Baked Doughnuts with Caramel Topping

Have I expressed how much I truly love my doughnut pan? It might be one of my favorite kitchen items of all time. I’ve used it so many times that I’ve lost count. I don’t often branch out and post different recipes, though, because the ones I have for plain and chocolate doughnuts are perfect for my taste.

However, I really wanted a doughnut this morning, but I wanted something more than my regular recipes offer. I found these Caramel-Glazed Baked Doughnuts from Namely Marly and loved the premise, so I tweaked the recipe to suit the ingredients I had on hand. I wish I could say they were amazing, but I can’t. While my version baked a lovely doughnut, I still prefer my other recipes.

I encountered some trouble with the caramel glaze because it started to solidify before I could even top the doughnuts. It was more caramel-y than glaze-y or frosting-y, so it didn’t make a very smooth coating like I wanted.

Also, when the doughnut and coating came together, the sweet caramel overwhelmed the doughnut flavor, and even plain it didn’t have that distinctive doughnut taste. The original recipe didn’t call for nutmeg, so I added a little shake of it to see what would happen. Nothing really happened.

Baked Doughnuts with Caramel Topping

Yields 6-7 doughnuts

6 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup butter, room temperature
1 egg
½ cup buttermilk (or 1/2 cup milk + 1 teaspoon white vinegar)
1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon yeast
½ teaspoon baking powder

Caramel Topping:

¼ cup butter
½ cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups powdered sugar

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1. Preheat the oven to 350*. Grease or spray a doughnut pan.
2. Mix together the sugar and butter in a medium bowl.
3. Add the egg and mix together to incorporate.
4.  Add the buttermilk and vanilla and mix to combine.
5. Add the flour, yeast, and baking powder to the wet ingredients and mix to combine. Try to get rid of the lumps that form, but a few remaining is fine.
6. Spoon into the wells of the doughnut pan and bake for 10 minutes. The tops will still be very pale, so be careful to not over bake.