BAKED Sunday Mornings: Blackberry Pie

Happy Independence Day everyone! Don't let the pictures fool you- this Baked recipe is for Blackberry pie. Since I don't like blackberries, I used strawberries. I also halved the recipe. This was a really easy pie recipe to make. I love pie dough recipes that come together in the food processor- so simple! Making the fruit filling was also really straightforward and didn't take a long time.

I brought this pie over to my mom's house where we're busy getting ready for a garage sale next weekend. When making this pie, I forgot that I'm not a big fan of cooked strawberry desserts, and so I wasn't a huge fan of this pie. I did love the simplicity of the recipe and now I wonder if I would have liked it better if I had used blackberries.

To see the recipe and how everyone else's pies turned out, go to Baked Sunday Mornings

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Orange Creamsicle Tart

Oops, I'm a day late posting this! I have a very good excuse though- I was super busy yesterday baking and cooking for and going to a family reunion at my mom's house. I was up really early and running around my apartment trying to get everything together. I made this tart as one of the desserts for the family reunion. It had a lot of steps but was really very easy to make! I made the tart dough and the orange creamsicle curd on Friday and refrigerated both for a few days. I baked the tart dough yesterday and whipped up the orange creamsicle curd as directed in the recipe. I also made the whipped cream (using a mixer, because I just didn't have time to do it by hand). I filled the tart with the orange creamsicle curd and then tried to leave to go to my mom's house. I put the tart in a box because I saw that it was pretty full. Well, luckily I had extra filling that I brought with me, because a lot of the filling spilled out of the tart on the ride to my mom's!

So, when I got to my mom's, I fixed the filling problem and covered it with the whipped cream topping. It refrigerated for another few hours until it was time for dessert. I'd say that this dessert was pretty well received. I loved it and so did my mom, who is a huge fan of orange creamsicles!

Speaking of orange creams, this is the soda I found to use for the tart:

I had some left over and tasted it- it was good, even though I'm not a soda drinker!

The only complaint about the tart was that the tart crust was very hard- difficult to cut! I think that was my fault for not rolling out the dough thin enough- this is not the first time I've had this problem!

For the recipe and to see how everyone else's recipes turned out, head over to Baked Sunday Mornings

Coconut-Mango Rice Pudding

When I saw this recipe for coconut rice pudding, I had to make it immediately. That night. After a long day of work. I've always liked rice pudding but only made it once before. I looked at the recipe and saw that with a few alterations, I had all the ingredients at home and wouldn't have to run to the grocery store. The recipe called for forbidden black rice, which in the picture, looked a little scary. I decided I could substitute good old jasmine rice. The recipe also called for kiwi, which I don't really like and didn't have in my refrigerator, so I left that out. This pudding was delicious warm and chilled in the refrigerator!

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly changed; original recipe from Whole Foods Market).

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups water
1 1/4 cups uncooked jasmine rice
1 14 oz. can regular or light coconut milk (I used light coconut milk from Trader Joe's)
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup chopped mango (I used frozen mango from Whole Foods and chopped it into smaller pieces)
Unsweetened shredded coconut

Put water and rice into a medium pot, cover with lid and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until all of the water is absorbed, about 20 minutes. Uncover and stir in coconut milk and sugar. Bring pot back to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 5-10 minutes more. Stir in chopped mango. Top with unsweetened shredded coconut.

Enjoy!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Cowboy Cookies

This week's recipe is for cowboy cookies! I have to say that I've always been a fan of chocolate chip cookies that add in all different kinds of fun flavors. So it was surprising to me that I wasn't a huge fan of the compost cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar. But anyway, I was excited to make these cookies when I saw that crushed pretzels were one of the ingredients! I love salty & sweet together. This recipe also called for espresso powder and oats, in addition to chocolate chunks. I used chocolate chips because that's what I had. I probably should have left out the espresso powder because I'm not a huge fan of coffee flavor, but everyone else who tried these cookies loved them! I brought them to work and my co-workers gobbled them up. Even my mom liked these cookies and she usually doesn't like many sweets.

