Baked Yeast Donuts with Maple or Chocolate Glaze

I have a guest post this week from a fellow China expat. I hope you enjoy getting to know Sarah a little through this post. She lives up in the northwest and was so great to offer this recipe that she has been working to perfect! Enjoy! 

I like sugar. But I want my sugar to be dressed up nicely.  I’ll eat something subpar like anyone else, but what I really love is fresh baked goods with just the right balance of sweet and substance. A couple of years ago we moved overseas and I found that was at an advantage to many of my peers because I was already a “from-scratch” cook with a few years of experience as a wife and mom under my belt. 

For the last year and a half, I’ve been baking a small variety of goods semi-professionally to raise money for adoption expenses. I was surprised by how well my efforts were received, but then realized that there really aren’t a lot of homey options in our city for the expat craving something sweet. 

Cue donuts.

I grew up in the Northwest in the US, where the maple bar is ubiquitous. Instead of buying a dozen glazed donuts like some (crazy) parts of the US, you buy a dozen maple bars. And they’re awesome. Every. Last. Bite. 

I needed these to be on my menu for people to buy. I needed them to be in my tummy. But I was not about to start mass producing fried donuts in my wee kitchen. So I fiddled and tried different doughs until I found something that worked. When you bite into a raised, fried donut, the dough is soft and yielding and it springs back from every bite. I wanted my baked donut to have a similar feel.

My next job was to find maple and chocolate glazes to make the world go 'round. I want my glaze to be fairly thin, to set well with a shiny finish. Nobody likes getting their fingers into a gooey mess when they eat a donut! I found lots of options for maple and settled on one pretty quickly. But the chocolate was proving a bit trickier. Most of the good glazes call for chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. I live in China, people, so those chips cost a pretty penny…er, mao. Cocoa powder, however is a little easier to track down, a little more cost effective. The problem was that the cocoa glazes just didn’t do it for me. They didn’t set up, they slid, melted or cascaded off the donuts and made sticky-fingered children the terror of their parents. 

So I worked and tweaked and ate donut after donut with glaze after glaze. It was rough. Here’s what I came up with. Is it perfect? Nah, but it gets the job done. Like the maple glaze, it sets up quickly (if you want sprinkles, add them as soon as you dunk each donut in the glaze, don’t wait until the dunking is done), doesn’t slide off unless under duress and has a nice flavor. 

Now you know what to do with your donut craving. And knowing is half the battle. Don’t blame me if your pants don’t fit.

Baked Yeast Donuts

2 cups milk 

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 1/2 tsp yeast

4 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 rounded tsp baking powder

1/2 scant tsp baking soda

Bring milk, sugar and vegetable oil almost to a boil in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Cover and allow the milk mixture to cool to just warm, about one hour. Stir the yeast in and wait a few minutes until the mixture is bubbly. Add 4 cups of flour, stirring with a  wooden spoon until the dough is smooth. It should be very soft, somewhere between a batter and a true bread dough. 

Cover, and allow the dough to rise at least one hour, or until double. Stir salt, baking powder and baking soda into the dough, then add the additional half cup of flour and stir to combine. The dough should be soft and loose. If you feel that adding and additional 1/2 cup of flour makes it too dry, then hold some back. You can always knead more flour in later. 

Dump the dough out onto a generously floured surface and knead it a few times until it’s smooth. It will be both sticky and oily feeling, and that’s just what you want. With a floured rolling pin, roll the dough into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Slice the dough into rectangles about 2 x 3 inches. Place the donuts onto parchment lined baking sheets, spaced about one inch apart. Lightly cover with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and keep in a warm place. 

Allow to rise until very tall and airy. I like to wait about 45 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375F (190C) degree oven until lightly golden, 7-10 minutes. Allow to cool (or not) before icing. 

Maple Glaze

2 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp milk

1 1/2 tsp corn syrup

2 tsp maple extract

1/2 - 1 cup powdered sugar

In a small saucepan or skillet, bring butter, brown sugar and milk to a rolling boil. Allow to boil for about 3 minutes, or until all the sugar crystals are dissolved, then remove from heat. Stir in corn syrup, maple extract and enough powdered sugar to achieve your desired consistency. I like a thin icing so as not to make the donuts overwhelmingly sweet, so I add less powdered sugar. Working quickly, dunk the top of each donut into the icing. You can easily reheat the icing, or keep it on a low heat while you work. Just watch your fingers, it’s hot! You can even freeze any leftover glaze and reheat on the stovetop for another donut adventure. 

Chocolate Glaze

2 Tbsp butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp milk

2-3 tsp corn syrup

1 Tbsp cocoa powder

1/4-1/2 cup powdered sugar

In a small saucepan or skillet, bring butter, sugar and milk to a rolling boil. Allow to boil for about 3 minutes, or until all the sugar crystals are dissolved, then remove from heat. Whisk in corn syrup, starting with 2 tsp, then add cocoa powder and powdered sugar. If the icing is too thick, add a little more corn syrup or milk. Again, work quickly to dunk the top of donuts into the icing. If you want to add sprinkles, do it right away as the glaze will start to set up as soon as it cools. 

(Note from SB: I buy corn syrup from Korean import stores--they carry large bottles for cheap! Its also available on Taobao, but look for the Korean ones--way more cost effective than the imported Karo.)