Hi Honeys,
How are you today? Our furbaby Jade and I are going to have a sofa day today, we're going to share a snuggly throw and watch a couple of DVDs and try to ignore how awful the weather is outside. It's gotten so chilly and the almost constant rain is enough to drain anyone of their smiles.
Yesterday afternoon I wandered off into the kitchen to make a start on a warm dinner for Hubby getting home, which he loved bless him💖 I made sausages in onion gravy with fluffy mashed potato, one of his favourites.
While there, and after setting up dinner to cook away happily on its own, I decided to try to make some healthy doughnuts as a little treat too...
For a while now Hubby and I have been trying to be more conscious of how we eat and generally trying to live healthier lives. Earlier this year I was diagnosed with diabetes. I was blessed in that I was only just on the line where a diagnosis is made, so I didn't, and don't thankfully, need any medication.
This, along with being told I had developed osteoarthritis in my lower spine, (in addition to the rheumatoid arthritis everywhere else) well it told me that more than a little self care was needed.
Long story short, we're trying to find ways to make more conscious decisions. Meal prepping is helping with this. We swapped our plastic containers for glass ones instead and generally just put a little more thought into everything we do.
This is going to be quite a post, with lots of photos, dear ones so why not go grab a cuppa, I'll do the same and I'll meet you back here in a few minutes...
Welcome back honeys 💗 Do you have your cuppa? Me too ☕
While surfing aimlessly one evening recently, I spotted these on Amazon ...
I have to admit, I stopped scrolling because of the bright, vivid colours in the photograph 😊 With the weather the way it is, we need a little brightness around here. Well, when I read the product information I discovered that these bright, colourful items were in fact silicone baking trays/moulds designed to make oven baked doughnuts!
What a great idea! I adore silicone baking things! They don't need any extra oil or coating when you bake in them, whatever you bake pops right out when it's cooled and they're so easy to wash up again too.
I think it was around £8 for a brightly coloured set of three doughnut moulds so into my basket they went. I was curious too about the whole idea of baking doughnuts! Everybody knows doughnuts are fried after all. Whoever heard of a healthy doughnut?
Could it be true? Could I eat healthily, carry on with my morning yoga, (the only one who sees me is Jade and my baby doesn't laugh or ever judge me, bless her) and still enjoy the occasional doughnut shaped treat? I was intrigued 😊
So, they arrived and to be honest I was expecting them to be tiny. You know, sort of micro, mini doughnut moulds, but no. When they arrived they looked like this...
Just as brightly coloured and pretty as in the photo but also these moulds are designed to make full size, buy-one-to-have-with-your-morning-coffee type doughnuts!
So, now full size, actual doughnuts could be a healthy option? Let's just say, while I love my new brightly coloured kitchen accessories (the photos don't do them justice they really are pretty) I had my doubts.
So, off into the kitchen I went to try them out. Jade was having a nap on the sofa under one of her blankets, bless her, dinner was cooking away and I was at a loose end till Hubby got home so, off I went in search of healthy doughnuts.
The doughnut moulds were all thoroughly washed, I know they're brand new honeys but still, a good wash in hot soapy water is what I do with new pots and pans and anything else I cook or bake with before I use them.
Now to make the doughnuts...
To make a traditional doughnut we need strong bread flour and yeast... well it's in the name I suppose honeys, it's a dough-nut, and they are deep fried. Deep fried things though are so not healthy and what we're in search of is a healthy ring shaped treat.
Now, I'm sure you could still do the bread flour and yeast thing and cut out doughnuts from the dough as usual and (here's the healthy bit) instead of frying them, pop them into the doughnut moulds, wait for the dough to rise and then bake them?
Well dear ones, since pain in my spine limits how long I can stand these days, my first thought was that they are after all cake moulds. Slightly odd shaped cake moulds, being doughnut shaped, but cake moulds all the same. Then I had a thought...
No bread flour, no yeast, and no waiting for things to rise for me. I decided instead to whip up a light and fluffy cake batter and try making... well... cake-nuts I suppose 😊
Rosie's Light & Fluffy Cake-nuts 🍩
Ingredients:
225 g of self raising flour
225 g of unsalted butter
225 g of caster sugar or 75 g of stevia (I use Truvia)
4 medium eggs
5 ml (1 teaspoon) Vanilla essence
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 160C or 320F or gas mark 3
2. Add your unsalted butter and caster sugar to a bowl and beat together until light and creamy. I avoid sugar these days and use stevia instead. The one I use is Truvia and through experimenting with my baking I've found no more than 75g of Truvia is needed for a lovely, light cake batter honeys.
Also, I made preparation of this cake batter easy on myself by using our food processor instead of trying to beat the ingredients together in a bowl.
3. Beat your eggs together and add around half to your bowl containing the butter and sugar mixture. Next add around half of your self raising flour, use a sieve and sift it into the bowl to add lots of air. This makes the cake batter light and fluffy when baked. Beat until all combined.
Repeat with the last of the eggs and your flour, again sifting it into the bowl to add air. Finally, add the vanilla essence and mix through.
When done your cake batter should look creamy in texture...
4. Next I was faced with getting the lovely cake batter from the food processor bowl into the cake moulds. You could use a spoon and simply spoon the cake mixture into the moulds but I decided to use a piping bag instead, and that's what I did honeys...
It actually worked really well and I'm sure it was less messy, and a lot faster, than I would have been trying to spoon the mixture into the moulds...
5. Place the baking trays into the oven, on the middle shelf for 14-16 minutes until cooked. Test them (by carefully poking with a knife or skewer just a little, if it comes out dry they're cooked all way through) at 14 minutes honeys because they don't take long at all.
When cooked remove from the oven and allow to cool before removing them from the moulds.
I couldn't get both trays to fit on the middle shelf and, rather foolishly as it turns out, popped both trays into the oven anyway, one on the middle shelf and one on the upper shelf. This, as you can see, lead to the ones on the upper cooking faster than the others...
Lesson learned honeys. I'll know for future baking to just bake one tray at a time. This was an experiment after all 😊
6. When cool, remove the doughnuts (or cakenuts?) from the moulds and enjoy as is or have the best fun decorating them. Request the help of loved ones with the decorating bit, they'll love it and you can all enjoy them with a cuppa or a lovely hot chocolate☕
Well it is chilly right now and a lovely, warm mug of hot chocolate sounds perfect to accompany these much healthier doughnuts 🍩
I had worried that I'd burnt the ones baked in the upper shelf of the oven and they were a little darker in colour but they weren't burnt at all. The cake batter made 12 perfect, light and very fluffy, baked not fried doughnuts..
Hubby and I made quite a mess while decorating but we had the best time and laughed so much while doing it...
I'd say these moulds were definitely a success honeys. I certainly won't be making doughnuts, even this healthier baked version, every day but it's like everything else in life, it's about moderation. I'm so happy that I can still have a doughnut treat now and again and there's no frying at all in the process of making them. Yaaaay 🍩
Want to try making this super fluffy cake batter again? Why not try:
Scottish Jam & Coconut Tray Bake.
Adored by all Scots of a certain age who remember this fondly, served with warm custard, from their school days. You can find the recipe here honeys.
Sponge Cake With Banana Whipped Cream & Cream Cheese Frosting
There are no words for how delicious this cake is honeys! Definitely a very special treat and you can find a step by step on how to make it here.
I hope you're having a fabulous week dear ones and looking forward to a wonderful weekend. See you tomorrow for day 11 of Blogtober, till then, smile lots and hug even more, hugs always x
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