These cookies were really easy to make. As usual, I made a half batch. One difference was that they called for cool butter instead of room temperature butter. This was easy for me because I usually don't leave enough time for my butter to come to room temperature anyway when I'm baking. The recipe also called for chilling the dough for 4 hours in the refrigerator but I have to confess I got impatient and only chilled them for an hour and a half. I don't know how much of a difference that made though. These are a nice and easy cookie to make and the somewhat unusual combination of ingredients is something that most people enjoyed!

To see the recipe and how everyone else's cookies came out, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings.

Enjoy!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Tomato Soup Cupcakes

Wow, when I saw that this week's recipe was for tomato soup cupcakes, I didn't know what to think. Tomato soup, in a cupcake? I love my cupcakes, but I wasn't sure about this one. I've made cupcakes w/bacon before (not on the blog) and those came out well, so I figured that a cupcake with an unusual ingredient could have a chance at being tasty.

These cupcakes were really easy to make with my stand mixer. I made these cupcakes in a mini-cupcake pan and I also made 1/4 the recipe because I didn't know what I'd do with 2 dozen cupcakes. As it was, 1/4 the recipe made 16 mini cupcakes. Since I made mini cupcakes, I baked them for about 16 minutes. The frosting was also super easy to put together and I went for a rustic look by using my offset spatula to frost the cupcakes. The cupcakes are a very light red and you can't really taste the tomato soup part of it. It really tastes just like a spice cupcake, and I was pleasantly surprised!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's out there!

To find the recipe and read how everyone else's cupcakes turned out, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings. Enjoy!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: New York Style Crumb Cake

Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates! What is everyone cooking/eating to celebrate today? This New York style crumb cake had a lot to live up to, as my parents are both originally from New York and I have eaten crumb cake many times growing up. This cake came out beautifully!

We haven't actually eaten this cake yet, as it will be our Easter dessert. My family is going to my sister's house today- we're having ham, pot roast, mashed potatoes and asparagus. My mom and sister are very excited for this crumb cake- I hope they can last until after dinner to cut into it!

This cake was very easy to make. I made a half-batch since we're not expecting too many people for Easter. I baked it in an 8-inch square pan and that seemed to work out well. The cake batter comes together easily and the crumb topping was even easier to put together! It was important to follow the recipe directions to let the crumb topping "rest" for awhile before putting it on top of the cake and baking it. I let mine rest for about half an hour and I could tell the difference in how it was a little dryer and came together in big clumps in my hand. The recipe states that big crumbs are integral to this recipe and I certainly had many big crumbs on top! Some of my crumbs came out a little smaller, but I don't think that's too much of a problem.

To hear how everyone else's cakes turned out, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings!

Enjoy : )

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Carrot-Coconut Scones with Citrus Glaze

I've long wanted to bake something with carrot. I've never made carrot cake or carrot cupcakes because the idea of having to shred carrots intimidated me and I just never got around to trying a recipe. I'm so glad that Baked Sunday Mornings challenged me to make another recipe that I probably would never have tried. This was a fairly easy scone recipe to make. I didn't have to shred any carrots because this recipe calls for microwaving the carrot in orange juice and then pureeing it before adding it to the scone recipe. The recipe also called for using your fingers to rub in the butter into the dry ingredients. I usually use my pastry cutter for doing this but this time I decided to follow the directions and use my fingers. It seemed to get the job done quicker, although my hands were a lot messier! You then add in the wet ingredients and again use your hands to knead it all together. My dough seemed pretty sticky, but it was workable.

The recipe said to cut the dough into 6 or 8 pieces. I cut it into 8 pieces and froze 4 of them unbaked to bake at a later time. These scones came out so huge that I probably could have cut them in half again before baking! After cooling, you mix up the citrus glaze. The recipe called for powdered sugar, orange and lemon juice. I used only orange juice, because that's what I had. The scones were good but seemed very sweet. I definitely couldn't eat a whole one at once. The recipe used sweetened coconut but if I made them again I might use unsweetened coconut to see if that cut the sweetness at all.

