donuts Archives - Ari's Menu

Chocolate Donuts with Orange Glaze

December 21, 2013 · by Ari · 13 Comments

Rich, fluffy, chocolatey donuts topped with a smooth, bright, citrusy orange glaze. The perfect flavor combination.

Have I ever told you about how my husband refuses to use the correct name for the cooling rack? He insists on calling it the “drying rack”, and whenever I ask him to get out the cooling rack, he corrects me. And every time I make sure I let him know that he’s wrong. The drying rack is for dirty dishes; the cooling rack is for delicious baked goods.

At this point he (obviously) knows the difference, but I’m pretty sure finding ways to annoy me is his favorite past time. In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone who knows me gets a deep sense of joy out of getting a rise out of me. Probably because I make it so easy. I am the first one to get all fired up about things that absolutely don’t matter. I think they call that “dramatic”.

So, this morning I made donuts. I never make things the day I post them, but this is what happens when I sign up for things. I forget all about them until, like, the day before, and then I’m like “Oh crap, I have to make donuts”. Anyway, I made donuts, argued my husband about the term for the rack where I placed the donuts, ate the donuts (totally the best part), and, well, here I am. Sharing donuts with you.

This month’s theme for The Recipe Redux is good luck foods for the new year. Apparently, I live under a rock because I didn’t even know that was a thing, but luckily Google told me that round foods symbolize good luck, and in my opinion chocolate always means good luck, so I made you round, chocolatey good luck charms, and they are unbelievably good. They are the softest, fluffiest donuts I have ever made, and they are 10 million times better than so many of the dry, deep-fried cake donuts I’ve tasted before. Seriously, I would choose these instead any day, and I am usually one that believes the deep fryer automatically makes everything taste better. 😉

The bright orange flavor of the glaze is the perfect contrast to the rich chocolate, and the recipe all comes together in about half an hour, so it’s easy to make at the last minute if you have guests, and want to give them a little treat. We had my family over for brunch this morning, and everyone was super impressed with these! My mom kept talking about how “professional” they were. Then my brother proceeded to eat 3. I don’t blame him.

Chocolate Donuts with Orange Glaze

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 2 dozen

Serving Size: 1 donut

Chocolate Donuts with Orange Glaze

Rich, fluffy, chocolatey donuts topped with a smooth, bright, citrusy orange glaze. The perfect flavor combination.

Ingredients

4 oz dark chocolate
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 1/4 cup gluten-free baking blend (or white whole wheat flour)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cornstarch
dash salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup reduced fat buttermilk
2 tbsp applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the glaze:

1 heaping cup powdered sugar
4-6 tbsp fresh orange juice

Instructions

Preheat oven to 325. Spray donut pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
Place dark chocolate and coconut oil in a small microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on increments of 30 seconds stirring after each until melted. Let cool while preparing other ingredients.
In a medium bowl, combine baking blend, baking soda, cornstarch and salt. In a large bowl, beat together brown sugar, egg, buttermilk, applesauce and vanilla. Slowly beat in melted chocolate, then beat in dry ingredients until just combined.
Fill donut molds about 3/4 and smooth out with a spoon. Bake for 11-13 minutes until set and donut springs back when gently pressed with your finger. Place donut pan on a wire rack and cool completely. Once cooled, remove from pan.
To make the glaze, place powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Slowly add orange juice 1 tbsp at a time stirring constantly until glaze reaches desired consistency. I went with a thinner glaze for this donut. Thickness will depend on liquid added. It is important to go slowly and mix thoroughly before adding more liquid. If you find you glaze is too thin, add more powdered sugar until it reaches your desired consistency. Drizzle glaze onto donuts and let set until dry, about 10 minutes. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days. Donuts will stay fresh best if you store them unglazed and glaze before serving.

http://www.arismenu.com/chocolate-donuts-orange-glaze/

Samoas Donuts {vegan}

March 1, 2013 · by Ari · 9 Comments

It’s here. The season I love to hate. Or hate to love. Yes, definitely hate to love: Girl Scout Cookie Season.

