It's recipe time! Recently I've been having great fun experimenting and creating my own recipes. I've been a keen baker for years but have only recently started trying out my own recipes, mostly for the need to find tasty things that are dairy free. I swear things taste better when you know they are purely yours, and it really is a lovely feeling when it all works and goes to plan. I have been experimenting with tea based recipes after I was very kindly sent some loose leaf teas to try by the Bluebird Tea Co, check out their website if you're a tea fan, I had never seen so many gorgeous and tasty blends! You may have seen my recipe for Dark Chocolate Chilli Chai Brownies, which you can check out here, so for this recipe I thought I'd try something completely different. As soon as I opened the bag of the Bonfire Toffee tea I just knew I had to make something tasty, if you could capture autumn nights, trick or treating and fireworks in a bag of tea, this would be it! It took a few adjustments to get the consistency right but I think I've just about nailed it, and must have done something right as they were all gone by the following morning! So, without further ado, may I introduce the Bonfire Toffee Halloween Donuts!
You will need-
2/3 cup flour (I used Doves Farm Gluten Free flour)
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup almond milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1tsp olive oil
To glaze-
3 tbsp icing sugar
2 tsp almond milk
food colouring
Makes approximately 28 mini donuts.
1) Preheat the oven to 170oC
2) Gently heat the almond milk and the tea, leaving it to infuse for at least 5 mins on a very low heat. Make sure you don't boil the milk, as this will impair the flavour.
3) While the tea is brewing, in a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon and baking powder. Add in the egg and olive oil and mix together.
4) Strain the tea through a sieve, and add the infused milk to your mixture. Mix well to avoid lumps.
5) Using two teaspoons, spoon the mix into the mould. This is where things can get a little bit fiddly, one mould takes about 1 1/2 teaspoons of mix. To create the perfect donut, fill the mould ever so slightly below the top, and even out with your fingers, making sure you don't get any mix onto the centre part of the donut. If you do it doesn't matter that much, it just might rise up so you have a donut without a hole!
6) Bake in the oven for 5-10 minutes, until the donuts are risen and firm. This is a case of watching them and getting them out at just the right moment, but you will get the hang of when that is after the first batch!
7) Pop the donuts out of mould with a round bladed knife, if they are baked properly they should pop out cleanly.
8) While the donuts are cooling, make the glaze by combining the almond milk and icing sugar, and any food colouring you like. The glaze should be fairly gloopy but not too runny, just add more sugar/milk when needed to get the right consistency.
9) Dunk your cooled donuts upside down in the glaze to coat the top half, then sprinkle with sprinkles!
10) Try not to eat them all at once, warning, these babies are addictive!
Please let me know if you give these a go, I'd love to know what you think!
Labels: baking, dairy free, donuts, gluten free, recipe, tea