I brought these to work and my co-workers shared them and seemed to like them!

To read how everyone else's scones came out and to see the recipe, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings. Enjoy!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Malted Crisp Tart

Hi everyone! I can't believe that I had to miss the last two recipes in Baked Sunday Mornings. With all the reviews I read of the recipe for Salt-n-Pepper Sandwich cookies, I definitely want to make those soon! I was so glad I was able to bake the tart for this morning's recipe. I made it a few days ago after work, and even though there are many steps, it really didn't take that long. The tart dough came together easily in the food processor. The caramelized rice krispies were easy to make and tasted delicious on their own. The chocolate ganache also came together easily and even the malted pastry cream wasn't too many steps. This is definitely a recipe that requires a lot of bowls, measuring cups and spoons. The recipe called for malted powder, which I wasn't sure where to find. I went to my local supermarket and asked someone there if they had malted milk powder and they didn't have any in the baking aisle. I was told to go look in the coffee aisle where the Ovaltine is. I bought regular malted Ovaltine powder and that seemed to be the right thing for this recipe. I know malted milk powder can be purchased online, but I didn't plan ahead enough for that.

After you make the tart dough and press it into the tart pan, it gets put in the freezer while the oven heats up. Once the tart dough is baked and cooled, you spread the chocolate malted ganache over the top and then press in the caramelized rice krispies and some crushed Whoppers.

The whole tart then goes into the refrigerator while the pastry cream is made. After the pastry cream is made and cooled in the refrigerator, you spread that on top of the tart and then top it with more caramelized rice krispies and broken Whoppers.

I think the tart looked really pretty once it was done! I had a lot of difficulty cutting the tart, so I think that I made my tart dough too thick (which the recipe warns against...) and I thought this tart was really sweet. I brought it to work for my co-workers and they loved it, so I think it's all just a matter of taste.  My favorite part of this tart was probably the caramelized rice krispies!

To read how everyone else made out with this recipe and to find the recipe, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings.

Chocolate Chunk Texas-size Muffins

Oh gosh, I can't believe I've been gone over a month! I haven't been baking much and honestly, I've been really busy with work and other things. Like learning how to use the new DSLR camera I got! I started taking a photography class and hopefully my pictures of my baked goods will get better and better!

I made these muffins the other day. They're fairly easy to make, just 2 bowls and some stirring together. I used milk chocolate, but I think I'd use a chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa next time. The milk chocolate seemed a little too sweet. I made these muffins in a Texas- size pan because I have the pan and hardly ever use it and I like how the extra large muffins look! However, I brought the muffins into work for my co-workers and they were all eaten up!

Here's the recipe:
(Very slightly adapted from 1 mix, 100 muffins)

2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup superfine sugar
1 cup chocolate chunks (I used a bar of chocolate from Trader Joe's that I chopped into chunks)
2 large eggs
1 cup milk
6 tbsp melted, cooled butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a large (Texas-size) muffin pan with 6 wrappers. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a lareg bowl. Stir in the sugar and chocolate chunks.

Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl and then beat in the milk, oil and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the liquid ingredients. Stir gently until just combined; do not overmix.

Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin pan. I also sprinkled some coarse sugar over the tops of the muffins. Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, until well risen, golden brown, and firm to the touch. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then serve warm or transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely.

Hope you enjoy!

Rich Chocolate Cake with Fluffy White Frosting

Every so often at work we have a pot-luck brunch to celebrate birthdays. This week we had one to celebrate the winter birthdays and also to welcome back a co-worker returning from maternity leave. I am always bringing baked godos in to work and everyone seems to enjoy them, so I always sign up to bake something for these pot-lucks. This time I said I'd bake a cake. I didn't have much time this week so I was looking for a simple cake to make but also something I hadn't made before. I turned to a cookbook that my friend gave me featuring all chocolate recipes. I found a cake recipe in there that looked good and the frosting recipe that went with it also sounded good and was a kind of frosting I hadn't made before. I halved the recipe for the cake and for the frosting because the original recipe yielded a 13 X 9 cake and since I work in a small office, we didn't need such a large cake. Everyone said this cake tasted good and it certainly was chocolatey!

