Donut Day

Cooking breakfast with my 4-year-old has become one of our new family traditions. But when you realize you're out of eggs (no waffles), milk (whoops) and other staples, you have to get creative.

Fortunately I had on hand a review copy of Chole's Kitchen: 125 Easy Delicious Recipes for Making the Food You Love the Vegan Way. I'll do an actual review when I've had the chance to try more recipes, but the discovery of a donut recipe was a blessing in disguise. Or a curse. I'll get to that later.

I'd heard of baked donuts but was somewhat skeptical. And vegan? I'll admit it sounded strange. But it was worth a shot. The kids loved it. Loved making it. Loved eating it even more.

Here is the recipe, as we tweaked it for our ingredients we had on hand. The official recipe said it made a dozen, but ours came out closer to 18 donuts.

Baked vegan donuts
2 2/3 c. all purpose flour
2/3 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinammon
1 tsp. salt
1 c. unsweetened (plain) almond milk
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. cider vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Spray or grease 2 cooking sheets or donut pans.

Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and wet in another. Whisk together until just combined. Do not overmix.

Using a quart-size plastic bag with the tip cut, pipe batter into the donut pans or in a circle on the cookie sheets. (Note: If using a cookie sheet, purists be prepared that the donuts may lose their "hole" while baking.)

Lesson 1: DO NOT OVERFILL THE BAG. Just trust me on this one.

Bake 10-12 minutes, then cool before removing from pan. Glaze with mix of one cup powdered sugar and 2 tablespoons almond milk.

Lesson 2: Watch your children carefully. And I don't mean in the baking process. I mistakenly thought my boy had two donuts, only later to find he'd snuck off with another four! Let's just say we paid dearly for our donut experiment, as he bounced off the walls during his sugar buzz. Then of course, on the way to church, he said he and his bear needed a donut after church - but they would share.