For the past few years, I’ve avoided purchasing any all together, but this year a special girl in my life was selling them, and I just couldn’t let her not win the special prize for selling the most boxes, right???? But really, girl scout cookies happen only once a year, and the two boxes I purchased aren’t going to be the end of the world, as long as I don’t eat them all in one sitting. In fact, I’m proud to announce that a week in, and only one box has even been opened!

This is what we call MASSIVE WILLPOWER over in my house. Plus, now that I have these donuts, that opened box of samoas isn’t drawing me in quite so heavily. The unopened thin mints in my freezer? Well, that’s an other story. Those long tubes of cookies are portion control’s worst nightmare. Oh, you say all of these delicious cookies come in 2 tubes? Well, clearly one tube is a “serving”, right?

I’m actually trying to save them for when I decide just how I want them to be a part of a cupcake, or milkshake, or cookie inside of a cookie.

So how did I make these indulgent cookies into a completely vegan, and health(ier) dessert? Well, the donut part was easy. I have a pretty basic donut recipe that I love, and it didn’t require too much tweaking. Chocolate and coconut? Piece of cake. I don’t even buy that sweetened coconut. I love the finely shredded unsweetened low fat stuff. You can, of course, use whatever you want, but if I can get that delicious coconutty taste without the added sugar, I’ll take it!

The caramel portion was tricky. I’ve seen date caramel all over the internet, and I’d been dying to try it. Dates are so sweet and gooey that it seemed like they could definitely do the trick! So I got out the food processor, played around, heated the mixture on the stove a little to get that extra-gooey effect, and voila! Now, I’m gonna be real with you here. It doesn’t just just like that gooey buttery caramel we’re all used to and love. It is not an exact replica, but it does give you a sweet, caramel texture with no added sugar. I could have just eaten it with a spoon if I didn’t have donuts to make!

And not just any donuts–ultra soft, pillowy donuts that taste like biting into a sweet, fluffy cloud. I don’t know why anyone fries these things when they bake up perfectly soft and sweet on their own. Add rich, bold dark chocolate, and you have everything you could ever need in a dessert.

**Note: To get closer to the Samoas look, you can also coat the bottom in chocolate, but I was trying to keep this light, so I just drizzled it on the top. Also, you can totally drizzle it in a straighter line for the resemblance I tried…we all have our strengths and weaknesses 😉

Samoas Donuts

yield 6 donuts

1 cup white whole wheat flour
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp dark brown sugar, packed
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp corn starch
dash salt
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk, divided use
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tbsp melted coconut oil
20 pitted dates (and water for soaking)
2 tbsp reduced fat unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 tsp coconut oil, at room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325. Spray a donut pan with nonstick spray, and set aside.
Place dates in a bowl and cover with hot water. Allow to soak while you prepare the donuts.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, corn starch and salt. Stir in 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp almond milk, vanilla and melted coconut oil. Gently stir until ingredients are just combined.
Evenly divide batter between 6 donut molds. Smooth out tops. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool completely in molds.
Transfer dates + 2-3 tbsp of water from soaking to your food processor. Process until dates begin breaking down to more of a paste, about 2-3 minutes. Add a pinch of salt (you can also add a dash of vanilla extract if you’d like) and 2 tbsp almond milk. Continue to process until a caramel texture forms, about 2-3 minutes.
Transfer mixture to a small saucepan, and cook on medium-low heat for about 5 minutes whisking constantly. Return back to the food processor, and blend again for about one minute.
Top donuts with date caramel sauce, followed by a heavy pinch of coconut.
Melt chocolate and room temperature coconut oil in the microwave for about 90 seconds, stirring every 20-30 seconds. Transfer melted chocolate to a large ziplock bag. Snip off the corner of the bag, and drizzle chocolate over donuts. Allow to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for 5-7 days.

Chocolate Frosted Orange Donuts

February 4, 2013 · by Ari · 15 Comments

I have something really embarrassing to tell you.

So I pretty much never know the correct way to store my baked goods. Either I wrap it all up super close in an airtight container when it is still entirely too warm resulting in a big gooey mess of cookies/cupcakes/etc. basically unbaking themselves; or I leave everything out chillin’ with all the breezy air flowing freely throughout my house resulting in stale baked goods in something like 48 hours.

It is a particularly sad experience to spend 75% of your life baking cookies, only to end up not being able to enjoy them the next day. Life is hard when you have a food blog.

