Baked Vanilla Cake Donuts, GF

By MaryEllen

This donut recipe is easy to mix in one bowl and has enough leaveners to bake perfectly light and tender in just 12 minutes in a 350°F oven. It’s sweet and flavorful enough to enjoy plain right out of the oven, or with a simple vanilla glaze or a sugar coating that crackles once it’s cool.

Ingredients

• For the Donuts
• 1 1/2 cups (210 g) all purpose gluten free flour (I used Better Batter)
• 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum (omit if your blend already contains it)
• 1/4 cup (36 g) cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 3/4 cup (150 g) granulated sugar
• 8 tablespoons (112 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 eggs (100 g, weighed out of shell) at room temperature, beaten
• 3/4 cup (193 g) plain yogurt, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract)
• For the (optional) glaze
• 1 cup (115 g) confectioners’ sugar
• 2 to 4 teaspoons milk or buttermilk
• For the (optional) sugar coating
• 4 tablespoons (56 g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a standard-size donut pan and set it aside.

In a large bowl, place the flour, xanthan gum, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, nutmeg, and sugar, and whisk to combine well. Create a well in the center of the dry ingredients, add the butter, eggs, yogurt, and vanilla, and mix until just combined. Fill the prepared wells of the donut pan until nearly full. For perfectly shaped donuts, place the donut batter into a piping bag fitted with a large, open tip, and pipe the batter into the wells. Wet the pointer finger of your dominant hand and run it along the center of each well of the donut pan to force the batter toward the perimeter of each well. This will help the donut hole from closing during baking.

Place in the center of the preheated oven and bake for about 12 minutes or until the donuts are set and just lightly browned. Remove from the oven, and allow the donuts to cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

If you’re planning to use the optional glaze, transfer the donuts to a wire rack to cool completely. In a small bowl, place the confectioners’ sugar and 2 teaspoons of milk, and mix well. Add more milk by the half-teaspoon until you have a smooth but thickly pourable glaze. Working quickly, dip the top of each cooled donut in the glaze, turn back and forth a bit to coat well, invert the donut so the glaze is facing upward, and place on a flat surface to set.

If you’re using the optional sugar-coating, invert the donuts onto a wire rack while they’re still warm. Dip each donut carefully in the melted butter and then press into the granulated sugar before replacing on the wire rack. The sugar coating will harden as it cools.

Cook's notes:
I do have a trick for filling the wells a bit higher with batter while still preserving the donut hole. Just moisten the pointer finger of your dominant hand, and run it all around the center column of each well. That will force the batter away from the center and toward the edge of the pan.

Since the batter is thick, it won’t run back toward the center. As the donuts bake from the outside in, they’ll creep slowly toward the center without closing the hole.