Chocolate Donuts

Creating your own homemade donuts is all the rave right now, and there’s a good reason for it. They are simple to make, and taste incredible. Rich, moist, fluffy, and glazed to perfection… are you tempted yet? Good, Lets dive in!

What if you don’t have a donut pan?

Donut pans, are fairly inexpensive and easy to find in stores now-a-days. The donut pan I purchased was $13.99 from the real Canadian superstore. However I understand that not everyone wants to purchase a donut pan or has room to store it. Here are a couple other options.

• Free form. Grease a baking sheet, then pipe your donut batter into circles 2″ apart.
• Muffin tin. Roll up parchment paper, or tin foil into a log shape that is taller than your muffin pan wells that resembles a donut hole and place it in the center of the well. Pipe donut batter around the diameter of the parchment paper or tin foil.

Can I use my Donut pan for anything else?

Yes! in addition to baking donuts, you can use your donut pan to make bagels, or substitute donut batter for your favorite muffin recipe, or make cinnamon donut “rolls”

How to use a piping bag

I will be the first to admit, I’m not very good with a piping bag as I don’t have much practice with it, which means… I kinda make a mess! but I do have some basic suggestions on how to fill and use one.

• Before filling your piping bag with batter, start by snipping off the tip of the bag so there is approx. 1cm opening. if you are using a tip, drop the tip inside and wiggle it into the opening making sure there is a good seal. Note that you may need to snip the end more depending on the size of your tip. for piping donuts; I didn’t find it necessary to use a tip.
• Next you’re going to want to hold the bag in the middle, and fold the top of the bag down over your hand so you have a good wide sturdy opening to fill the bag up. You can also use a tall drinking glass and fold the top down over the glass so you have two hands to fill the bag.
• Spoon the donut batter into the bag filling it 3/4 the way full, unfolding the bag as necessary.
• Twist the top of the bag closed. if you don’t do this; Batter will make its way out of the top no matter how tightly you hold it closed. (I speak from experience!)
• Hold the piping bag at the top where its twisted closed with your dominant hand, and use the opposite had to guide the bag as you are piping.
• Hold the piping bag tip just above the surface of the donut pan on a slight angle and apply pressure to the bag by closing your dominant hand piping slowly. When the donut well is full, stop squeezing the bag, lift the piping bag up, reposition over the next donut well, and pipe the batter into the next donut well.
• continue until the donut pan is full, refilling the bag as needed.

Tips for Glazing Donuts

If you’re like me; you don’t like getting your fingers gooey, and lets face it, when you think about glazing a donut, messy comes to mind. Here is the best method I found for glazing the donut. Start by grasping the donut in between your fingers; one finger on top of the donut, and your thumb on the bottom. (not on the sides of the donut) Dip the side of the donut in the glaze and roll it until the sides are covered, then drop the top of the donut into the glaze. Using your index finger, insert it into the center hole of the donut as far in as you can get it, and scoop it out. Once you scoop it out of the glaze, hold it over the glazing bowl and let the excess drip off for about 30 seconds. set it back onto the cooling rack to harden. Make sure you have a sheet of parchment paper underneath the cooling rack for easy clean up, as it will drip a little bit more.

Donuts are best consumed the same day they are made, however if you have a few left over, store it in an air tight container at room temperature. they will keep for 1 additional day.