Baked Apple Donuts

I originally found this recipe on Michelle's blog, Scribbet: Motherhood in Alaska. I posted about it being one of the donuts I may try in the future because my first donut making experience was a complete failure.

I am happy to officially report that with the help of Michelle's recipe, I successfully make donuts! First off, I couldn't resist a recipe with dough made in the bread machine. I mean, how simple is that? Secondly, I was able to use one of my local apples. So here's the recipe with my tweaks noted:

Baked Apple Donuts

Combine the following ingredients in this order in your bread machine and set your machine to "dough" cycle:

1 cup milk
¼ cup wheat germ
3 ¾ cups flour (I used 1 cup white whole wheat flour and the rest white flour)
3 tablespoon olive oil (I used 3 tablespoons melted butter)
3 tablespoon brown sugar
1 large grated apple (1 large honeycrisp apple)
1 large egg
2 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger (I didn't have ginger so I used 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg)
1 tablespoon fast-acting yeast

When the dough is ready, shape into 14 donuts and let them rise 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until browned and done. Immediately dip in a cinnamon/sugar mix

Ok I totally forgot to let them rise for an additional 30 minutes. Oops! But I did roll the dough out on a floured counter to about a 1/2 in. thickness. I used my donut cutter to easily cut out MANY donuts and donut holes! They baked just fine in the 15 minute time frame.

I think the whole wheat flour detracted from the taste of the donut. I'll probably use all white flour next time. It was also lacking in the apple flavor department, but that's probably due to the fact that I didn't use a real nice baking apple and I could have probably used another 1/2 cup shredded apple as well.

Overall, a wonderful recipe to utilize your apples and bread machine. Plus it's a much healther "donut" considering the use of wheat germ, apples and baking vs. frying. Enjoy!