Okay, but we’re not even to the embarrassing part yet. This happened when I chose option B, letting my baked goods hang out (read: I was lazy, and didn’t store anything properly). You see, this became a problem because I was unbelievably head over heels for these donuts. That’s part of the reason I didn’t store them in the first place. They were so tempting. I was scared to keep them.

Well, my plans to trick myself into not eating all of the donuts failed miserably when I found myself picking at the lone stale donut still standing 3 days later. That’s the embarrassing part. But if you baked the most perfect tasting orange donuts that were melt-in-your-mouth soft, and covered with sweet chocolatey goodness, you would be picking at the stale leftovers too.

Oh, and by the way, they’re vegan, and gluten-free. 😉

Chocolate Frosted Orange Donuts

yield 8-10 donuts

For the donuts:

2 cups almond meal
zest of 1 orange
3 tbsp corn starch
3/4 tsp baking powder
dash salt
3/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
1/4 cup honey or agave
1/3 cup orange juice
1/2 tsp orange extract

For the frosting:

1 cup powdered sugar
2-4 tbsp hot water
1 and 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted

Directions:

Start with the donuts. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray donut pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together almond meal, orange zest, corn starch, baking powder and salt. Stir in almond milk, honey/agave, orange juice and orange extract until combined.
Fill donut molds about 2/3 – 3/4 full. Bake for 12-16 minutes until golden and set. Let stand for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack (I flipped mine over onto the rack and they came right out) to cool completely.
To make the frosting, place powdered sugar in a medium bowl. Slowly add in water 1 tbsp at a time, stirring constantly, until it reaches a spreadable glaze consistency. Stir in melted chocolate. If glaze becomes too thick, add an other tbsp hot water. Spread glaze on top of cooled donuts.
Top with extra orange zest and/or sprinkles if desired. Store in an airtight container (so you don’t pick at stale donuts) for up to one week.

**Note: If while spreading the glaze it becomes too stiff, stick the bowl in the microwave for 10 seconds, and it will thin out again.

Skinnified Sunday: Birthday Cake Donuts

May 6, 2012 · by Ari · 6 Comments

Okay, first of all I’m not sure if I’m supposed to spell it ‘doughnut’ or ‘donut’.

Donut has less letters, but doughnut sounds kind of fancy.

And I ask you this: How can there be two correct spellings of the same word???? My type A brain can’t handle it.

Anyway, I made do(ugh)nuts! Fancy, sprinkly, festive, birthday cake do(ugh)nuts!

Yes, sprinkly is a word. It’s a synonym for fancy.

I found a super easy, and already light-ish recipe for cake doughnuts from All Recipes that I only had to slightly modify to get a pretty darn healthy, delicious, and festive looking do(ugh)nut.

My Swaps:

½ recipe (-temptation, the last thing I need is a dozen donuts sitting around)
white whole wheat flour for all-purpose (+protein, +fiber)
turbinado sugar/Splenda combo for white sugar (-sugar, -calories, and using all natural turbinado sugar makes me feel a little better about the Splenda—it’s all about balance, right?)
all cinnamon for cinnamon and nutmeg (personal preference)
unsweetened vanilla almond milk for regular (-fat, -calories, -sugar)
egg substitute for whole egg (-fat, -saturated fat, -calories, -cholesterol)
extra vanilla (I just really like it)
light whipped butter for shortening (-fat, -saturated fat, -trans fat, -calories)

Birthday Cake Donuts

Yield 6 donuts

Yes, I like it spelled donuts. 😉

1 cup white whole wheat flour
¼ cup + 2 tbsp turbinado sugar
1 tsp baking powder
pinch cinnamon
dash salt
¼ cup + 2 tbs unsweetened vanilla almond milk
¼ cup egg substitute
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tbs light whipped butter, softened

For the glaze:

½ cup powdered sugar
dash almond extract
1-2 tbs hot water
sprinkles for topping (optional)

**Note: If you are in the anti Splenda club, just user all turbinado sugar. We don’t need to get hateful about it 😉

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325. Spray a donut pan with nonstick spray, and set aside.
In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, Splenda and cinnamon.
Using a hand mixer, beat in all remaining ngredients (excluding those for the glaze) until just combined.
Transfer batter to a plastic freezer bag, and cut a small hole in the corner.
Evenly divide batter between 6 donut forms.
Bake for 8-10 minutes, then let stand for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Meanwhile, in a small-medium mixing bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, almond extract and 1 tbs hot water. Slowly continue to add more water (and I mean very slowly. A little bit of liquid goes a long way with powdered sugar) until desired drippy consistency.
Dip tops of donuts into the glaze, then let stand on a flat surface. Top with sprinkles if desired.

