Happy National Doughnut Day

Today is National Doughnut Day!!  I didn't know that either until I read it on Carrots n Cake as part of the Photo a Day Challenge.

So, I guess, in honor of this day there are many doughnut shops and/or bakeries that are passing out free doughnuts.  But did I go visit them???  Of course not!!  That would make my life much too easy!

No...I decided to make my own doughnuts in honor of this day.  So I hopped over to Pinterest and found a recipe I liked from Gift of Simplicity for No Fry  Cinnamon Applesauce Doughnuts.  It sounded easy enough and they were baked and not fried so that appealed to me.  I also liked that they called for applesauce because I have a lot left from canning last fall.

I halved the recipe because I really did not want 3 1/2 dozen doughnuts around here tempting me.  Deleted the cloves because I didn't have any and set to it.

Mix and knead all your ingredients.

Mine was still pretty sticky but the directions did not talk of this so I left it.

In the future I would add flour until the dough is no longer sticky.

Allow to rise for one hour.

Turn onto a floured surface.

At this point I added about 1 more cup of flour to enable me to handle it without it sticking.

Roll the dough to about 1/2" thickness.

Cut into 2 1/2" rounds and cut 1/2" from each center.

Place on a greased cookie sheet and brush with melted butter.

Cover and let rise for another 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425* during this time.

Bake for 8-10 minutes

Brush both sides with melted butter and shake in cinnamon sugar.

Cinnamon Applesauce Doughnuts

slightly adapted from Gift of Simplicity

2 T. dry yeast

1/4 c. warm water

1.5 c. lukewarm applesauce

1/2 c. sugar

1 t. salt

1 t. cinnamon

1/2 t. nutmeg

2 eggs

4 1/2 c. flour

1/2 c. butter, melted

Cinnamon Sugar (made from 1/2 c sugar mixed with 1/2 t. cinnamon)

In large bowl of stand mixer, fitted with paddle attachment, combine yeast and water.  Add the applesauce, spices, sugar, eggs and 2 c. of the flour.  Blend on low speed and then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Change out paddle attachment for dough hook and remaining flour, blend and then knead  with dough hook until smooth.  Cover bowl with a damp towel and let rest and rise in a warm area for one hour.

Turn out onto a floured piece of parchment paper.  Roll to 1/2" thickness.  Using a 2 1/2" round cutter, press out your doughnuts being careful not to twist the cutter.  Use a 1/2" round cutter, in the same manner to remove doughnut holes.  Place doughnuts and doughnut hole centers onto a greased cookie sheet and brush with melted butter.  Cover with a redampened towel and let rise for another 20 minutes.  Bake at 425* for 8-10 minutes.

Remove from oven brush both sides with melted butter and shake in cinnamon sugar mixture that has been placed in a brown paper bag.  Print Recipe

They got Frank's Seal of Approval!!