Today I’m taking a few steps back with Doughnut Week to show you the baked doughnut basics. Maybe you’re new to baked doughnuts? Maybe you’re still on the fence about baking, not frying a doughnut? My hope is that by the end of this post you’ll see that it’s actually a pretty easy—and super tasty—process.

First things first. Let’s stir the dry ingredients together. We’re using a combination of oat flour, sweet rice flour, and almond meal. Don’t let these non-traditional flours scare you. Oat flour and almond meal are really easy to find or make at home. Sweet rice flour can be found online and in some natural food stores but is most easily found in Asian markets which you probably have closer to you than you think! I recently found sweet rice flour at an Asian market for 1/4 of the price! [fyi – it may also be called “glutinous rice flour”]

This particular combination of gluten-free flours works tremendously well for baked doughnuts, so I don’t recommend making substitutions. I promise no one will ever know these are gluten-free! They hold together perfectly and have a tender, doughy texture. They are surprisingly close in texture to a fried cake doughnut. You will definitely be surprised!

Next up, we’ll whisk in the wet ingredients. No mixer or fancy equipment needed.

After thoroughly greasing your doughnut pan you’ll spoon the batter in about 1/4-inch from the top of the pan. I prefer to grease with softened butter or coconut oil as the sprays tend to leave a sticky residue over time and don’t work as well.

The doughnuts are ready for the oven!

About 18-22 minutes later you have perfectly golden brown baked doughnuts. Now your main goal is to wait for them to fully cool before stuffing them into your face.

Okay, you can stuff one of them into your face while you wait but the texture will firm up as they cool.

Now for the glaze. I mean glazes. Yep, two. I mixed up a batch of basic vanilla glaze and then split the mixture into another bowl. Then I added cocoa powder and a bit more cream for an easy chocolate glaze. Because how can you ever choose between vanilla or chocolate glaze??

The answer is you can’t, so you make both.

After a little dip action into the bowls of glaze they’re ready for a dunk into sprinkles.

Hubba, hubba…

And now the only thing left to do is let the glaze set—or not.

The details for this basic Buttermilk Baked Doughnut recipe with Vanilla + Chocolate Glaze can be found over on Craftsy, where I write freelance posts and recipes each week! You’ll find all of the step-by-step instructions along with tips for grinding your own flours at home.

And don’t forget! This week only you can get 35% off my book Baked Doughnuts For Everyone! You’ll find over 100 recipes inside along with a slew of tips + tricks for creating perfectly baked doughnuts at home. For more details check out my Book Page.

Discount Code: doughnut35 – enter this in the “promotion/coupon code” field after clicking “add to cart”

Happy Wednesday!

Ashley

Guess what time it is!! Or should I say, guess what week it is!!??

It’s DOUGHNUT weeeeek!

How did you not know about doughnut week before today? Well, because I made it up. Friday is National Doughnut Day but I thought we needed more than 1 day to celebrate these tasty treats! And to help celebrate doughnut week, my publisher is offering 35% off my book, Baked Doughnuts For Everyone, ALL week long! [Check the end of the post for details!]

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel | edibleperspective.com

First up on the list for Doughnut Week are SAMOA doughnuts. Sorry for the shouting, but…

SAMOA DOUGHNUTS. Favorite Girl Scout cookie of all time. I’m a huge sucker for caramel and those crisp, shortbread-like cookies. And the toasted coconut!! And the chocolate!

I’m aware you know of the components that make up a Samoa cookie, but I just can’t help my excitement. How this recipe wasn’t included on my list of 101 doughnuts in my book is beyond me.

So what’s with this 1-minute maple caramel you ask? No, it’s not the traditional caramel you find on these cookies but it takes just 2 ingredients, a bowl, and a spoon. No boiling sugar or candy thermometers. You’ll need maple syrup and almond butter [the drippy kind] and THAT IS IT!

One day for a pancake topping I tried stirring together almond butter and maple syrup to see what would happen. The next thing I knew I was spooning maple almond butter c-a-r-a-m-e-l into my mouth and I had no pancake topping left.

I couldn’t believe how caramel-like it was in flavor and texture. I knew this had to be used as the topping for these doughnuts, even though it strays from traditional caramel. It was just too easy and too good.

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel | edibleperspective.com

I have been sort of really excited to tell you about that sauce if you couldn’t tell.

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel | edibleperspective.com

I kept the doughnuts pretty basic but I wanted to add just a few things to make them a bit richer and more cookie-like in flavor. Heavy whipping cream was added for richness and just a touch of almond extract for a hint of shortbread/sugar-cookie flavor.

