Chocolate Cake Donuts

Hi folks!

Its been a loooong time, my life got too busy to blog, but finally some new recipes are going up. :-)

My new kitchen toy has been donut trays which I chanced upon in Michaels, and so, as you can probably guess, one of my latest experiment crazes has been making baked donuts. Its been a lot of fun playing around with recipes and ideas.

Today I made chocolate donuts with a strawberry rose icing. They came out lovely, moist and chocolaty ..mmmmm!! This recipe is still an evolving one, but I like it enough to share it with you! :-)

BTW, I really like using rosewater in my sweets, but if you aren't a fan, just leave it out.

Amounts of ingredients are all approximate since I eyeballed everything. Makes 15 donuts or so..

Ingredients:
2 cups organic sprouted pancake and waffle mix (Arrowhead Mills)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 heaped cups of unsweetened organic cocoa powder ( I used Rapunzel)
1 tsp aluminum free baking powder

Mix the above evenly.

1/2 cup safflower oil
1 1/2 TBSP double cream
1 cup pure maple syrup
1 1/ 2 TBSP pure vanilla extract
Water - enough to make a thick batter.

Add the above to the dry ingredients. Mix well and spoon into an oiled donut pan. I fill the cavities approx 3/4 full otherwise they turn into little cakes instead of donuts.

Bake in a preheated oven at 415 degrees Fahrenheit for approx 10-12 mins - its done when the surface of the donut springs back up when gently pressed with a fingertip. If you bake them longer it they will become rather hard - I gave a batch of burnt ones to the squirrels - squirrelnuts, haha!

Remove from pan after it has cooled off for a few minutes. The donuts should just fall out easily when you give the up-ended pan a tap on the counter.

Dip in icing and arrange on a plate. I double dipped mine after the first coat had soaked in abit. And then, since I had extra icing I drizzled more on top..so there you can see them drenched in 3 coats of strawberry icing. :-) You can also garnish them with sprinkles, toasted nuts, strawberry pieces or whatever you like.

Offer with love and honor with joy! :-)

Icing:
1 1/2 cup organic big juicy strawberries, washed and beheaded
1 1/2 cups powder sugar
1 TBSP pure rosewater
1 tsp pure vanilla essence

Blend everything til smooth.

Lunch today! :-)

Banana Walnut Muffins

Hey Folks!

Its a raining outside and I have a day to myself, so here comes a new muffin recipe which I made for Urmila and Jahnu Best's breakfast yesterday. These muffins are delightfully soft and fluffy especially considering that they are made with sprouted wholewheat flours. :-) Dhanvantari gave these a rave review, and since he is a picky eater I take that as the highest compliment! :-)

Ingredients:
Approx 2 cups almond meal (Trader Joe's)
Approx 3 1/2 cups sprouted wheat pancake and waffle mix (Arrowhead Mills)
2 heaped tsp baking powder
A pinch of sea salt
Approx 1 cup walnut pieces
Approx 1/2 cup orange flavored cranberries (Trader Joe's)
Zest of 1 big lemon

Mix all the above ingredients and set aside.

Juice of 1 big lemon
3/4 cup safflower oil
1 1/4 cup maple syrup
1 TBSP double cream
1 TBSP vanilla essence
2 banana's

Blend the above ingredients til smooth and mix with dry ingredients. Add approx 1/4 cup water to make a thick foamy batter. Spoon generously into lightly oil muffin trays, sprinkle with a dash of raw turbinado sugar and bake in a pre-heated oven at at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for approx 30 mins, or til dark golden and the indent springs back when you press muffin top lightly with your finger.

Allow to cool to room temperature or so. These muffins are soft and crumbly so removing them from the tray intact is a little challenging - and since I intended to open them up and fill them with a whipped cream cheese anyway - after a few unsuccessful attempts I didn't bother fighting the muffin tray anymore. I just carefully cut the muffin tops off level with the tray top - but be gentle to avoid breaking them - and set aside. Use a knife to loosen the edges and ease the muffin bases out of the tray.

Arrange muffin bases on a plate and dab a generous TBSP of whipped cream cheese on top. (See below. If you want them sweeter you can add a tsp of strawberry jelly on top of the cream cheese). Gently place muffin tops back over the filled the bases.

Voila! Your royal muffins are ready! :-) Delicious served with a side of fresh fruit and hot barley cup or herbal tea.

BTW, these muffins are also great plain if you don't want to use cream cheese! :-)

Filling:
1/2 pkg cream cheese
Approx 3-4 TBSP sour cream

I blended the above with a magic stick til smooth.

Optional additional ingredient: Strawberry jelly (jam) mixed til runny