donut day

I've been thoroughly enjoying my donut pans ever since I was gifted them this past winter. I've tried only a few recipes, but all have been really yummy.
Two of these recipes I actually took liberties with and tried last weekend without eggs as we had guests with egg allergies. I actually thought they tasted better without the egg! For these strawberry donuts I simply substituted one ripe mashed banana for the egg, and for this cinnamon recipe we like, I just replaced the egg with two tablespoons of plain yogurt. Yum!

Sawyer was asking for donuts the other day (Friday morning, after his stint in the ER and was having to miss school, so I obliged)... specifically chocolate donuts. How could I object?!

So I perused a few recipes online and went with this one with just a few of my own tweaks tailored to my tastes (no coffee for me thank you) and my fridge contents.
They turned out really yummy!!
Here's my version:

Baked Chocolate Donuts

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp buttermilk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
4 teaspoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Heat oven to 325. Coat donut pan with nonstick cooking spray. In large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, nutmeg and salt. In small bowl, whisk buttermilk, sugar, egg, butter, and vanilla until smooth. Add milk mixture to flour mixture; whisk until blended and smooth. Fill each doughnut cup approximately 3/4 full. Bake at 325 degrees for thirteen minutes or until doughnuts spring back when touched. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan. Dust with powdered sugar, whip up a glaze, top with chocolate frosting, or enjoy plain -like I did!
(makes 6 donuts)

Anyway-
All this to say as much as I love a good donut, and as fun as hunting for good baked donut recipes has been (healthy ones even!), I'm declaring a weekly Donut Day around here. One morning a week I want to try a new donut recipe and have a fun donut morning!
Let me know if you have a donut pan and what your favorite recipe is!

Up next: Blueberry donuts (Ryan's favorite!)