All posts by Melissa

Peanut Butter Frosted Jelly Donuts {Recipe}

Breads and Yeast Raised Doughs, Doughnuts

Peanut Butter Frosted Jelly Donuts | Lil Miss Cakes

I love putting a flavor twist on traditional dessert recipes. In the past I have shared my recipes for pumpkin donuts with marshamallow graham cracker glaze, cinnamon bun stuffed donuts, and a mint chocolate cookies and cream donut (which happens to be baked). But this recipe isn’t really outside the box like those. I simply added a peanut butter frosting to a classic and traditional Hanukkah jelly donut. Now I love peanut butter and jelly, they are a match made in heaven. I’ve shared my recipe for peanut butter and jelly hamantashen which are made with a peanut butter cookie dough and filled with delicious jelly. That’s what I tried to do with these donuts. I really wanted to fry up a peanut butter donut and fill it with my favorite jelly. But after lots of research and even more trial and error I realized that peanut butter dough just doesn’t want to be fried.

Peanut Butter Frosted Jelly Donuts

I finally went with a simple peanut butter frosting on top of a classic jelly donut. My husband really wanted this combo from the beginning. He doesn’t like peanut butter flavored things since they lose the signature sticky, thick peanut butter texture. These donuts taste like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and the peanut butter texture is definitely there. I made the frosting thick but you could always thin the frosting out and turn it into a peanut butter glaze. Those would also be amazing! Enjoy the simple and dairy free recipe for these donuts!

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Peanut Butter Frosted Jelly Donuts {Recipe}
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 16 donuts
 
Ingredients
  • Vegetable oil for frying
  • Jam or jelly for filling
Dough
  • 2 packets yeast (4½ tsp.) I use active dry.
  • ½ cup warm water
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • ⅓ cup vegetable shortening
  • ¾ cup soy milk
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 4 cups flour
  • 2 eggs
Peanut Butter Frosting
  • ½ cup creamy peanut butter
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼-1/2 cup water
  • ½ tsp, vanilla extract
Instructions
Dough
  1. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix the yeast with the warm water and 1 tsp. sugar. Stir until no longer lumpy and set aside to proof and bubble up; 5-10 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile add the ¼ cup sugar and the salt to the bowl of an electric stand mixer.
  3. In a microwaveable bowl warm the vegetable shortening with the soy milk until the shortening has melted. Pour the shortening/milk mixture over the sugar/salt mixture and stir to melt. Allow to cool until lukewarm.
  4. Add the flour and eggs into the mixer bowl. Then finish off with the yeast mixture. Mix on low using the dough hook until the dough comes together. Once it's pulling off the sides of the bowl, set the mixer to medium low and mix for about 6 minutes.
  5. Grease or oil a large clean bowl and scrape the dough mixture inside.The dough will be sticky, but don't add flour! Grease your hands to better work with the dough.
  6. Cover in plastic wrap and set in warm place to rise for one hour.
  7. Once the dough has risen, roll the dough out and cut circles using a 2½- 3 inch round cutter. Set the circles of dough on a floured and parchment lined baking sheet and cover with a kitchen towel.
  8. Allow to rest in a warm place for 30-45 minutes.
  9. Meanwile heat the vegetable oil in a heavy bottom pot or deep fryer. Set the temperature to 350 degrees F.
  10. Once the donuts have rested and risen for a second time and the oil has reached it's temp, fry the donuts for 1 minute on each side. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels.
  11. Fill the donuts with your favorite jam or jelly. I use a piping bag fitted with a Wilton number 230 filling tip. It is long and skinny with an angled front to allow easy filling.
Prepare the frosting
  1. In a bowl stir the peanut butter with the powdered sugar and vanilla. Slowly add in the water until it's spreadable. Spread or pipe the frosting on the donuts. You can also thin it enough to make a glaze and pour over the donuts.

