molasses doughnuts

I think it’s time I start spelling donuts, doughnuts.  Technically, that is the official spelling.  And technically, these are officially the best doughnuts I’ve made to date.  And since we’re being all kinds of official, I should finally stop being lazy with the spelling.

This flavor was spurred by a Christmas classic.  My dad’s, grandmother’s recipe for molasses cookies.  I’m pretty sure it’s thee official recipe, that you can find almost anywhere, but over the years my dad has done little things to perfect it.

My dad makes dozens upon dozens of these cookies to ship out to family + friends as a little early Christmas present.  When my brother + I were younger, molasses cookie night was one of my favorite nights in the whole year.  There was so much raw dough eaten, and brown sugar straight from the box!  Whenever I’m home for the holidays, my dad and I like to whip up a fresh batch.

Since Chris + I won’t be in Ohio until Christmas Eve, I came up with a new way to get my yearly molasses fix.

Where did these little baby doughnut holes come from??  I recently learned this from the Two Peas & Their Pod.  You can use a mini muffin tin to make doughnut holes!!  I have a 24 mold mini muffin pan, that held one full batch perfectly.

They’re not completely sphere-like, but covered in sugar they look more doughnut-hole-like than muffin-like.  This is especially great when making a lot of doughnuts, since the pan only holds SIX. 

Chris’s work Christmas party was this past Friday, and I was on dessert duty.  Instead of taking hours to make batch after batch of 6 doughnuts at a time, I made 3 full sized doughnut batches and 2 batches of the minis.  This means I only had to run the oven for 3 cycles, instead of 5!  I baked the minis with the full sized doughnuts.  It worked perfectly and the minis were a hit!  All 48 vanished within minutes, and I was only sent home with 4 large doughnuts. 

I also gave a few to my official taste tester, Kelsey.  I delivered them to her door and about 10min later got an email saying the following:

HOLY FLIPPING MONKEY TAILS!!!!!!!!!!!! The chocolate donuts are delicious per usual --- BUT THE MOLASSES .......OH THE MOLASSES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think they may be your best invention yet. They seriously made me dance around the house.  I want to stay up all night eating molasses donuts + sipping hot cocoa by a fire.

Her reaction made my night!

These little gems are very cake-doughnutty, not just cakey.  There is a difference!  I wish I could invite you all over for samples.  A popped amaranth + doughnut party!? 

Dad, you would be so proud!

 

Molasses Doughnuts [makes 6-8 depending on pan size or 24 minis in a muffin pan]

• 1/2c GF oat flour
• 1/2c sweet rice flour
• 3T coconut flour
• 1/4c sucanat
• 3T sunflower oil
• 2.5T blackstrap molasses
• 2 large eggs
• 6T unsweetened almond milk
• 3T pumpkin puree
• 1.5t vanilla extract
• 1t cinnamon
• 1t ground ginger
• 1/4t ground cloves
• 1/2t salt
• 1t baking powder

1. Preheat your oven to 350* + grease your donut pan with butter, coconut oil or cooking spray.
2. In a medium sized bowl mix together all dry ingredients.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients.
4. Stir the wet into dry, until just combined.  Do not over stir. 
5. With a spoon or spatula transfer the batter to your greased pan, filling about 1/8-1/4” from the top.
6. Bake for 20-25min.
7. Test with a toothpick for doneness.  You want a slightly moist toothpick.  Not gooey but not bone dry.  The tops of the donut should be golden brown and slightly firm.
8. Let them cool in the pan for 5min then turn out onto a cooling rack.  Loosen around the edges if needed.
9. Add toppings when cooled.

tips/substitutions: You can sub brown rice flour instead of sweet rice flour, almond flour instead of the coconut flour, or 1T oat flour + 2T more rice flour instead of the coconut flour.  Use any type of unsweetened milk you like.  You don’t taste the pumpkin in these, but it’s added for texture.  If you don’t have any, sub 2.5T unsweetened applesauce instead.  Pure cane sugar can be subbed for the sucanat. High altitude, set your oven to 375* and decrease baking powder to 3/4t.  The mini doughnuts took about 15min to bake.  You can grind your own GF oat flour from certified GF rolled oats, or GF oat groats.  Bob’s Red Mill packages GF oat flour.

Topping

• 1/2c sucanat
• 1/2t cinnamon
• ~3T butter, melted

1. Combine the sucanat + cinnamon in a bowl.
2. When cooled, lightly dip the donuts into the melted butter then directly into the cinnamon/sugar mixture.
3. Place on a cooling rack to dry.

In case everyone at the party wasn’t a molasses lover, I also made triple chocolate doughnuts.

I’m seeing chocolate peppermint with a candy cane topping in the near future!

And now it is technically time to hit publish and officially time to zone out + watch TV.

Mondays are better with donuts doughnuts!  Have a good one!

Ashley

molasses cream cereal

This recipe has been on my mind since making pumpkin cream cereal, a few months ago.  And actually, I haven’t made popped amaranth since that day.  Which makes absolutely no sense!  It’s one of my favorite things to chomp on for breakfast.