Weekend Recap

March 5, 2012 · by Ari · 5 Comments

Happy Monday, friends! I’m flying high on about 4 hours of sleep. WHEEEEEEEE!!!!! To be honest, I haven’t gotten a decent night’s sleep since Steve left for LA and I am simultaneously slap happy, grouchy, bitchy, and delirious. I also have a week filled with long days, and my extra grouchy time may or may not be quickly approaching (you’re welcome), so Jason and I basically decided this morning, that I should do the world a favor and just hide out in a cave for a while to avoid offending the masses. Unfortunately, that is entirely impossible, so I’m going to try to focus on the moments of slap happy ridiculousness, because those are the best part of exhaustion!

To be honest, aside from feeling like I want to take a week long nap, the past few days have been pretty fantastic. Saturday I had a super full work day, then Deann came over and we worked on some stuff for her wedding. I am pretty much the least crafty person on earth, but when it’s not super complicated, and I know exactly what to do, I actually find simple craft activities strangely therapeutic. I made us a delicious dinner of cornbread crusted chicken tenders with a creamy maple mustard dipping sauce and kale chips. You better believe that when the fancy camera is back, I will be recreating this because it was AMAZING and I can’t wait to share the recipe! I also made some more donuts for dessert. Let’s just say it’s a good thing Deann took most of the rest home because I probably would have eaten them all that night! Yum!!

Here is a crappy picture from my android. And now I want to eat more donuts.

Yesterday, I met Christina and Diana for my fav spin class! Linda kicked my butt, like usual, but I was especially excited to drip pools of sweat yesterday for some reason. Must be the week off from running ( 🙁 )!

It was so awesome to finally meet Diana too! She is just as hilarious and awesome in person as on her blog, and it totally felt like working out with an old friend! I seriously can’t get over the awesome friendships I have made through blogging!

After spin, Christina came over for brunch. I made my own southwest version of Caitlin’s Spinach and Goat Cheese Cornbread Quiche.

I miss the fancy camera. Waaaahhhh.

It was probably the most delicious non dessert item I have made in a long time. Again, can’t wait to get some actually good pictures of it so I can post the recipe for my version!

This morning, even though I was super exhausted, when my alarm went off at 6 to go run, I was still pretty excited. I have been in quite a bit of pain lately–enough that I actually took KT’s advice to take a week off from running, so I was very anxious to get out there this morning! I got there early and did just under 2 miles on my own at a 9:20 average pace, then Jason arrived and mentioned that he was ready to move up to longer intervals! We had started using the Galloway method, running 3 min, walking 1 min. We were up to a 5:1 ratio, but today he wanted to move up to 1 mile intervals! You don’t have to ask me twice!!

Not only did Jason totally bump up his running time, but his overall pace improved and this was the first run where he had all negative splits!!! I am so proud!!! I never imagined I would be helping anyone with their running! I remember feeling shocked when people started to ask me for food and weight loss advice, but I just never in a million years expected to be pushing others to run and helping them train. I mean I’ve always been one to drag someone to a group fitness class, or suggest a gym date, but I just really can’t believe how much has changed in such a short amount of time!

There is honesty no better feeling than helping someone else achieve their goals. I mean, that’s the entire reason I blog in the first place, because I want to inspire others, and I hope that someday something I write makes a difference in even one person’s life, and that they are better because of me. That would honestly be the greatest gift. Sorry for being so cheesy! I’d like to say it’s temporary, but I was absolutely born this way and intend to stay cheesy and sentimental forever and ever. 😉

Chocolate Donuts with Orange Glaze

Samoas Donuts {vegan}

Chocolate Frosted Orange Donuts

Skinnified Sunday: Birthday Cake Donuts

Weekend Recap

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