The frosting was described as being marshmallow-y and it did taste like that. I've never had a frosting like this before but it was really easy to make even though it required using a double boiler and a candy thermometer. It had very few ingredients and it set up nice.

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly adapted from Good Housekeeping Favorite Recipes: Chocolate!)

1 cup flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter, softened (I used unsalted)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup + 3 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 9-inch round cake pan. (I sprayed with baking spray).

In a bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar at low speed until blended. Increase speed to high; beat until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

Reduce speed to medium-low; add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. The mixture may appear grainy.

Reduce speed to low; add flour mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Beat until batter is smooth, occasionally scraping bowl with rubber spatula.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 40-45 minutes. Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Invert onto rack and cool completely.

Frost with Fluffy White Frosting:

1 large egg white
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon corn syrup
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

In a medium bowl set over a 3-4 quart saucepan filled with 1 inch simmering water, beat egg whites, sugar, water, corn syrup and cream of tartar with hand-held mixer until soft peaks form when beaters are lifted and mixture reaches 160 degrees F on candy thermometer, about 7 minutes.

Remove bowl from pan; beat egg-white mixture until stiff, glossy peaks form when beaters are lifted, 5-10 minutes longer.

Frost cake with frosting using a narrow spatula. Enjoy!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Red Velvet Whoopie Pies

Red Velvet...who doesn't love red velvet? The best cupcake I ever had was a red velvet cupcake. This whoopie pie is very good. The cream cheese frosting goes perfect with the red velvet whoopies. I like that the whoopie pies only have a little bit of red food color in it so that they're a hint of red but not bright red. This recipe is pretty easy to make. I halved the recipe like I usually do. You cream the butter and add the sugars, then add the dry ingredients alternating with the wet ingredients. 15 minutes in the refrigerator while the oven preheats and then you pop these in the oven. Mine took 12 minutes in the oven. I tried to make them smaller but they came out pretty big once baked and with half a recipe, I made 10 cookies, resulting in 5 whoopie pies. I would love if I had one of those special whoopie pie pans to make my whoopies all the same size, but I was able to match these up pretty well. I gave these out to my friends and they liked them. A perfect treat for Valentine's Day (or any time of the year, in my opinion!)

For the recipe, and to see how the other bakers whoopies came out, head on over to  Baked Sunday Mornings. Enjoy!

Nutella-Coconut Hot Chocolate

Happy World Nutella Day 2011 everyone! I can't remember the first time that I had nutella- it was a long time ago, maybe when I took French in middle school. Did you all know that Nutella is French? I remember my French teacher talking about nutella a lot back then. Anyway, today is a day to make something with Nutella in order to celebrate how awesome it is! I've baked with nutella before, but today I decided to keep it simple. I made hot chocolate using coconut milk and stirred in some nutella and then topped it off with toasted coconut. I love nutella and coconut together! It's been so rainy, icy and just plain dreary outside that it's the perfect kind of day to snuggle up on your couch with some nutella hot chocolate!

Here's the very simple, 3 ingredient recipe:

1 cup of coconut milk
1 heaping tablespoon of Nutella
1 tablespoon toasted coconut

Heat the coconut milk on the stove or in the microwave until hot. Stir in the nutella until melted and top with toasted coconut.

Enjoy! Head on over to World Nutella Day, created by Ms Adventures in Italy and Bleeding Espresso to see other recipes made using nutella!



