Baked Gingerbread Doughnuts

I grew up eating gingerbread--my mom's background was German-Pennsylvania Dutch and she always made gingerbread around Christmas. Come to think of it we always had gingersnaps in the house and she would use them to make German dishes like Sauerbraten with Dumplings.

 
Most people are not a big fan of gingerbread because they don't like the flavor of ginger--my husband included.  When I told him that I was making gingerbread doughnuts he was not jumping with joy.  His response to me was..."out of all the doughnut choices you're making gingerbread doughnuts?" But what would Christmas be without gingerbread and I'm not a big fan of gingerbread cookies...so gingerbread doughnuts it was!

This recipe makes 10-12 doughnuts and the batter is very thick.  It helps using a small spoon to spread the batter in the pan.  For the powdered ginger I used China Ginger from Penzeys Spices.  During Thanksgiving were up in Portland visiting family and we stopped by their retail store and purchased this ginger.  It has a clean flavor with a nice kick from the heat--truest to actual fresh grated ginger.

For the toppings have fun with it, but flavors that pair well with ginger are chocolate, dark berries and cinnamon.  I made a cashew milk chocolate-ganache, a white icing glaze mixed with wild blueberry preserves, and the old standby of cinnamon sugar.  My favorite flavor was the wild blueberry, but they all were delicious!

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup unbleached flour
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger (more or less to taste)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8-1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1 1/2 tsp coffee extract
2 tbsp molasses
1/4 cup cashew milk or other non-dairy milk
1/2 cup organic applesauce
1 tbsp ground flaxmeal mixed with 3 tbsp warm water to make a flax-egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil (plus more for greasing the pan)

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease doughnut tin and set aside.  
• In a medium sized bowl, sift all dry ingredients together.
• In a larger bowl, whisk all wet ingredients together.
• Using a spatula add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until just combined.  If batter seems too thick then add one tbsp cashew milk or non dairy substitute.
• Spoon batter into doughnut tin and smooth with spoon.
• Bake on the middle rack for 10-12 minutes.
• Let cool for about two minutes before turning out on a cooling rack and repeat with remaining batter.
• Let doughnuts cool completely before dipping in icing and decorating.

Enjoy and Happy Holidays to All!