You would think with how light and fluffy it is, that it wouldn’t be too filling.  However, that is not even close to the truth.  I’m still surprised by how filling this awesome little grain/seed is!  The only way I enjoy amaranth, is in popped form for cereal.  I’m not a fan of the cooked grain at all.  The flavor is too strong and it seems to always turn gummy.

Besides this stuff tasting great + being fun to eat, it’s nutritionally packed.

In the 1/3c [pre popped] serving above, you have 240 cals, 9g protein, 6g fiber, 27% iron + 10% calcium.

And molasses?  1 Tablespoon has 20% of your daily iron AND calcium.

I must say, this keeps me full longer than a bowl of oats with similar calorie content.  Not sure what the difference is!

I could have just slurped the milk right out of the blender!  This would be a great smoothie recipe with a little more thickness to it.  Just add protein powder, chia seeds, flax, banana, etc. to achieve a thicker consistency.

This blows boxed cereal straight to the curb!

Now to randomly interrupt this post, a few more workout related things.  Two new plans I’m currently researching are, Tone It Up and Jamie Eason’s Livefit Trainer.  The only thing about the Livefit training program is that I no longer have access to a gym, which make this plan much more convenient.  I’ll have to research modifications or at-home ideas for some of the exercises.  However, we just realized we have to give our gym 30 days of notice before canceling.  Oops.  Guess I have 30 days to get some use out of it!

The great thing about both of these plans, is that they are FREE and don’t require an hour in front of the TV.

Now back to this overflowing bowl of creamy, crunch!

Molasses Cream Cereal

• 1/3c raw amaranth
• 1 – 1 1/4c unsweetened almond milk
• 1/2c pumpkin puree
• 1T molasses
• 1t honey
• 3/4t cinnamon
• 1/4t ginger
• 1/4t vanilla extract
• pinch of cloves/nutmeg
• toppings – nuts/bananas/dried fruit/coconut/apples/pears/etc.

1. Follow these directions for popping amaranth.  [should only take about 5 minutes]
2. Whisk/blend milk, pumpkin, molasses, honey, cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, cloves, and nutmeg together until smooth.
3. Top amaranth with nuts/dried fruit + pour on creamy milk mixture.

tips/substitutions:  Feel free to use any type of milk.  Other great add-ins to the milk are: 1 scoop protein powder, 1/2 banana, 1T chia seeds, 1T flax, 1T nut butter.  Feel free to sub 1/2 banana for the pumpkin if you choose.  The consistency of my mixture with 1c almond milk was creamy + thick, but not smoothie-thick.  Add more milk to reach your desired consistency.

A little behind the scenes action for you!  I went handheld today because I was feeling tripod-lazy.  Happens sometimes!

The nutrition facts below are calculated using 1 1/4c milk and all other ingredients listed above, but does not include the toppings.  Add a handful of nuts for an extremely satisfying + filling breakfast! 

[caloriecount.com]

Maybe I should open a cereal shop?  I suppose donuts would also be a necessity on the menu!

The Colorado sunset, Kenna and Dakota wanted to say hello!

Ridiculously happy dog.

Mildly depressed dog.

Speaking of donuts + molasses….it’s about that time!

Ashley

recipe time

Okay.  I am on an airplane and kind of freaking out.  All of my folders from September –> December, in Adobe Lightroom, seriously disappeared.  Lightroom is the program I use to edit my photos and every time you import photos it puts them in a folder and the whole catalog has always been there.  I am missing ohhhhh about 90 folders!!  I am not freaking out too much because I always export the photos I want to keep and put on the blog to another folder on my computer.  However, they are jpegs and not in the RAW form that I shoot in.  Basically it’s not too big of a deal, but just really odd.  The only thing I am realllly mad about is that for December, I only have the folders for the last 3 days and since I was so busy I haven’t had time to edit + export all the photos I wanted to keep.  This includes the photos from the Baptism that I didn’t finish editing.  They seem to have vanished!  I’m going to have Chris look at it as soon as I get home, because I am stumped. grrrrrr

On to the main point of this post…RECIPES!

Molasses Cookies – Yields appx. 5 dozen cookies - This recipe has been altered from my great grandmother’s just a tad to be a little more natural/organic.  I really liked the result!

• 1 1/2c. butter [instead of vegetable shortening]
• 2c. organic sucanat [try the bulk bins at WF or in the baking aisle at most natural grocery stores]
• 1/2c. organic molasses
• 2 eggs
• 4t. baking soda
• 4c. unbleached/unenriched organic white flour
• ~1t. cloves
• ~1t. ginger
• ~2t. cinnamon
• 1t. salt
• ~1/2c. organic cane sugar [for rolling the cookie dough balls in before baking]

1. Preheat the oven to 350* and make sure all of your ingredients have come to room temperature, even the eggs. 
2. Cream the butter + sucanat until light and fluffy [about 5min]
3. Beat in the eggs and then the molasses, until just combined.
4. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, soda, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and salt.
5. Stir the dry into the wet, 1/3 at a time.  You might have to use your hands to finish and get everything thoroughly combined.  This dough is extremely thick and heavy. 
6. If the dough seems too wet, you can add up to 1/2c. extra flour.  The dough should be able to be rolled into balls.
7. You may need to stick the bowl of dough in the fridge/freezer [covered] for 10-30min to stiffen it up a bit, so it is easier to roll.
8. Roll dough into walnut sized [or a little larger] balls and dip one side in the bowl of cane sugar. 
9. Place on a baking sheet, leaving about 2” in between each cookie.
10. Bake for approximately 7-10min.  The cookies should spread nicely and crack on the tops quite a bit when finished. 
11. Let them sit on the cookie sheets for a good 5min before transferring to a cooling rack.

