Baked Granola Doughnuts with a Honey Glaze

 

You can blame this all on my sister.  My mother had a doughnut pan sitting on top of her kitchen cupboards, gathering dust for years and years . . . she finally sent it to my sister because she had expressed that she had always wanted to have one.  For some reason the idea of a baked doughnut had never really appealed to me . . .





I happened to be talking to my sister on MSN one day after the doughnut pan had arrived and she shared with me several of the recipes she was going to try out for baked doughnuts.  They looked fabulous and, before you could say Jiminy Cricket,  I was ordering myself a doughnut pan from Amazon!  So . . . it's her fault really.

 

Since then I have been trying to come up with as many tasty and unusual types of baked doughnuts as I can . Last week it was Chai Spiced ones . . .  and they were just gorgeous,  if I don't say so myself!!



 Today I did Honey Glazed Granola Doughnuts!  I always make my own homemade granola and, I have to say . . . I really love it.  It's wholesome and hearty, filled with fruit, low in fat and lacking in chemicals and preservatives.   I thought it would be perfect in a doughnut . . . especially for a breakfast doughnut.

 

Oh . . . and you can't have a doughnut without a glaze can you???  I think it's actually against the law or something!  Doughnuts must be glazed, or sugared . . . or otherwise adorned in some delicious way.  It just makes the scrummy . . . well . . . ermm . . . scrummier!!!

 

These turned out beautiful . . . the best yet!!   There was just a light spice from the cinnamon and the merest hint of orange . . . with a light moist texture (from the buttermilk in the batter) . . . and quite wholesomely  filled with that moreish homemade granola.  (DO feel free to use any store bought granola if that is all you have!)

 

The scattering of granola on the top before baking added just a nice bit of crunch . . . but that glaze . . . wowsa!!  That glaze just adds that extra special touch that lets anyone you bake these for feel like they are just the most important person in the world to you . . . so important that you would bake them something as gorgeously delicious as these doughnuts, and then top them with icing!!

 

These make the perfect holiday treat too,  because you can bake them ahead of time and then freeze them without glazing them. Once frozen all you have to do when you want to serve them, or when company drops by, or when you come in from the cold all frigid and famished after carol singing . . . is to warm them slightly to thaw, then glaze.  You then  have a quick and tasty treat for the whole fam damily!  (and your friends!)

 

The glaze whips up in literally no time at all and just like magic you have a fabulous treat for everyone!  I promise you they will end up thinking you are the most cleverest of people ever! I guarantee!!

 

 *Baked Granola Doughnuts with a Honey Glaze*
Makes 24
Printable Recipe

This makes a lot, but you can freeze them without glazing and have them at the ready anytime.  Just warm a bit and then glaze when you are ready to eat them.  They are really, really good.


280g plain flour (2 cups)
201g of soft light Muscovado sugar (1 cup packed)
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
80g of prepared granola (1 cup)
78ml of vegetable oil (1/3 cup)
375ml of buttermilk (1 1/2 cups)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp orange extract
(There are no eggs in this recipe)
extra granola for sprinkling

For the Glaze:
260g of sifted icing sugar (2 cups)
2 TBS runny honey
hot water

Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6.  Butter several large doughnut pans really well. 

Whisk the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and granola together in a bowl.  Whisk the oil, buttermilk, vanilla and orange together in a beaker.  Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients.  Mix only to moisten.  Spoon 2 TBS into each doughnut section in the pan.  Top each with a sprinkle of dry granola. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until nicely risen and browned.  Let sit in the pan for a few minutes before dumping out onto a wire rack.  (Repeat as necessary until you have used up all of your batter.  It will be necessary to wipe the pan out and re-butter in between bakings.)

Whisk your glaze ingredients together until smooth, using only enough hot water to give you a glaze of a drizzle consistency.  I like to dip my doughnuts into the glaze on the granola side, but you can do it according to whatever is your preference.  Let the glaze set before serving.  Store any uneaten doughnuts in an airtight container.

Note - If you don't have a doughnut pan, you can bake this as muffins. It will make 12 medium muffins.  Glaze or not as you desire.

 

I am enjoying this doughnut experience so much that I am actually going to buy myself another pan so I can do double duty.  I predict that baked doughnuts are going to be the NEXT cupcakes, or whoopie pies.  If I'm not absolutely right about that . . . I'll eat my hat!  (along with the doughnuts!)  *burp*  Pardon me.

Blame it on sis . . . she quite simply created a monster!