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel | edibleperspective.com

The bottoms of the doughnuts are dipped in chocolate just like the classic cookie.

Then the caramel and toasted coconut are stirred together to make the most insane topping you have ever tasted. You may want to make extra.

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel | edibleperspective.com

The doughnuts are finished with a chocolate drizzle on top, making them look as close to the Samoa cookie as possible.

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel | edibleperspective.com

With my parents in town we wanted to celebrate my mom’s birthday which was just a few weeks ago. Who needs cake when you can have Samoa Doughnuts? They were the perfect birthday treat, eaten right alongside the strawberry vanilla swirl Greek frozen yogurt.

Ohhh yahhh.

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel | edibleperspective.com

Print this!

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel

gluten-free, dairy-free option // yields 8-10 standard doughnuts [in the Wilton doughnut pan]

Doughnuts:

1/2 cup gluten-free oat flour
1/2 cup sweet rice flour
1/3 cup muscovado sugar, or brown sugar/pure cane sugar/coconut sugar
3 tablespoons almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons 2% milk
2 tablespoons sunflower oil, or other baking oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract

Toppings:

1/2 cup creamy natural almond butter, oil on top thoroughly stirred in
1/2 cup pure maple syrup
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 1/4 cups shredded unsweetened coconut
1/2 teaspoon unrefined coconut oil, optional

For the doughnuts:

Preheat your oven to 350* F and thoroughly grease your doughnut pans with softened butter or coconut oil. Let the 1/2 cup maple syrup come to room temp on the counter.

In a large mixing bowl stir together the oat flour, sweet rice flour, sugar, almond meal, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl whisk the eggs then whisk in the cream, applesauce, milk, oil, vanilla, and almond extract until well combined.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and whisk until just combined [when you no longer see dry flour]. Spoon the batter into the doughnut molds about 1/4-inch from the top and bake for 18-22 minutes until light golden around the edges and a toothpick comes out clean but not bone dry.

Let cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes then loosen with a small, stiff spatula or a butter knife [carefully] and release the doughnuts from the pan. Place on a cooling rack until fully cool. Bake another round if you only have 1 pan. You can also use a muffin tin but bake time will increase.

For the toppings:

While the doughnuts cool stir together the almond butter and maple syrup until fully combined. It will take a minute or so. The mixture will be very thick but pourable and smooth. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 350* F.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment or wax paper. Melt 2/3 cup chocolate chips [30 second increments in the microwave stirring after each, or with a double boiler] and place in a shallow bowl just big enough to dunk the doughnuts. Dunk the bottom of each doughnut and slightly up the sides, letting the excess drip off. Place on the lined baking sheet. Repeat until finished then place pan in the fridge for the chocolate to set. Melt more chocolate if needed.

Spread coconut on a small, rimmed baking sheet and bake, stirring every 2 minutes until evenly golden brown. About 5-8 minutes total. Watch very closely as it goes from golden to burnt very quickly! Remove and let cool.

Melt the remaining chocolate chips with the 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil [optional but easier to drizzle with the oil] and set aside.

Place 3/4 cup of the toasted coconut in a medium-sized mixing bowl and pour on the maple almond butter caramel. Fold/stir in with a spatula until fully combined. For a thicker consistency add more coconut. I used just over 1 cup for a fairly stiff mixture.The stiffer the mixture the harder it is to spread.

Remove the doughnuts from the fridge and spread the coconut mixture onto the tops of the doughnuts with a butter knife [or small spatula] and your fingers [this gets messy/sticky]. Drizzle the chocolate over each doughnut. Let the chocolate set in the fridge or serve right away.

Doughnuts best stored in a sealed container in the fridge and placed on the counter for about 30 minutes to come to room temp before eating.

Notes: To make dairy free use dairy free chocolate and sub 5 tablespoons unsweetened almond or soy milk instead of the cream and 2% milk. There are no subs for sweet rice flour. It can be found at many health food stores, online, or easily found at Asian grocery stores [aka: glutinous rice flour].

Samoa Baked Doughnuts with 1-minute Maple Caramel | edibleperspective.com

As mentioned in the beginning of the post, my publisher is offering35% off my book all week long on their site! It brings the total to $12.99 which is the cheapest you’ll find it anywhere. For more details on the doughnut book head on over to my book page and check it out!

Discount Code: doughnut35 – enter this in the “promotion/coupon code” field after clicking “add to cart”

Be on the lookout for more doughnut goodness all week long!

Ashley