Bad Boy Chocolate Pizza

Wow, another post just after I posted those cookies yesterday? I've had some extra time to do some baking since my work closed today due to an ice storm and I left work early yesterday because the roads were so bad. I've always loved the idea of a chocolate pizza, but had never made one before. This recipe is from Max Brenner's cookbook, Chocolate: A Love Story. Have you ever been to Max Brenner's before? There's one in NYC and in Philadelphia. Last year I went to see the Rockefeller Christmas tree with my friends and we stopped at Bryant Park where they have all these shops during the holiday season. There, they had a Max Brenner stand and we all got his Italian drinking chocolate. It was seriously the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted! I dreamt about that hot chocolate! Then, this fall, my friend and I went to the city and went to his restaurant for lunch, where they serve french fries dusted with cocoa! The food was good and while I was so tempted to order dessert, as everything on the menu sounded delicious, my friend and I were heading to a few other places for sweets, so I passed. I'dhad this cookbook for awhile but hadn't made many recipes from it yet. I want to try a lot of recipes from this book but today I chose to make this dessert pizza.

The recipe includes a recipe for pizza dough or you can also use store bought pizza dough. I made the recipe included for the pizza dough but I don't know if I'd use it again. I followed the recipe exactly but the dough didn't exactly come together very well- it was very crumbly and I had to add extra water when kneading. It rose well for me, but I think I like my usual pizza dough recipe better. I also added some peanut butter m&ms and some leftover coconut from yesterday's cookie recipe. I loved all the different chocolates in this recipe!

Here's the recipe:
(From Max Brenner's Chocolate: A Love Story)

Pizza Dough:

1/2 cup water
1 envelope dry yeast
2 cups flour, plus more for kneading
1 tsp salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for bowl

Heat the water to 110 degrees F. In a small bowl, mix the warm water and yeast. Let stand until the yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes. In a food processor, blend the flour and salt. With the machine running, slowly add the melted butter and then the yeast mixture. Mix until the dough just comes together.

On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough, adding more flour if necessary, until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a large buttered bowl, turning ocne so the butter coats the dough. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and set aside in a warm, draft-free place until the dough doubles in volume, about 1 hour. Punch the dough down and form into a ball. The dough can be used immediately or stored airtight in the refrigerator for 1 day.

Chocolate Pizza recipe:

Pizza dough (above recipe, or 1 pound store-bought pizza dough)
2 tsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup nutella
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 ounce milk chocolate chips
1/2 ounce white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped large marshmallows or miniature marshmallows
(I also added coconut and peanut butter m&ms)

Position a rack on the bottom of the oven and preheat to 450 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Roll the dough into a 9-inch round. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet. Using your fingers, make indentations all over the dough. Brush with the melted butter. Bake until the crust is crisp and pale golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Immediately spread the nutella over the pizza, then sprinkle with the chocolate chips, marshmallows (and any other chocolate candy you want to add). Bake until the chocolate just begins to melt, about 2 minutes. Cut the pizza into wedges and serve.

Enjoy!

Coconut Sugar Cookies

Boy, do I love coconut! When I saw this recipe on Piece of Cake back in December, I immediately saved the recipe to make. They just sounded so delicious! And, they are pretty easy to make. There are four different kinds of coconut flavor in this recipe- desiccated coconut, sweetened coconut, coconut extract and coconut milk. Since I halved the recipe as I usually do, the dough wasn't coming together enough (probably because I used half an egg and that's not really a scientific measurement...) so I added a few tablespoons of water and that worked.

My half recipe made 15 cookies.

Here's the recipe:
(Slightly adapted from Piece of Cake)

1 1/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons dessicated coconut
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 large egg, room temperature (I whisked an egg in a bowl and took out 2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon coconut extract

For the icing and decoration:

1 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons coconut milk
1/2 cup shredded, sweetened coconut
1 tablespoon white sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk together the flour, dessicated coconut, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Whisk together the oil, egg, vanilla and coconut extracts in a small bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars until fluffy and pale in color, about 2 minutes.

Beat the egg mixture into the butter and sugar mixture on medium speed until well-blended. Scrape down the bowl and reduce the mixer speed to low. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until all the dry ingredients are incorporated. The dough will be very soft.