Bowl of sugar + dough balls

Roll action

My dad rolls the dough much larger and likes the cookies to bake into each other.  I prefer a smaller cookie with the nice round shape :)

My version.  These cookies had great flavor and they baked perfectly!  The had a nice crusty [but not too thick] exterior with a soft + chewy inside.  They were still just as chewy 4 days later.  Molasses cookies are nice to make around the holidays, because they literally stay good for weeks!  It must be the molasses?

Photo shoot with the finished product.

If you can’t find, or don’t want to use sucanat, you can sub 1 cup of organic cane sugar + 1 cup of organic brown sugar.  The sucanat does not completely dissolve when you cream it with a mixer, but don’t worry, it dissolves when the cookies are baked.

I lost count of how many cookies I ate while I was home. 

Playing around with the cookies + camera.  Let me know if you have any questions about the recipe!

Christmas tree ornament in the background :)

Anyone interested in making puppy chow?  It’s so so easy and a major crowd pleaser, especially with kids!

Puppy Chow -     

• 6 cups Crispix cereal
• 1c. organic powdered sugar
• 1/4c. organic pnut butter
• 1/2c. salted peanuts
• 1c. semisweet chocolate chips

1. Slowly melt chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave.  If you’re using the microwave, be sure to do it in 30sec. increments and stir in between so the chocolate does not burn.  [When fully melted, take off the heat, if using the double boiler]
2. Stir in the pnut butter + peanuts, until fully combined.
3. Carefully fold the Crispix into the chocolate/pnut butter mixture.  Using a LARGE bowl definitely helps.  Make sure the chocolate is spread evenly.
4. In a large plastic bag [I forgot the gallon size…but just BIG] add the powdered sugar.
5. Carefully [easier with 2 people] dump the Crispix mixture into the bag.  Seal or tie off the bag and toss until completely coated with powdered sugar.  You might need to add a few more tablespoons of powdered sugar to fully coat the cereal.
6. Spoon into containers and pass out to friends!

When I make this I usually do 3 batches and it takes about 1hr.

Stirring in the peanuts and pnut butta’

I added a little more powdered sugar.  My mom and I like when it’s really bright white! hehehe

Greek pastries, mmmm.  I did not make these!  I really like the braided cookie.  I know how to pronounce the name but NO clue how to spell it and I’m sure spell check won’t work for any of these.  The braided cookie is crunchy and awesome with coffee!  The powdered sugar cookie is a loooong time favorite of mine.  It is also a harder cookie but so delicious and buttery.  This is why I keep cookies off of my shopping list and out of my oven!!  I will eat them all.

The cutest decorated sugar cookies I have seen in a long time.  My parent’s neighbor brought them over.  I obviously ate like 4 of them and they were delicious.

so.cute.

I feel like there was one more recipe I was supposed to share with you guys, but I can’t think of it!  Let me know if you can.  We are descending into Denver now.  I love getting my blog done in the air!  It’s so weird gaining back 2 hours.  It will only be 10:30am when I get to Denver, which is a good thing because I have a million things to do!!! Imagine that, hehe.  I need to shop for Christmas dinner [Chris already got the turkey], pick up a few presents for Chris, and wrap a LOT of gifts. 

My plan for the turkey is to throw it in the crock pot!!!  I have never heard of anyone doing this but found a lot of recipes online.  I haven’t cooked a turkey yet, and figure this is a sure fire way to keep it nice and moist.  I found a blog where a girl did crockpot meals for 365 days, and sure enough she cooked a whole turkey.  It seems pretty darn simple too!  Natalie has a crockpot as well, so I might do crockpot stuffing too.  Not sure what else is on the menu at this point!

Hope you all have a fabulous Christmas Eve with your family and/or friends!!  The next few days are going to be a bit hectic.  We’re moving the day after Christmas!  I may have some short posts coming up, and maybe a day or 2 missed until we get internet.  Keep checking back though!

I also just wanted to thank everyone for their comments recently [and in the past].  I really love hearing from my readers and have had so many comments that literally just make my day.  You guys rock :)

~Ashley

It is after midnight CO time right now when I’m going to post, so MERRY CHRISTMAS :)  Hope everyone has a great day!  I’m glad to be back with my hubs! He also thinks he’ll be able to find my photos on my hard drive, yay!

Niiight!