Vanilla Bean Baked Donuts

I love summer mornings.  I love that there isn't the "rush" that I feel during the school year.  After my morning run, I spend a little time in my little growing garden.  I love inspecting each plant and watching with amazement as zucchini, peppers and peas seem to grow overnight.  I love that when I walk into my house, breakfasts are slow and drawn out and are more than just a quick bowl of cereal with bites taken in between making peanut butter sandwiches.  Sometimes (okay a lot of the time), I go to sleep at night thinking about what I will make for breakfast in the morning.  A little while back, I came across this recipe for baked donuts and new they would make the perfect slow morning summer breakfast.  The donuts were tender and not overly sweet, making the vanilla bean glaze a perfect compliment for this simple summer breakfast.  

 

Vanilla Bean Baked Donuts

Doughnuts:
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon vinegar
3 tablespoon butter, melted
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoon honey
1 large egg
1/4 vanilla bean

Glaze:
1 1/2 tablespoons half and half
1/4 vanilla bean
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt


Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  

In a small bowl, mix together milk and vinegar.  Allow to sit for 5-10 minutes to curdle.  Melt butter in a small bowl and set aside to cool.  Meanwhile, whisk together flours, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a large bowl.  Set aside.  To the cooled butter, add the sugar, honey, egg and vanilla bean seeds and whisk until combined.  Add in curdled milk.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Over mixing with create a donut that is dense.  Spray donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.  Add donut batter to a piping bag (a large Ziploc bag also works) and pipe batter evenly into the prepared pan.  Bake for 7 minutes.  Allow to cool for 1 minute before removing donuts from pan to cool on cooling rack.

While the donuts are cooling, make the glaze.  In a flat bottomed bowl, whisk together the half and half, vanilla bean seeds, nutmeg, and salt until evenly combined.  Slowly whisk in powdered sugar until smooth.  If glaze is too thick, add 1 teaspoon more of half and half at a time.  If glaze is to thin, add 1 tablespoon more of powdered sugar at a time until desired consistency is reached.

Once the donuts have cooled completely, about 15-20 minutes, dunk donut in glaze to evenly coat the top of the donut.  Repeat until each donut is topped with the vanilla bean glaze.  Place on the cooking rack and allow to dry for about 20 minutes.  (I'm pretty sure we only waited about two minutes.)  Makes six donuts.

Recipe changed just a bit from The Faux Martha

*Picture taken with my iphone (summertime food for me and my family through the eyes of me and my iphone).