One of the habits my mom taught me when I was first learning to bake is to go back through a recipe before popping something into the oven.
Giving each ingredient a once-over to make sure nothing was left out is a good idea, since you inevitably realize you forgot something when the mixture has already been in the oven for several minutes.
Normally, I follow her advice. I skim through the ingredients, creating a mental checklist to make sure I didn’t mess anything up. Of course, I also tend to get in a hurry and forget from time to time.
Such was the case this weekend when I went to quickly bake a batch of donuts for some house guests before they headed out of town.
The donuts were out of the oven, cooling in the pan, when my friend opened the microwave to reveal a little bowl of melted butter that should have been mixed into the donut batter.
The good news: they were still delicious, so I’m going to share this recipe with you even though I didn’t completely follow it correctly.
This recipe comes from the blog “Baker by Nature.” You can find the original at https://bakerbynature.com/coffee-cake-donuts-with-vanilla-glaze/. I added a ton more cinnamon to the recipe and left off the vanilla glaze, because I didn’t think the donuts needed even more sugar and calories.
Coffeecake Donuts
Ingredients
Topping Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons cold butter cut into small pieces
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 1/2 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Donut Ingredients
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup sour cream I substituted non-fat plain Greek yogurt
- 2 1/2 tablespoons butter melted
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a six-well donut baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray and set it aside.
- In a small bowl, cut together the topping ingredients until it’s well combined into small crumbs.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the flour, cinnamon, brown sugar, salt, baking powder, sour cream, butter and egg until just combined.
- Spoon the batter into the donut pan, distributing it evenly between the wells. Now evenly sprinkle the crumb mixture over the the tops of each donut.
- Bake for about 10 minutes or until the donuts spring back when you touch them lightly (mine ended up taking 12 minutes).
- Let the donuts cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then gently remove them and serve.
These were really, really good, and I was glad I decided to skip the extra glaze. They were perfect without it.
And even though I left out the butter, they were still tasty. I’m guessing they would have been a bit moister if I would have put it in, but you could probably get away with leaving it out, too, if you wanted.
I learned yet again that it’s important to go over my ingredients list before popping something into the oven. As ever, my mom is always right, even if I did end up with some delicious donuts.
This piece first appeared in print on July 30, 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.
