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Two sisters who love to bake...

Archives for February 2017

Baked Vanilla Cake Donuts with Frosting

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Oven Baked Vanilla Cake Donuts with Frosting.

Vanilla Cake Donuts with vanilla frosting & sprinkles are my favorite kind of donut. I think my next favorite is one covered in cinnamon & sugar. I love that I can make homemade donuts at home baked in the oven, no messy oil frying involved. The recipe is quite simple you just need a donut pan. I have 3 Wilton Donut Pans, they are non-stick and work great for making all kinds of baked donuts.

I like to use a small spoon to scoop the batter into the donut pan but you can also use a piping bag or make your own using a ziploc bag & cutting a bottom corner to pour the batter into the pan.

  

The tops will be a very pale golden brown when they are done and they will be springy to the touch. If you have trouble removing them from the pan try using a rubber spatula. The bottom side of the donuts will be a nice dark golden brown color (as shown above).

This recipe makes anywhere from 6-9 donuts depending on how high you fill the donut pan. I’ve made it a few times filling all 6 donut cavities to the top & it makes 6 big donuts but the hole in the middle kind of closes up so now I usually make 7-8 smaller donuts.  If you don’t own a donut pan you can make your own using a muffin pan instead if you roll up aluminum foil into balls and place them in the middle of each muffin hole. To create the hole just pour the batter around the aluminum foil balls.

I actually used natural sprinkles for this recipe like the one’s they sell at Whole Foods because I am trying to stay away from food dyes. They are dyed natural from foods instead of chemicals.

Baked Vanilla Cake Donuts with Frosting
 
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Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • 1 large egg
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (I used soybean oil)
  • 2 tablespoons melted butter
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • -Frosting-
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 tablespoon butter (melted)
  • +sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease donut pan with oil or cooking spray.
  2. Whisk together the sour cream, egg, vanilla, oil, butter & sugar in a bowl.
  3. Add flour, soda, salt, & nutmeg (optional) & stir together until well combined.
  4. Fill donut pan with batter & bake for 12-16 minutes or until the top is springy to the touch & the sides are turning golden brown. Remove from oven & let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes then transfer to cooling rack.
  5. For the Frosting: In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, vanilla, melted butter & milk together. You may need to add a little more milk or powered sugar to get the right consistency.
  6. Once the donuts have cooled down frost the tops of the donuts & add sprinkles (optional).

This post contains an Amazon affiliate link.

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Homemade Bread Bowls (4 Ingredients)

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Homemade Bread Bowls, perfect for serving soup in & made with only 4 Ingredients! No kneading required!

It is definitely the season for soup. Everyone I’ve talked to lately (even in other states) seems to be coming down with colds right now, including myself. So I decided to make some homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner tonight. I also decided to get fancy & make bread bowls to serve it in. I don’t know where my energy is coming from but I am taking a lot of natural stuff to try to get over this cold as quickly as possible.

The first time I had a bread bowl was at Panera Bread Company.  I don’t know if you have ever been there but I love how they serve soup in bread bowls. I like to take the scooped out top part & dip it in the soup. If I wasn’t sick I probably would have made my sister’s copycat broccoli & cheddar soup because that is my favorite from Panera.

This recipe makes 3 bread bowls. You can double the recipe and make 6 if you need to. The crust gets nice and crisp with this bread bowl recipe because you add a tray of water under it while it bakes and it steams it. The inside is really tender & moist & it goes great with soup. I recommend making this the day before or early in the day so the bread has plenty of time to cool.

Adapted from the amazing book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day (amazon affiliate link).

Homemade Bread Bowls (4 Ingredients)
 
