Maple Donuts

Doffins

By: Laura Sorkin

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 Minutes

Servings: About 12 donuts

Fried donuts are beyond what most people are willing to tackle on a sleepy Sunday morning but these baked donuts are easy and just as good.  Made with a similar batter, they are baked in the oven and then dunked in melted butter and maple syrup and rolled in sugar, nuts and cinnamon.  The result is sort of muffin-like and kind of donut-y. We considered a hybrid name and first thought of ‘Muffnuts’ but that sounded vaguely obscene so we settled on Doffins.

We happened to have a donut pan that we found at Goodwill – a great source for obscure kitchenware, by the way – but if you don’t have one, a muffin tin will do.  Just make sure it is for small muffins (think mini-cupcakes) or they will take longer to bake.

We used Runamok’s Rum Barrel-Aged Maple Syrup to dunk them but Sugarmaker’s Cut pure maple, Cinnamon+Vanilla Infused or any of the other barrel-aged syrups would be equally delicious. Be sure to serve these warm from the oven.

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Ingredients

Instructions

  • 1 Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a donut or small muffin pan and set aside.
  • 2 Melt ⅓ cup of butter and let cool. 
  • 3 In a medium sized bowl, add the sugar and egg and mix well.
  • 4 Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together.  Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk until you have a thick batter.
  • 5 Carefully drop the batter into the prepared pans, making sure not to fill each donut or muffin cell to the top but just under.  Bake in the oven for 15 - 20 minutes or until just brown and cooked through.
  • 6 While the cakes are baking, melt the butter in a small pot and add the maple syrup.
  • 7 In a separate bowl, mix the pecans, cinnamon and sugar.
  • 8 When the cakes are still warm, dunk them, one at a time in the butter/maple mixture and then roll them in the sugar/pecans. Stack them on a plate and serve immediately.