Daring Bakers: Let's go nuts for Doughnuts - My Mini Baked Version!

Time for yet another exciting Daring Bakers Challenge and the lovely Lori of Butter Me Up has challenged us to make  her country, Canada's favourite - Doughnuts. Lori's recipe sources included Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.I decided to stick to the cake doughnuts recipe, but turned the volume up by adding saffron & cardamom in the batter. I baked them in my mini doughnut maker instead of frying them (Gotto think about the poor waistline, at least when you have paid 150 quid for PT sessions at the gym). I did go a bit over-the-top with the toppings though! I slathered the baked doughnuts with melted white/dark chocolate, sprinkled the dark (chocolate) ones in edible gold dust and the white (chocolate) ones in colourful 100s & 1000s.

Baked Saffron-Cardamom Buttermilk Cake Doughnuts

Ingredients

Sour Cream - 1/4 cup

Flour  - 31/4 cup + more for dusting

Buttermilk - 3/4 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Egg - 1

Egg Yolk - 2

Saffron - 1/2 tsp

Milk - 2 tsp

Cardamom Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - 1tsp

Vanilla Extract - 1 tsp

Instant Yeast -  1 tsp

Baking Powder - 1 tsp

Baking Soda - 1/2 tsp

Method:

In a pan warm up the sour cream & milk and add the saffron & cardamom, let it infuse for 10 min. Warm up the cream mixture again. Meanwhile place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl except buttermilk and eggs . Add the warm cream to this and pour the buttermilk, egg, yolks. Knead till everything comes together to a sticky dough.  Using enough plain flour, shape them into mini doughnuts. Pre-heat the mini doughnut maker and slightly grease the moulds with oil. Place the dough into the mould, cover the lid and let them bake for 5-8 min or until done. Repeat until you have finished all the dough. Place them on a wire rack to cool.

For white chocolate topping: Melt 50 gms of chocolate in a microwave for 30sec-1 min. Using the back of spoon smear the chocolate and sprinkle liberally with 100s and 1000s.

For Dark Chocolate Topping: Melt 50 gms of dark chocolate in a microwave for 30s- 1min. Using the back of a spoon smear the chocolate and sprinkle edible gold dust.

Verdict: It was such a fun challenge and thanks to Lori I have managed to make doughnuts at home! The batter itself is a very simple recipe with much scope to add pretty much whatever flavour you fancy. I loved the subtle taste of cardamom and the colour the saffron gave the batter.