Baked Donut Monday: Apple Cinnamon!

At my office, we have Bagel Fridays every week.

Recently a coworker told me she wished we had donuts instead.

I've taken homemade donuts to work on a Monday more than once,

so as soon as she said she wished we got donuts and not bagels,

I immediately had a light bulb go off in my head!

I've decided to make Baked Donut Monday into a blog series.

I'm hoping to post a NEW baked donut recipe every 1st Monday of the month!

Make sure to check back each month for something new.

For the very first Baked Donut Monday post, 

I'm going to tell you all about some delicious

APPLE CINNAMON DONUTS!!!

The Goods:

Flour

Sugar

Brown Sugar

Baking Powder

Baking Soda

Salt

Cinnamon

Egg

Apple Butter

Vanilla

Honey

Apple Juice

Sour Cream

Vegetable Oil

Butter (Oops! Not pictured!)

(Full Recipe at bottom of post!)

I was inspired by this recipe on a blog I read often.

Silly me, I didn't read the recipe fully the first time,

and when I went to make it, I was missing Apple Butter.

So I tried to make do, but I didn't love the end result.

After purchasing the Apple Butter weeks later,

I decided to try again, but was now without Apple Cider.

I didn't want to buy a HUGE jug of it,

so I substituted Apple Juice for the Apple Cider

and made a few other small changes too.

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Grease your donut pan and set aside.

Now get to work making the dough!

In one large bowl, combine the following:

flour baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar.

In another large bowl, combine the following:

egg, apple butter, vanilla, honey, apple juice, sour cream and oil.

Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix until blended.

After making a few batches of donuts,

I've found it's easiest to transfer your dough to a gallon zipper bag.

This will make filling the donut pan MUCH easier!

 Cut off the the tip of the zipper bag and fill your donut pan 1/2 to 3/4 full. 

Bake for about 10 minutes, remove from oven and start cooling in the pan.

After a few minutes, remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

While they're cooling, get your topping ingredients ready.

Simply melt your butter in the microwave 

and combine your cinnamon and sugar in a separate dish.

Your donuts should still be slightly warm and it's time to finish them.

Brush both sides with the melted butter...

Then roll in cinnamon sugar mixture until coated.

And then they're done!

(Note - there are so many here because I doubled the recipe.)

I didn't wanted to be temped by all those donuts, 

so I packaged some up for neighbors...

Then I ate one (ok maybe two!) 

and got the rest ready to take to work!

Apple Cinnamon Donut Recipe

Adapted from Christina's Recipe

For the donuts:

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2/3 cup brown sugar

1 egg
1/2 cup apple butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup apple cider
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tablespoons canola oil

For the topping:

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, grease a donut pan and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar. 
3. In another large bowl, whisk the egg, apple butter, vanilla extract, honey, apple cider, sour cream and oil. 
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a hand mixer.
5. Transfer donut batter into large zipper bag and fill donut pan until 1/2 to 3/4 full. 
6. Bake for about 10 minutes and cool on a wire rack. 
7. While donuts are cooling, melt butter for the topping in a microwave safe dish. 
8. In a separate dish, combine the remaining sugar with the cinnamon. 
9. Brush both sides of the donut with butter and roll in sugar mixture until coated.

Makes 8 to 10 donuts.

(Note - I had so many because I doubled the above recipe!)

Don't forget to check back in April for the next yummy donut!!!

Homemade Hot Chocolate Sticks!

I knew I wanted to make some kind of treat for my co-workers for the holidays

and when I was looking at numerous ideas online, I came up with the idea to make 

HOT CHOCOLATE STICKS!!!

Now you're probably thinking,

Hot Chocolate Sticks? What's that?!?!

Well keep reading and I'll show you!

The Goods:

Dark Chocolate

Lollipop Sticks

Silicone Mold

Milk (For Making Hot Chocolate)

Mini Marshmallows (Optional)

Candy Canes (Optional)

Melt your chocolate and fill silicone mold. 

Once chocolate is set enough, add sticks

and the topping of your choice.

I decided to use only mini marshmallows.

Once completely set, remove from the silicone mold.

Package up into individual baggies.

And because I was giving them as gifts,

I added a mason jar, straw and candy cane too!

One dozen Hot Chocolate Stick treat bags!

These would make a great treat for any holiday.

I'm thinking New Years, Valentine's Day, Birthdays, etc.

Hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's Eve!

Here's to an amazing 2015 my friends!!!

Dairy Free Banana Bread

I haven't made goodies for my co-workers in awhile, and with Halloween coming up I knew I wanted to make some kind of bread/muffin. I purchased some adorable mini muffin liners awhile ago and really wanted to put them to use!

I had TONS of bananas in my freezer just waiting to be turned into delicious banana bread or muffins so I quickly knew I'd be making banana bread. I've made banana bread so many times I've lost count - but I wanted to switch it up and try to make it dairy free so my friend Matt at work could enjoy it too! 

After searching online for awhile, I decided to just use my GG's recipe and replaced the butter with oil and the sour cream with apple sauce. Seemed easy enough and I was just hoping for the best!

 The Goods

3 Tablespoons Oil

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg - beaten

1/2 Cup Applesauce

(*bonus points if homemade!)

2 Cups Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

3/4 Cup Banana - Mashed up

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

Soooooo were my hopes too high? 

Absolutely not! And in fact - I can't even tell the difference between these one and the one's I've been making with butter and sour cream all these years! 

Here are just some of the cute lil gems I made to take to the office tomorrow.

And because I made a TRIPLE batch - I made some mini loaves too!!

Make the regular, make the diary free kind, heck - make BOTH, but make sure you make ONE of these soon!!!

Elina and Robyn Make...BLONDIES!

We'reeeeeeeeeeeeee back!

And back with some AMAZING Blondies! These are crazy delicious and SO easy to make. I made them one weekend for co-workers, and after discovering how great they were - Elina and I made them the following weekend. I decided to blog about them so no one missed out on these tasty treats!

Check out how to make them and then do so - you WON'T be upset!

The Goods:

1 cup Self Rising Flour

OR

1 cup All Purpose Flour AND 2 tsp Baking Powder

3 1/2 ounces Unsalte Butter

1/2 cup Sugar

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

1/2 to 3/4 cup Macadamia Nuts - roughly chopped

3 1/2 ounces White Chocolate

Parchment Paper

Preheat Oven to 350.

Lightly grease 8" square pan and line with parchment paper.

Set aside until batter is ready.

Bring water to boil in large sauce pan.

Remove from heat and place heat proof bowl on top.

Add butter and white chocolate to heat proof bowl, 

stirring occasionally until melted completely. 

Add the sugar.

And then the eggs and vanilla too!

Fold in the flour and nuts until fully incorporated.

Pour batter into pan and smooth with spatula.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

If top starts browning before fully set,

cover lightly with foil.

Anddddd they're done!

Cool in the pan a few minutes.

Remove and then cool completely before baking.

Now...go make some and enjoy!!!