Let there be light life! 
Check out what I found in my garden today – a weed! Ok, so who gets excited about weeds, I know, but this is encouraging. It can only mean that the flowers are next, which means SPRING IS NEARLY HERE!
Are you a big gardener? Both my parents and Ben’s parents love to garden, but we just can’t stand it. I grow flowers in the front of my house because I feel like it’s PC to do so, but truth be told, I hate taking care of them. Maybe it’s a generational thing…
At any rate – the recipe my Mom was so excited to make for lunch today? Quesados!
This is actually a recipe from one of the other women I competed against in the Breakstone Blogger Challenge last November. Thanks Mom…
Just kidding – this is a fantastic recipe with a creamy avocado spread stuffed between warm tortilla shells, which are then topped with cheese and broiled until golden brown.
Tasted just like chips and guac!
I added another layer of flavah by smothering my tortillas with Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa.
I think this pretty much sums up how I felt about it…
My Mom also made THE BEST salad on the side.
All of us agreed the combination of fresh greens, strawberries, oranges and toasted almonds, drizzled with apple-cider vinaigrette, was so refreshing.
We also agreed that toasted almonds are where it’s at. “It’s a new flavor experience in every bite!” my Mom accurately exclaimed. 
For dessert my Mom whipped out Blue Bunny Classic Sundae Ice Cream Cones!
Gosh I love these – and what a cute idea to have ice cream cones for dessert. 
I like to eat all my yummy toppings off first.
I do the same things with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. Peel all the chocolate off with my teeth so I’m left with a peanut butter puck. It’s the only way to go.
My favorite part of the ice cream cone though…
is the chocolate-filled tip.
Right?! When I got to tour the Blue Bunny factory last year, they said they pour a little extra chocolate in the bottom because people like it so much. I appreciate that.
Well the afternoon turned grey and drizzly, which made me feel like spending a little time baking in the kitchen after lunch. Plus I recently got this new toy to play with. A doughnut pan to make…
Baked Doughnuts!!!
Whee!! I picked one of these bad boys up at Bed, Bath & Beyond for just $10! It makes 6 donuts and is non-stick, which is nice.
My mind is filled with endless baked doughnut possibilities, but for my first batch, I decided to stick with the original – Glazed. MMM!
Baked Glazed Doughnuts
Makes 6 doughnuts
Based on Fluffy Cake Doughnuts.
Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
6 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 Tablespoons buttermilk
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 Tablespoon butter, melted
For the glaze:
1/2 cup or more powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Water
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Add buttermilk, egg, vanilla and butter. Whisk to combine.
2. Transfer dough to a ziplock bag. Snip off a corner of the bag and pipe dough evenly into a 6-cup doughnut pan. Bake for 9-10 minutes, or until dough is set (it won’t be golden brown, but should be springy.)
3. In a separate bowl, mix together powdered sugar and vanilla. Begin adding water 1 teaspoon at a time. Stir until desired thickness of glaze is achieved. Glaze doughnuts while warm or cool.
Right?! Dougnuts!!!
I prefer a thin glazed shell on my d’nuts, so I made a higher water-to-powdered sugar ratio glaze, then dunked the tops in.
Topped with sprinkles for a super-cute sparkle. Dang – I wish I would have had this pan for Valentine’s Day!
Ben likes his doughnuts smothered in icing so after I dunked my doughnuts, I added more powdered sugar to the glaze to make it nice and thick for his. Then I spooned it over the top and let it drip down the sides.
When I first pulled these out of the pan, the texture appeared very cake-like. “Dang!” I thought “they’re just cupcakes with a hole! What a rip-off!”
One bite convinced me otherwise. The extra flour and reduced oil/fat in the recipe made a dough, rather than a batter, and the texture was totally reminiscent of a cake doughnut.
Plus, since these doughnuts are baked not fried, I can totally feel ok about eating one a couple before dinner. What a FUN and DELICIOUS purchase. I am SO excited. Chocolate doughnuts with peanut butter glaze, anyone?!
Well Ben and I are still deciding about what to do for dinner. I didn’t go grocery shopping this afternoon because I have tomorrow off (booyah President’s Day) so I think it’ll end up being a fend for yourself/see what you can rummage up in the cupboard/beg Ben to make me eggs type of meal. We’ll see.
ps: Ben got the Valentine’s Day coffee mugs here!
Take care!
~~~~~
If you could eat any kind of doughnut right now, what would it be? Do you have any good baked doughnut recipes?
I would eat millions of old-fashioned chocolate glazed cake doughnuts they sell in Super America gas stations all over Minneapolis. OMG THEY ARE SO GOOD.
I’ve seen this donut pan around lately. It’s cute, as are your donuts! I love the sprinkles =)
I love my donut pan. It has to be one of the 10 best kitchen inventions of the last 10 years. I bought one when I bought Lara Ferroni’s donut book. It is a dangerous combination I must say.
Those Quesados look AMAZING! Definitely a step up from the easy Quesadilla Maker. These will go on my list of recipes to try.
I forgot to say I love following your day-to-day meals! Everything always looks so good. I’ve already tried a few and love them.
[...] Comments « (Baked) Doughnuts for Dinner [...]
[...] In other news, I found a super-cute fuzzy caterpillar crawling on my driveway this evening! Another encouraging sign of Spring! [...]
[...] honest to goodness would buy this pan JUST for this doughnut [...]
[...] powdered sugar ones’ holes look a little jagged because I swiped IGE’s trick of putting the doughnut batter in a Ziplock bag & cutting the corner off to “pipe” [...]
[...] Or classic Classic Baked Glazed Doughnuts! [...]
[...] I started with Kristen’s recipe for Baked Donuts. [...]
[...] used Kristin’s recipe but doubled it and got 27 mini donuts out of it. I actually think I could have gotten a [...]
[...] followed Iowa Girl’s recipe. Oddly enough, she wrote her donut-making blog after purchasing the same donut pan that I bought [...]
I tried your vanilla donuts this morning. They were fantastic! As my husband sat and read the morning paper, I made his breakfast of eggs and sausage and then served these right after. He loved them.
I don’t bake too much so my error was glazing all of the donuts and then trying to sprinkle on some fancy sugar and sprinkles. Much to my dismay they barely stuck since the glazed had dried. So, I just had to make another batch. The second batch is perfect. They look like they came right off the shelves from a donut shop.
Thanks for creating such a yummy recipe!
Trish
Glad you all enjoyed, Trish!
[...] Amy got the donut recipe from Amanda of Fake Ginger’s donut recipe who got the recipe from Iowa Girl Eats who got it from AllRecipes Fluffy Cake Doughtnuts recipe and when I compared it to the recipe that [...]
This recipe was fantastic! I made them for a friends bday and he literally ate all six!
Thank you thank you! I posted my little interpretation on my fledgling blog: http://nowismagic.blogspot.com/2011/12/baked-strawberry-cream-cheese-donuts.html
[...] resist making one more batch of doughnuts this morning. But this time I went with the Baked Glazed Doughnuts from Iowa Girl Eats., and I spruced them up with a dark chocolate glaze. I love me some dark [...]
Just made these. Light and fluffy! These are a great alternative to fried donuts though they don’t taste the same. They came out looking exactly at yours.
I did, however, have some issues with the glaze. It didn’t come out opaque as yours and the sugar didn’t dissolve. Adding more water/milk to it did dissolve it but made it too runny. Any advice?
[...] Baked Confetti Donuts (slightly adapted from Iowa Girl Eats) [...]