Raised Baked Cinnamon Donuts

I find that most baked donut recipes are too dense or cakey, and just aren't a proper donut. Using yeast in baked donuts help to get as close to the same natural fluffiness as fried donuts as you can, with a lot less calories!

Ingredients:

- 2 1/2 cups plain flour

- 1/2 cup caster sugar

- Pinch of salt

- 1 sachet (7g) of dried instant yeast

- 2/3 cup lukewarm milk

- 2tbls melted butter (plus extra for coating)

- 2 egg yolks

- 1tsp vanilla extract

- 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar for dusting*

Method:

- Preheat your oven to 190oC.

- Whisk together 1 cup of your plain flour, caster sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl until well combined.

- Add in your milk, butter, yolks and vanilla and whisk vigorously until it has become a loose paste.

- Cover with glad wrap or tea towel and leave to sit in a warm place for 10 minutes, or until a few bubbles have formed on the surface.

- Add the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour, and mix with a spoon until mostly combined. Once it has loosely come together, start to knead with your hands while still in the bowl.

- If the mixture is sticky, add a little bit of flour, wash and dry your hands, and continue to knead. Continue for 5 minutes until the dough has become a smooth ball, and no longer sticking to your hands or the bowl.

- Leave to rise in a warm place for 1.5 hours, or until doubled in size.

- Once risen, turn out onto a lightly floured pastry mat. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out until its roughly 1.5-2cm thick.

- Cut out rounds of your dough using a large round cookie cutter, and a smaller round cookie cutter for the middle bits (these middle bits are called donut holes, and are definitely worth baking as well!)**. Place on a lined baking tray evenly spread apart, cover with a tea towel, and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

- Once rested for the final time, place your donuts in the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

- Once brown, place on a wire rack. As soon as they are cooled enough to handle, baste with some extra melted butter on all sides, and roll in the cinnamon sugar***.

- Best eaten as soon as possible! Trust me, you'll want to!

Notes:

*I used store bought, if you don't have any on hand you can make some by using 1/2 cup castor and mixing in 1tbls cinnamon (or more, depending on how much cinnamon. you like).

**You can cut them out however you'd like. There are donut cookie cutters available, or you could use a larger round cutter, then a smaller one to cut out the middle of the donut. You don't need to cut out the middle if you want to do stuffed donuts! They may just need cooking for a little longer.

***If you're wanting to do stuffed donuts, don't worry about basting them in butter. Once they're cool, make a hole in the donut using a chopstick, and pipe full of jam, lemon curd, or whatever you want! Dust with icing sugar to finish off.