Mint Chocolate Cookies and Cream Donuts {Recipe}

Doughnuts, ,

Mint Chocolate Cookies and Cream Donuts | Lil Miss Cakes

I can’t believe I haven’t shared my chocolate baked donut with you yet! These are amazing-if I do say so myself. The great parts of this recipe: easy to make, no frying required, donuts look perfect every time. Negatives: they aren’t fried, and you need a donut pan. But once you have a donut pan, you will find yourself using it all the time. Try muffin recipes in it for a fun twist on the original. I only have one donut pan and this recipe makes 18 so I needed to bake 3 rounds, but they bake quickly: 10 minutes each and then they just pop right out, so I never felt the need for more of these pans. I also have the mini donut pan and I really don’t recommend it. The donuts just don’t bake nicely, they come out funny looking and making minis is just a pain. I would stick to the regular size; it works fabulously. These donuts are light and fluffy in texture, but very chocolaty and rich in taste. They definitely need to be served with a tall glass of cold milk. These donuts get their minty flavor from peppermint chocolate sandwich cookies. The cookies are filled with crushed up peppermint candy and are insanely good! They are a seasonable item so get them while you can! I won’t tell you how many boxes I am hoarding right now, it’s embarrassing! If you can’t get the cookies, you can use regular chocolate sandwich cookies with a teaspoon of peppermint extract. Here’s my easy, dairy-free baked donut recipe!

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Mint Chocolate Cookies and Cream Donuts {Recipe}
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 18
 
Ingredients
Donuts
  • ⅔ cup dutch process cocoa powder
  • ¾ cup hot water
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • ½ cup non-dairy sour cream (such as Tofutti Brand)
  • 1⅓ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup margarine
  • ¼ cup shortening
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • ½ cup crushed peppermint chocolate sandwich cookies
Icing
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼-1/2 cup cold water
  • green food coloring, optional
  • ½ cup crushed peppermint chocolate sandwich cookies
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Using baking spray grease a donut pan and set aside.
  3. In a medium sized bowl whisk the cocoa powder with the hot water until dissolved.
  4. Stir in the baking soda and sour cream and set aside.
  5. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the brown sugar with the margarine and shortening until light and fluffy.
  6. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
  7. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt and beat on low speed for a few seconds.
  8. Pour the cocoa mixture into the mixer and mix until smooth and combined.
  9. Stir in ½ cup crushed cookies (from about 4 cookies).
  10. Pipe the batter into the donut pan filling most of the way up.
  11. Bake for 10 minutes until the donuts spring back to the touch.
  12. Allow to cool before icing.
  13. Icing
  14. Pour the powdered sugar into a large bowl.
  15. Drop in a tiny bit of green food coloring.
  16. Slowly add the water and stir until smooth. Keep adding water a little at a time until desired consistency is reached.
  17. Dip the donuts in the icing, and top with crushed cookies. Alternatively, drizzle or spread the icing on top.

Cinnamon Bun Stuffed Donuts {Recipe}

Breads and Yeast Raised Doughs, Doughnuts, ,

Cinnamon Bun Stuffed Donuts | Lil Miss Cakes

Oh my goodness, guys-I think I just won Hanukkah. Now let me start off by apologizing for sharing these the day that the holiday starts, but you really can’t rush greatness! Lucky for us, Hanukkah is 8 days long so there is still time to work these epic donuts into your schedule!

Cinnamon Bun Donut | Lil Miss Cakes

Now I wish I could tell you that this recipe came out perfectly on my first try. I was actually working on another flavor idea and couldn’t get the dough to work. So I thought I would try using my cinnamon bun dough because that recipe is amazing and it’s my most requested dessert. But then once I was using that dough my friend mentioned that I should just fry my cinnamon buns. I wasn’t so into that idea because that is basically just a fried cinnamon bun or coffee roll if you frequent Dunkin Donuts. That’s when the genius hit me! What if I stuff a cinnamon bun inside a donut and fry it?! It was not as easy as I thought. For one thing, my cinnamon bun dough is way to sweet and heavy. Perfect for baking, not so great in the fryer. There goes batch number one, into the garbage right out of the fryer. On to round two: finding a better recipe. I found one that was so similar to my original bun recipe, it just cut down on the amount of sugar and used a little less shortening instead of my butter/margarine. This recipe was similar to Alton Browns recipe but without all the weighing so I  knew I was on to something. This new dough recipe turned out to be perfect! But my method now needed tweaking. I was rolling my cinnamon buns my usual way, cutting them into pieces and wrapping them in more dough. After letting them rest, they would fry up beautifully. But the centers were raw…insert sad face here! I was really going to give up-I was not only 2 batches deep in terrible cinnamon bun donuts, I didn’t even mention the 3 batches of my previously failed attempt at an interesting flavor combination.  5 batches of donuts in, I almost gave up. Aren’t you glad I didn’t?!

