Baked Banana Bread Donuts

When I bought my donut pan, I vowed I would use it to do good (you know, as opposed to evil). Sure it's easy to throw together a donut batter (and I've done that a few times) -but I justified the purchase by telling myself that I would eventually make healthy donuts. For my kids, of course. And the fact that they'd be baked in this donut pan would fool them into thinking they were eating real donuts, based on their shape alone, when in actuality it would be a healthy muffin batter, full of nutrition. But it never happened. Partly because I never found a recipe that I thought was adaptable - but mostly because I didn't look that hard. Also, I'm lazy, so that didn't help.

However, I found a recipe a few weeks ago and all my good intentions returned, as well as the inspiration I needed to plough ahead with some degree of certainty that this endeavor could, in fact, be a success. Healthy donuts...who'd of thunk?

This recipe is originally a banana bread modified to include flax seed, and baked in a donut pan. I do believe I have finally justified this purchase. I might even go totally crazy next time and substitute some whole wheat flour for the AP flour. 

The chocolate glaze was totally unnecessary but also totally delicious. I found the recipe here. Skip it if you're into 'healthy' baking. My kids loved these, they were completely fooled. Didn't even detect the flax seeds. This recipe is a definite keeper.

Recipe for Baked Banana Bread Donuts
(source: adapted from Shove It In Your Face)

1 1/4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons Ground Flax Seeds
1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease a donut pan with non stick spray.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, flax seed and cinnamon. Set aside.
Cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add banana, egg and vanilla. Beat until incorporated. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Pour into a piping bag (or ziploc bag) and snip the corner. Fill each donut hole until about half full.  Bake 7 - 9 minutes or until golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the center of a ring. Allow to cool a couple of minutes before gently loosening the donuts with a butter knife, and then remove from pan completely. Place the hot donuts onto a wire rack to cool and repeat process until all the batter has been used. (Yields about 12 donuts)