French Toast Doughnuts!

My favorite memory of doughnuts has to be when we were "down the shore" (Ocean City, NJ) and my dad would get up early in the morning to get fresh doughnuts and Mallon's sticky buns.  It was blissful waking up on a warm and muggy East coast morning to the sweet smell of pastry heaven.  This recipe is courtesy of Vegetarian Times September 2009 issue.  These are not the type of dougnuts you'll find at a pastry shop like the jelly doughnuts I made in November.  They're heartier like the boxed ones you find at the grocery store.  But better.  Much much better. Not to mention they're so easy!


Doughnuts:
1 1⁄2 cup all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup sugar
1 1⁄2 tsp. baking powder
1 1⁄2 tsp. egg replacer (Ener-G brand)
1⁄2 tsp salt
1⁄2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1⁄4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2⁄3 cup plain soymilk
4 Tbs. nonhydrogenated vegan margarine
1⁄2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla extract


Maple Glaze:
2 Tbsp. soymilk
2 Tbsp. maple syrup
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1⁄8 tsp. salt
1⁄2 tsp. vanilla extract


Cinnamon Sugar:
2 Tbsp. sugar
1⁄2 tsp. ground cinnamon


Directions:
1. To make doughnuts: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat doughnut pan (see below) with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
2. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, egg replacer, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl.
3. Combine soymilk, margarine, and vinegar in saucepan, and heat over low heat until margarine is melted.  Cool. Whisk vanilla extract into soymilk mixture.  Stir soymilk mixture into flour mixture.
4. Fill each doughnut mold half full with batter.  Bake 12 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in doughnut comes out clean. Carefully unmold doughnuts on wire rack to cool, and repeat with remaining batter.  Depending on the size of the doughnut pan, you may not have enough batter to make two batches :(
5. To make Maple Glaze (yum!): Combine soymilk, maple syrup, sugar, and salt in saucepan, and  bring to a simmer, whisking constantly.  Remove from heat, and cool 5 to 10 minutes, or until thickened.  Stir in vanilla extract.
6. To make Cinnamon Sugar: Whisk together sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
7. Dip each doughnut into Maple Glaze and sprinkle with or dip in Cinnamon Sugar.  Let glaze set before serving...if you can wait that long...


Enjoy!


You can purchase one of these doughnut pans at Sur La Table for $10.