Using a 1-tablespoon-sized scoop, portion the dough into balls onto a baking sheet. Pour 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar onto a plate. Dip the flat bottom of a glass into the sugar, and press onto each dough ball lightly to flatten each to about 1/4-inch thick, dipping the cup or glass again before pressing each cookie. Sprinkle some of the leftover sugar on top of the cookies before baking.

Bake the cookies until they are lightly golden and crisp at the edges, about 12 minutes. Let the cookies cool in the sheets for a minute before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.

When the cookies have cooled, whisk together the confectioners' sugar, coconut milk and salt in a small bowl. Toss together the shredded coconut and sanding sugar on a plate. Spread each cookie evenly with icing and sprinkle generously with the sugared coconut. Let the icing dry for about an hour before serving. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week (the cookies will soften a bit after the first day).

Enjoy!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Double Chocolate Loaf

Welcome to another installment of Baked Sunday Mornings! I'm sorry I haven't been baking/posting very much- I've been busy with work and then all the snow we've been having here hasn't put me in the baking mood. I was excited to try the double chocolate loaf as it seemed like an easy recipe and I love chocolate and peanut butter together. This is a pretty basic recipe to make- you pretty much just stir everything together and it doesn't take very long. I didn't make the peanut butter cream cheese spread that went along with the recipe. Instead, I put in a combination of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips so that the loaf would have the peanut butter taste. I also halved the recipe and made them in two mini loaf pans.

I also sprinkled some extra peanut butter and chocolate chips on top of the loaf before baking for some extra peanut butter taste. In the mini loaf pans, the loafs baked for about 40 minutes before they were done. These tasted nice and chocolatey!

If you want to see how everyone else's chocolate loaves turned out, or you want the recipe, head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings. Enjoy!

BAKED Sunday Mornings: Farmstand Buttermilk Doughnuts

Welcome to another Baked Sunday Mornings! I have only ever made donuts one other time- pumpkin donuts a few years ago around Halloween. They tasted good but they looked like big globs of fried dough. I also seem to remember that they were yeast donuts. I liked that these donuts were not yeast donuts. They came together so easily and I had all the ingredients on hand already. I halved the recipe and I'm glad I did because it made 8 full size donuts and I don't know how I'll eat them all! There was a note on the recipe that you can use these donuts in a bread pudding, so I think that I might do that with my leftovers!

Dry ingredients

First you whisk together all of the dry ingredients. I loved the smell of the nutmeg and cinnamon! I also used buttermilk powder because I find that so much easier to keep on hand because it lasts a lot longer than buttermilk. I put the buttermilk powder in with the dry ingredients and then added the water to the wet ingredients, which I didn't get a picture of.

The dough was sticky when I stirred it all together and I had to add a bit of flour when I was spreading it out on my cutting board because at first the dough stuck to the board and fell apart when I tried to cut out a donut.

I used a glass to cut out my donuts because I don't have a round cookie or dough cutter. I also used a small flower shaped fondant cutter to cut out the donut holes and it worked out perfectly! By the way, in the picture above you can also see the stack of my beautiful flower measuring cups from Anthropologie that I mentioned in my previous post.

After adding some more flour and kneading it into the dough lightly, my donuts cut out beautifully! After I chilled them for awhile in the refrigerator, I fried them up.

I paid careful attention to the color of the donuts to make sure that they didn't burn, as the recipe notes that they can burn quickly. They fried rather quickly and were probably done on both sides in under two minutes.

The recipe gives three different options for toppings- chocolate glaze, vanilla glaze and cinnamon sugar. The recipe says that farmstand donuts are usually sold with a cinnamon sugar topping and that seemed easy to me, so that's what I did for most of the donuts.

I also made a chocolate glaze for some of the donuts and also used some chocolate sprinkles. The three chocolate glazed donuts above I actually baked in the oven at 375 F for 12 minutes because I wanted to see how baked donuts would taste compared to the fried donuts. They taste pretty good to me but I definitely like the fried ones, which of course are even more unhealthy!

These donuts were not as intimidating to make as I first thought and the flavor was delicious! Head on over to Baked Sunday Mornings for the recipe and to see how the other member's donuts turned out!