French Toast Donuts

Have you ever wanted French toast but didn’t have bread? Or your bread is fresh, which we all know stale bread makes better French toast. Or maybe just didn’t feel like frying something up? Maybe you just love French toast! French toast donuts are here for you my friend. They are a baked donut, so no frying. They don’t require bread, and they taste just like the real thing. They are bomb.com

Now, while I love a fried/yeasted donut, these are still really good. I’m working on converting this to a fried recipe to match but it doesn’t always go so simply. Stay tuned for that. But while you’re waiting, these will do. The maple glaze may be my favorite part but paired with the flavors in the donut it’s perfect.

If you love maple flavor, I might also suggest my Maple Shortbread Cookies or my Pumpkin Maple Dinner Rolls w/ Maple Butter.

Key Ingredients

• Maple extract – Gets you that syrupy taste that is requisite for French toast without adding a ton of sugar (not that sugar is bad).
• Butter – Butter is key in the taste of French toast in my opinion. So we need it both the glaze and the batter.
• Buttermilk – Now, I know you’re thinking buttermilk isn’t something that’s used in real French Toast and you’re correct. However, it makes these donuts have the right tender mouthfeel when you bite into them as well as that little extra that just works.

French Toast Donuts

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Prep: 10 minutes minutes

Bake: 18 minutes minutes

Equipment

• Donut Pan

Ingredients

• 160 g AP Flour 1½ cup
• 2 tbsp Dark brown sugar
• 2 tbsp Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking powder
• ¼ tsp Baking soda
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• ¼ tsp Nutmeg
• 1 Large Egg Room temperature
• ½ tsp Salt
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 2 tbsp Unsalted butter Melted
• 2 tbsp Vegetable oil
• ½ cup Buttermilk Room temperature

Glaze

• 2 tbsp Unsalted butter Melted
• 2 tbsp Dark brown sugar
• ½ cup Powdered sugar sifted
• 1 tsp Maple extract
• 2-4 tbsp Heavy cream

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F
• Thoroughly grease donut pan (if not non-stick) with either butter or cooking spray
• In a medium to large bowl, mix together flour, dark brown sugar, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Whisk together to make sure all ingredients are combined.
• In a small bowl, add egg, vanilla, buttermilk, melted butter and oil. Whisk together until combined.
• Pour wet ingredients into dry and mix until just combined.
• Spoon batter into donut pans. Cavities should be about 2/3 full.
• Bake donuts for about 18 minutes. You can test one with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean.
• While donuts are cooking, melt your butter and whisk in brown sugar until it is incorporated into the butter. Then add maple extract, heavy cream and powdered sugar, whisking into a glaze. The glaze will be a little thick but when you take spoon or whisk out of it, it should flow freely off the utensil back into the bowl. If it does not, add more cream ½ tbsp at a time. Make sure the bowl you do this in is wide enough to dip and hold a donut in.
• Remove donuts from pan onto wire rack. The side that was the bottoms while cooking is often more attractive and uniform for glazing so it's often easiest to put wire rack upside down on top of donut pan and flip both over to remove all with the side you'd like facing up.
• Once donuts are completely cool, after about 30-60 minutes. Dip the tops into the glaze and then returning them to the wire rack. Once glaze has set you can dust a little extra powdered sugar on the tops.