Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

I have been craving doughnuts (donuts?) for weeks! We live so far away from any good doughnut shops. All that we have nearby are gas station doughnuts. Don't get me wrong, they are tasty and all but I miss the fresh baked straight out of the case doughnuts. So I found a few different recipes online and mashed them together to make my own. These doughnuts certainly do not beat the fried doughnut but that means that I can't feel guilty for eating three at a time. Right?

Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean (split in half down the middle longways and seeds scraped into a bowl)

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup milk

Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar

3-4 teaspoons milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375F. Lightly spray two doughnut pans.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the vanilla bean seeds, egg, and vanilla extract until incorporated then add the milk. Gradually beat in the flour mixture until just incorporated.

Spoon the batter into a Ziplock bag then pipe into each doughnut cavity, be careful not to fill it too full. Bake 8-10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 5 minutes then remove from the pan and finish cooling on a cooling rack.

For the glaze

In a medium bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, salt, 3 teaspoons milk, and vanilla until smooth. If it's too thick for a glaze, add the extra teaspoon of milk.

Once the doughnuts are completely cool, dip the tops of each doughnut into the glaze and let the excess drip off. Let the glaze harden before serving. Store in an airtight container.

These doughnuts didn't last long. And of course, there was a pair of eyes on them the entire time I was taking pictures. Finally after pulling out the "puppy dog eyes" trick on me, he got his wish. We sat down and ate a doughnut (or three) for breakfast.