Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

I have been enormously intrigued by the glut of donut recipes, cookbooks, and other accoutrements that have appeared on the market of late.  All of these new products take me back to my youth when, on the occasional Saturday morning, my mother would make us homemade donuts.  They were a lot of work as I recall.  First she had to make the dough, then painstakingly cut out the donuts and holes, heat up the deep fryer, fry them to a golden brown, and then drain them on stacks of paper towels, all while my nose was as close to the operation as I dared.  But boy, were they good.  Still, all of that just seems like too much work when a Krispy Kreme is a mere two miles away.  So when my cousin offered to loan me her donut pan (thanks, Kel!) I jumped at the chance.  This morning I took it for a spin.  I am sold!  In less than an hour I had a dozen hot, fresh, delicious donuts stacked on a plate.  No cutting, thanks to this clever pan, and no deep frying!  I didn't have a recipe for donuts, so flipped through my files and adapted a cakey muffin recipe.  I can't tell you how delicious these were.  When my husband got home from breakfast with his cronies he asked where I'd gotten the donuts.  He couldn't believe that I'd made them while he was gone.  Yep!

Baked Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

 1/3 cup Crisco shortening (not butter flavored)

½ cup sugar

1 extra large egg

1-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

½ cup whole milk (do not use 2%)

½ cup sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

6 tablespoons butter, melted

Cream shortening, sugar, and egg together in an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until light and fluffy.  Sift together dry ingredients.  Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to the shortening mixture.  Fill greased donut pan wells half full and bake at 350°F for 18-20 minutes or until golden brown.  (I used a teaspoon to fill the wells, spreading it evenly all of the way around, because I'd run out of pastry bags, but this dough is thick enough to pipe beautifully, so that would be my suggestion.)


While donuts are baking, stir together remaining ½ cup sugar with the cinnamon, to blend.  Melt butter in a wide, microwave-safe bowl.  Remove donuts from pan to wire rack, then immediately dip them one-by-one, first into the melted butter, then into the cinnamon and sugar mixture, coating well.  Place back on the wire rack to cool thoroughly.

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