Cinnamon Bun Donuts | Lil Miss Cakes

It turns out that you need to bake the cinnamon buns before you stuff them inside more dough and fry them. Otherwise you end up with raw donut centers. I don’t know of anything worse! So, that is definitely a downside of this recipe-they take some time and patience. But here is the good news-you only need to make one batch of dough. And you can plan in advance-make the dough and bake the cinnamon buns. Next day, take your buns, stuff them in some raw dough and fry! The icing is completely optional, but cmon…you got this far-the icing is the easiest part! Here is my dairy-free, perfectly epic cinnamon bun stuffed donut recipe. Enjoy!

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Cinnamon Bun Stuffed Donuts {Recipe}
Author: 
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 12
 
Ingredients
  • Vegetable oil, for frying
Dough
  • 2 packets yeast (4½ tsp.) I use active dry.
  • ½ cup warm water
  • 1 tsp. sugar
  • ⅓ cup vegetable shortening
  • ¾ cup soy milk
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 4 cups flour
  • 2 eggs
Filling
  • 2 Tbs. margarine, melted
  • ⅓ cup brown sugar
  • ¼ cup sugar
  • 1 Tbs. cinnamon
Icing
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • ¼-1/2 cup water
Instructions
Dough
  1. In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix the yeast with the warm water and 1 tsp. sugar. Stir until no longer lumpy and set aside to proof and bubble up; 5-10 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile add the ¼ cup sugar and the salt to the bowl of an electric stand mixer.
  3. In a microwaveable bowl warm the vegetable shortening with the soy milk until the shortening has melted. Pour the shortening/milk mixture over the sugar/salt mixture and stir to melt. Allow to cool until lukewarm.
  4. Add the flour and eggs into the mixer bowl. Then finish off with the yeast mixture. Mix on low using the dough hook until the dough comes together. Once it's pulling off the sides of the bowl, set the mixer to medium low and mix for about 6 minutes.
  5. Grease or oil a large clean bowl and scrape the dough mixture inside.The dough will be sticky, but don't add flour! Grease your hands to better work with the dough.
  6. Cover in plastic wrap and set in warm place to rise for one hour.
  7. Once the dough has risen, cut off ⅓ of the dough (about 12 ounces if you have a kitchen scale) to make your cinnamon buns. Set the rest of the dough in the fridge.
Cinnamon Buns
  1. Grease a 12 cavity cupcake pan and set aside.
  2. On a well floured surface roll out the dough you just portioned off. Roll it into a rectangle about 12" wide and 6" tall.
  3. Melt the margarine and brush over the dough.
  4. Sprinkle the dough with the brown sugar, sugar, and cinnamon. Roll the dough into a log, you are rolling the long side up so your log is still 12" long.
  5. Once rolled up use a serrated knife or bench scraper to cut the buns into 12 pieces.
  6. Place each bun in one cavity of the cupcake pan, cut side up/down.
  7. Cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for 30 minutes.
  8. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  9. Once the buns have risen, bake for 10-12 minutes until just lightly brown. You don't want to overbake-these will still be fried.
  10. Remove the pan from the oven, let cool for 5 minutes and then carefully pop the buns out of the cupcake pan. The sugar will be extremely hot so your best bet is to flip them out onto a parchment lined cookie sheet.
  11. Allow these to cool completely.
  12. Once the buns are cool, remove the reserved dough from the fridge.
  13. Divide the dough into 12 portions (just under 2 ounces each). Flatten each piece, I used well floured hands but you could use a rolling pin.
  14. Place one bun pretty side down on the flattened dough. Carefullly wrap the dough over the bun and pinch the seams together at the bottom.
  15. Set the donut to rise seam side down on a floured parchment lined baking sheet.
  16. Once all 12 donuts are formed, cover with a kitchen towel and allow to rise for 30 minutes.
  17. While the donuts are rising, heat your cooking oil. I use vegetable oil but use any oil with a high smoking point.
  18. Heat your oil to 350 degrees F. Proper temperature is everything: too cold and your donuts soak up all the oil and become greasy. Too hot and your donut is burning but the inside is raw.
  19. I use a deep fryer because it will regulate the temperature for me, if you don't have one-make sure you have a really good thermometer and keep a close eye on it.
  20. Fry the donuts for about 1 minute per side.
  21. Carefully remove from the oil and drain on a sheet pan lined with paper towels.
Icing
  1. Once your donuts have cooled (if you haven't eaten them all yet) measure the powdered sugar into a bowl.
  2. Slowly add a bit of water at a time until you have a thick icing consistency. I went thick with these but you can thin the icing out more if you are looking for more of a glaze.
  3. Dip, drizzle, or pour the icing onto your donuts.
  4. Sprinkle with extra cinnamon for an added touch and enjoy!