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Serves: 3
Ingredients
  • 1½ Cups warm water
  • ½ Tablespoons + ¼ Teaspoon Salt
  • ½ Tablespoon Yeast (I used Red Star Quick-Rise Yeast)
  • 3¼ Cups unbleached all-purpose flour
Instructions
  1. Add yeast to large mixing bowl, next add warm water to activate the yeast.
  2. Add flour & salt to the large mixing bowl & stir all the ingredients together.
  3. The bread should be just a little sticky but not too much, if it's really sticky & wet add a little extra flour, if the dough is super dry then add a little more water (sometimes I have to add a little extra water to mine).
  4. Cover the bowl but not airtight (I placed a clean kitchen towel over the top of the bowl) & let it rise for 2 hours.
  5. After 2 hours place the dough onto a well floured surface.
  6. Divide dough into 3 equal parts.
  7. Shape the dough by picking it up & using your hands to fold the edge of the dough under until you have a round loaf shape with smooth edges. Place onto a greased cookie sheet.
  8. Using a serrated knife cut an mark on the top of the loaf so the top doesn't crack while its baking (See picture above).
  9. Let it rise for 40 more minutes.
  10. Preheat oven to 450 degrees BUT first place a metal 9x13 inch pan onto the bottom rack of your oven (*WARNING*: Do Not use glass, it can explode or shatter!) Or use a rimmed metal cookie sheet.
  11. When the oven is preheated place cookie sheet with bread onto the middle rack of your oven then quickly add 1 cup of water to the bottom 9x13 pan you have on the bottom rack. This pan is used to create a steam in the oven while the bread bakes, in the end it will make your bread have a nice hard crusty texture on the outside but still be soft inside.
  12. Bake for 14-16 minutes or until the top & bottom are a nice golden brown color.
  13. Remove from oven & let it cool completely, then use a knife to cut out the middle, be careful not to cut the bottom, scoop out, then enjoy with your favorite soup!

 

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Heart Shaped Cinnamon & Sugar Pie Crust Cookies

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Heart Shaped Cinnamon & Sugar Pie Crust Cookies

Hey! Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I had to post one more Valentine’s Day Recipe today because I just made these. I wanted to make a recipe for someone who has to eat dairy-free & this was the first idea that came to me. It’s easy to make. You can use your favorite pie crust recipe or the one I have below that I used.

Flaky pie crust cookies. I love this oil based pie crust recipe, it’s a no fail pie crust recipe. Tried & true. This recipe goes back to my Grandma possibly my Great Grandma. Whenever a pie was made there would usually be some scraps of dough left & instead of throwing them away she would sprinkle them with cinnamon & sugar and bake them. My Grandma used to make them for my Mom when she was a kid & my Mom did the same with me as a kid.

 

After you mix the ingredients together it might seem a little dry but once you make it into a ball it will stick together (see photos above). I always roll out my pie crust dough in between 2 piece of waxed paper so it doesn’t stick to the rolling pin.

Heart Shaped Cinnamon & Sugar Pie Crust Cookies
 
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Serves: 15
Ingredients
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • ⅓ cup vegetable oil
  • 2-3 Tablespoon cold water
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • -Topping-
  • ½ teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3 Tablespoons sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 400 F. degrees.
  2. Mix all ingredients together in bowl. Start with 2 Tablespoons of water, if it needs it add 1 more Tablespoon. Dough will look a little dry (see photo above).
  3. Take the dough, form it into a ball with your hands.
  4. Take 2 pieces of waxed paper about 18" long, sprinkle the bottom piece lightly with flour and place the dough ball in between.
  5. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough. I rolled mine to almost ⅛" thick. Whatever you prefer. You can roll it into a rectangle or whatever shape you want.
  6. Use cookie cutters to cut out heart shapes. When you have straps left, re-roll the dough & cut out more hearts.
  7. Place on greased cookie sheet.
  8. Sprinkle with cinnamon & sugar.
  9. Bake 12-14 min. or until the edges are just starting to turn golden.
  10. Let cool completely.

 

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Brown Sugar Bar Cookies

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Brown Sugar Bar Cookies.

I love cookies, bar cookies, drop cookies, refrigerator cookies, okay not the biggest fan of refrigerator cookies because I hate waiting! These cookies are easy to throw together & no waiting for the dough to chill in the refrigerator. They are kind of like a blondie bar without chocolate chips or nuts. Of course if you want you can add chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, or nuts to this bar cookie but I chose to keep it simple. You could also dust the tops with powdered sugar if you want.

These Brown Sugar Bar Cookies are soft & just a little chewy. Recipes makes an 8×8″ pan. You could double the recipe and make in a 9×13″ pan but you probably need to increase the baking time by about 5 minute.

Brown Sugar Bar Cookies
 
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Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 9
Ingredients
  • ½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened (I used salted)
  • ½ cup brown sugar, packed
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ⅛ teaspoon coarse kosher salt (or a pinch of regular salt)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. degrees. Grease an 8x8" square pan.
  2. Using an electric mixer cream butter & sugars together. Beat in egg then vanilla.
  3. In a small bowl mix flour, baking soda, & salt together. Gradually add to the other bowl of butter/sugar & mix until well combined with electric mixer.
  4. Using a rubber spatula pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly.
  5. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until top is golden brown & middle is no longer gooey.
  6. Let them cool completely before serving.

 

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