Best Recipes for Baked Donuts

Donuts were originally called olykoeks, or oil cakes, and it was the Dutch that started the era of the doughy goody treat, by taking sweet dough balls and then having them fried in pork fat.

The pilgrims who resided in Holland than brought these donuts to America, where they were then prepared with prunes, raisins or apples tucked into its center and then cooked. It was made public to the masses, growing in rapid popularity in the 1920s, which became the iconic breakfast add-on in American food.

It was then used as a way of providing youngsters and adults snacks in theaters, where later down the years a Russian expatriate named Adolph Levitt, put together what was the world's first donut maker.

The same year the World's Fair in Chicago announced that the donut was the food hit of the century of progress, where Levitt was making an easy 25 million dollars per year by just selling off donut machines to those who wanted to make donuts in their bakeries. It was the advent of a very lucrative field in confectionery history, and till date hasn't lost its appeal to the craving Americans or global donut lovers for that matter.

Donut chains like Krispy Kreme Donuts and Dunkin' Donuts were the first two places to solely start on a business of making donuts of all kinds, experimenting with flavors, colors and textures like never before.

Those of you who love this doughy treat, must make it a point to try out donuts by these two bakery chains; you have no clue what your palate is missing out on. My sister and I are donut worshipers of the first order, and 'Krispy Kreme Donuts' are too heavenly a pastry to compare it to any other. Dunkin' Donuts too will blow anyone away, you have my word.

Baked donuts are a healthier choice when it comes to style of cooking. So the next time you decide to deep-fry those golden delectable bagels, think twice about how you'd be putting on a fewer calories if you switched to baking them instead.

Homemade donuts are really an interesting way of doing things your way, and knowing exactly what your senses crave for, when putting together a recipe.

For those of you who just starting out on donut making, head on to how to make donuts for a helping hand. I'll show you two ways of making baked donuts, one being more drop dead yummy than the other. Feel free to use whatever ingredients and toppings you'd like, to make these pastries one a kind.

What You'll Need:

• Flavor injector (syringe)
• ¾ cup of white sugar
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• ¾ cup of low-fat milk
• ¼ teaspoon of powdered nutmeg
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 tablespoon of shortening
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• 1 cup of grated fresh coconut
• 2 beaten eggs
• Donut tray
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons of lemon extract

Method of Preparation:
The oven needs to be preheated to 325°F. Using a large bowl blend together your sugar, flour, nutmeg, baking powder, salt, milk, vanilla extract, lemon extract, shortening and eggs. Fold all your ingredients into one another, until the blend attains a nice consistent batter like finish.

Using your donut tray, fill into each hollow cup the batter mix, and let them sit in the oven for about eight to ten minutes. Before you pop these out of the tray, let them cool down. While this happens, you can start on your dark chocolate filling.

Take a large bowl, and place it over a slightly smaller deep dish, that's been halfway filled with water. The heat from the water will give the bowl indirect heat, without burning what's inside. On low flame, wait until the water starts to heat up, and drop in chopped up pieces of dark chocolate.

You can choose any company brand that makes quality dark chocolate (plain). Once these melt, take your flavor injector and suck in your chocolate mush into the syringe.

After the donuts cool down, take each one, and plunge the syringe into the dough, and slowly apply pressure to inject the filling. Take two points of entry on opposite sides of the donut to have it fill in well. Then coat on non-stick butter flavored cooking spray on each donut and then toss the donuts about in the grated coconut. Your coconut covered, dark chocolate filled delights are ready to eat!

What You'll Need:

• 1 1/3 cups of unsweetened evaporated milk
• 5 cups of white flour
• 2 tbsp of unsalted butter
• 1 packet of dry active yeast
• 2 eggs
• 1/8 tsp of powdered nutmeg

• 1 tsp of salt
• 200g of low-fat cream cheese (softened)
• 1 cup of chopped seedless green olives (fresh)
• Electric mixer
• Donut cutter

The thought of donuts shouldn't only conjure a picture of sprinkles and frosting, you know. For a fairly simple take on donut making, I give you the unsweetened pastry version of donuts. So to begin this recipe, you'll first need to warm the milk to about 95 degrees (use a cooking thermometer).

Stir this constantly, to avoid it from over heating. Once that is done, it should be enough to amount to a cup of milk. The rest of your milk, which is the 1/3 of the amount you have on hand, should be added to a bowl, with the yeast plopped into it for activation.

Give it one quick stir and leave this aside for about five minutes. While this happens, mix together your butter and milk (1/3 cup), and then add this later to your yeast mix, blending into this your nutmeg, flour, eggs and salt, folding it well to have it all merge and form an even batter.

Using an electric mixer with a dough hook intact, let it knead out the dough in the bowl you have your mix in, until it takes on a glossy finish, and pulls from the sides. If you think that your mix is way too sticky for you to handle, then drop in a little more flour and if too dry, you can add in some more milk.

Then scatter some flour roughly over your counter or wooden chopping board, and knead the dough for a while, twisting it about into a ball-like mold. Place this in the fridge in a bowl that's been covered with non stick cooking spray, and keep it there for an hour, until it doubles in size.

Then once your time is up, roll out your dough with a rolling-pin dusted with flour, into a half-inch thick sheet.

Then use the donut cutter to get perfect round pastry cuts. Using a baking sheet with parchment paper layered atop this, place your donuts neatly on them and cover this with cloth, and let it rise again for another 45 minutes. Pre-heat your oven to 375°F, and leave these in for about eight to ten minutes until you can witness them turn a nice golden brown.

Using your cream cheese, add a nice layer of it around your donut, and shower it with your chopped olives. Couple this with a nice mug of coffee, and let that fluffy donut do its job as you sink your teeth into it.

Donuts are truly a tummy's best friend when it comes to the king of pastries. Baked donuts as you can see, don't really pose as a hassled situation when making these, but calls for simplicity with delicious results if you're up for it. I know deep-frying these would seem easier and faster, but for those of you who tend to keep a close eye on the weighing scale, this would prove a much better option. Hearty eating!

Donuts. Is there anything they can't do? - Matt Groening