Lighter Baked Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts

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Baked doughnuts are all the rage these days. They deliver the same great taste, but you avoid the frying process so you save tons of calories. Cinnamon doughnuts paired with a cold glass of milk are amazing, especially when they come right out of the oven. The doughnut base can be used as a standard recipe (just omit the cinnamon and nutmeg) if you want to top it with a glaze or even (gasp!) melted chocolate. Yum!

I lightened these up a bit more by using reduced-fat milk and light butter. If you haven't cooked or baked with light butter before, don't be alarmed. I've used it in almost all of my recent recipes, and the taste is hardly detectable. Plus it's half the amount of fat as regular butter, so it's a sacrifice your body will appreciate. Enjoy!

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

For the doughnuts

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 1/4 cups reduced-fat milk
• 2 tbsp. light unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the topping

• 8 tsp. (1 stick) light unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

For the doughnuts: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Use a baker’s spray with flour, such as Baker’s Joy, to coat 1 or 2 doughnut pans.

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a mixing bowl.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract in a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.

Fill the wells of the doughnut pans a bit more than three-quarters full with the batter. Bake for 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the wall of a doughnut comes out clean and the doughnuts are puffed and lightly browned. Let them cool (in the pans) for 5 minutes, then gently invert the doughnuts onto a rimmed baking sheet.

While the doughnuts are cooling, make the topping: Melt the butter in a small bowl. Whisk together the sugar and cinnamon in a medium bowl.

Dip the warm doughnuts into the melted butter, then dip them into the cinnamon-sugar mixture on one or both sides.

Source: Adapted from "Barefoot Contessa Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust," by Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter, 2012)