Classic Baked Doughnuts

Behind bakery case glass, rows of doughnuts sorted by flavor and color inspire everything from pop art to our senses. Chocolate glazes, pink sprinkles, and fluffy shreds of coconut look like every childhood breakfast fantasy while tags announcing berry, lemon, and maybe even maple bacon options speak to our appetite. Then there is the row of golden, cake doughnuts responsible for the scent inside the shop and sitting beneath many of the toppings and glazes. That’s the doughnut that inspired this recipe.

Fresh doughnuts on a weekend morning have a distinct advantage over pancakes. They can be enjoyed the next day and the next. This recipe makes a dozen of the cake variety, and if they last long enough, you might be able to ease your way into Monday with a homemade treat that has classic doughnut shop flavor. The batter is simple to prepare, which is key for those of us who like to ease into the day, and it doesn’t even take a trip in the fryer. What it does require is some shimmying and shaking to be evenly distributed in the doughnut pan, but you can call that your morning exercise.

Ingredients

1 cup flour
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup milk
⅓ cup canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For this recipe, you will need at least one standard doughnut pan, which holds enough batter for six doughnuts. Since the pans are relatively small, I fill two pans and place them side by side on the middle rack of the oven. If you have one pan, bake them in batches.

Begin by preheating the oven to 375 degrees and lightly oiling the wells of the pans. Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl. In a separate bowl whisk the milk, canola oil, egg, and vanilla extract. Make a well in the flour mixture, pour in the wet ingredients, and stir gently to combine. The batter will be thick but still liquid.

Distribute half the batter throughout each of the doughnut pans by spooning it into the wells. Unlike some cake doughnut batters, which are so thick that they must must be piped into the pans or spooned and spread, the batter is liquid enough that after spooning, you can shake the pan to make sure that it fills each well.

Bake for about 13 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto a rack.