring treats in for the team on the last night. Someone bought in Amaretto and cherry brownies last night that were just a little naughty, but very heavenly. I felt a little competitive and wanted to make a giant million-tiered cake. I can do cake. That's my thing.

   But, for some (sleep-deprived) reason, I decided to bake something I've only baked once before. Cookies. So easy to make but I never think of making them. I decided to go for triple chocolate cookies with a salty-sweet peanut butter centre. 

Peanut butter & chocolate cookies

(makes 30 small cookies)

     200g unsalted butter, softened

     300g caster sugar

     1 large egg

     275g self raising flour

     75g cocoa powder

     3 big bars of chocolate, chopped into small chunks

     splash of milk

I decided to use a combination of all the half-used chocolate packets in the cupboard from previous bakes and some individual chocolate bars thrown in for good measure. This included white, dark and milk chocolate, some chocolate drops and two Cadbury's Twirls.

• Heat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Mix together the butter and sugar until creamy.
• Add all dry ingredients including the chocolate chunks and mix well. The dough will be a little dry so add a splash of milk to help combine the mix.
• Spoon onto a lined baking tray and bake for 10 minutes (I layered a spoon of cookie dough, small spoon of peanut butter and another spoon of cookie dough on top).
• The cookies will be soft and squidgy so leave them to cool for 30 minutes until they harden before eating.

My cookies were a little too deep and had more of a cakey bite to them. Next time I'll squish the cookie dough down flatter before baking.