Several weeks ago, I got the opportunity to meet Tina Ostrander, owner of Main Street Co. & Kitchen Corner in Newton. We sat down over a cup of coffee to talk about working together, which we were both pretty excited about.
And then the world shut down, and I was super nervous that the first week of our partnership—this week—would mean I might have trouble finding more recipes to try, and Kitchen Corner wasn’t going to be open for us to do anything fun together.
But I’ve been discovering that I have lots of random ingredients hanging out in my kitchen, and despite her brick-and-mortar being closed for the time being, Tina has an online store set up.
So, for my part, I started examining my pantry and realized that I, for some reason, have quite a few instant coffee packets, so I determined it was time for something with coffee flavor—and time for something sweet. I landed on a recipe for cake donuts with a coffee glaze that ended up being a fantastic recipe.
I found this recipe on the blog “Marsha’s Baking Addiction.” You can find the original post at https://marshasbakingaddiction.com/baked-coffee-doughnuts. I added extra vanilla and nutmeg in my version.
Glazed Coffee Cake Donuts
Ingredients
Donut Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons instant coffee or make 1/4 cup strong coffee
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup buttermilk or use regular milk with a touch of vinegar
- 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Glaze Ingredients
- 1/4 cup warm milk
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee or use a tablespoon strong coffee
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 1/4 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare a donut pan by spraying it with cooking spray.
- If using instant coffee, dissolve it into 1/4 cup of hot water.
- In a mixing bowl, beat the egg, sugar, buttermilk, oil, vanilla and coffee until smooth.
- Beat in the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg until just combined and spoon the batter evenly between the six wells in your donut pan (this will fill them pretty much to the brim. If you’d rather have smaller donuts, you could fill them less and make another partial batch, too).
- Bake for eight to 10 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in them comes out clean.
- Let the donuts cool for about 10 minutes and then let them cool completely before glazing them.
- For the glaze, in a shallow bowl, whisk the coffee, vanilla and milk until smooth, and then whisk in the powdered sugar, a little at a time, until you get the consistency you want. If it’s too thin, add more sugar. If it’s too thick, add a little more milk.
- Dip the donuts into the glaze (just the tops, you don’t have to submerge them) and then place them on a wire rack to dry. I did two coatings on mine.
- Once the glaze is dry, store any leftover donuts in an airtight container.
These were amazing. And I learned that I absolutely should never make them when only Joey and I are around to eat them, because they, embarrassingly, did not last more than a couple of days.
And, while Tina and I will have to wait on some of the in-person ideas we discussed a few weeks ago, I’m glad I can keep baking and she can still keep people’s kitchens stocked with needed supplies. If you need a donut pan, for instance, go visit her online store; she’s got ’em.
Also, if you’re bored and want to look back at some of my previous columns, I officially have my own website, and I’m still working on uploading my archives, so look for it to keep expanding over the next few weeks. You can visit it at spiceupkitchen.net.
Stay safe. Shop local online. And eat donuts.
This piece originally appeared in print on April 1, 2020.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.