Hostess Style Donuts

I woke up yesterday morning to almost all of Facebook lamenting the loss of Twinkies.  Apparently Hostess is shutting it's doors, and while it's possible that another brand will purchase the companies assets, there is no guarantee that we'll continue to be able to find some of the iconic Hostess treats in stores.

To be honest Twinkies were never my favorite, as a kid I much preferred their donuts.  While the mini Donettes are tasty, the best was when we could bug my mom enough at the grocery store to get her to buy the variety pack of the large donuts.  They always came with equal numbers of plain, powdered sugar, and chocolate frosted.  I haven't had them in years and a Google search this morning showed that they do (or I guess did) still make them but they're not as easy to find.  My search also found that people are already selling Hostess products on E-bay.  But you don't need to buy any on E-bay because you can make a pretty close substitute at home.  If you don't have a donut pan for these you could use a muffin tin or even a mini muffin tin for donut holes. 

I already have a baked donut recipe I like, but wanted these to be a bit softer and lighter so I tweaked the recipe a bit and used cake flour.  The powdered sugar and plain varieties were easy, but the chocolate was more difficult.  If you've ever eaten one of their chocolate donuts you know that the frosting is thin and fully set.  I experimented with small batches of a couple of recipes, and ate a lot of chocolate dipped graham crackers in the process, but in the end decided to just go with some melted chocolate chips with butter added to create a thinner glaze.  It still isn't spot on, but it's pretty close to what I remember.  Plus I had a stomachache and was out of mixing bowls so I decided to call it good.  Oh and if you do decide to stock up on Twinkies, they sadly don't in fact last forever - http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2010/01/twinkies-are-only-good-for-25-days/

Baked Donuts
Adapted from King Arthur Flour 
(Makes 6 donuts)

1 cup cake flour, sifted
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375°F.  Grease a donut pan or muffin tin with cooking spray or oil.
In a medium sized mixing bowl whisk together sifted cake flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
In a separate smaller bowl whisk together eggs, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla.  Stir egg mixture into dry ingredients until fully incorporated.
Using a tablespoon evenly distribute the batter so the donut cups are no more than two thirds full, for me this was about three level tablespoons per donut.  Make sure not to overfill, I got a little carried away with my measurements and had to trim a few of the donuts with a knife after baking.
Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes until the donuts spring back when touched.  They'll only brown very lightly on top but will be darker on the underside.  Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes in the pan before inverting onto a cooling rack.  Let cool completely before glazing or sugaring.
For the powdered sugar donuts I just put some powdered sugar (about a 1/2 cup for the two donuts) in a gallon sized ziploc and shook the donuts individually until coated.  For the chocolate use the glaze recipe below.  I also left two plain.

Chocolate Glaze
(This glaze made more than enough for the two donuts I glazed, I probably could have glazed two more.  If you'd like to glaze all six donuts I'd recommend multiplying the measurements by 1.5 or or 2.)

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons butter, melted

Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or a glass bowl in the microwave.  When the chocolate is completely melted quickly whisk in the melted butter, you want your butter to still be fairly warm or else it will firm up the melted chocolate and make glazing more difficult. 
To glaze the donuts dip in the chocolate glaze and place on a cooling rack or waxed paper until fully set.  You can stick them in the fridge to speed up the setting process.  I just dipped the tops and sides of my donuts leaving the very bottom unglazed.