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.

Chocolate Banana Waffles

I frequently use meals my husband isn't home for to make the foods he deems gross.  If you asked my husband what his gross foods are bananas would be near the top of the list (along with peanut butter, but that just makes me too sad to talk about).  I like bananas, but since I'm the only one eating them there are always a couple from the bunch that over ripen before I finish them.  I often slice them up and freeze them for breakfast smoothies in the summer, but making a smoothie when it's cold outside never really sounds appealing to me.  So I decided to go a different breakfast route this time and mash them up for some waffles.  When I was flipping through my cookbooks to see if there were any banana waffle recipes, I found one on the same page as a chocolate waffle recipe.  Which was just fate, really.  Not nearly as fast and healthy as a smoothie, but definitely worth it.

Chocolate Banana Waffles
Adapted from Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, Fourth Printing
(Makes 4 - 5 Waffles)

1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder, sifted
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, separated
1 1/2 cups milk
2/3 cups mashed banana (about 2 medium bananas)
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
Banana slices, powdered sugar, and maple syrup for serving

Preheat & lightly oil waffle maker.  In a large bowl stir together flours, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt.  In a smaller bowl or one quart measuring cup whisk together milk, mashed banana, egg yolks, melted butter, and vanilla.  Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients until blended. 
Using a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or a handheld mixer, beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks.  Gently fold egg whites into batter until incorporated.
Pour 1 cup of batter into prepared waffle maker and cook according to manufacturers directions.  Repeat with remaining batter, lightly oiling waffle maker in between each waffle.
For serving top with banana slices, powdered sugar, and maple syrup.

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups

I love all things pumpkin and fall so I figured a pumpkin recipe would be a great place to start.  I've seen a couple of pumpkin peanut butter cup recipes on other blogs and tried one out, but the filling was simply pumpkin and peanut butter mixed together and wasn't really what I wanted.  That said, I'm spoiled when it comes to homemade peanut butter cups because for years my mom has been making a recipe that is pretty much spot on for those treats that come in the orange packages.  I figured that I'd get closer to the taste I was wanting if I modified that recipe.  It's also a cinch to make since it goes in a 9x13 pan rather than having to fill individual cups.  I used homemade pumpkin puree for this recipe, but canned should work just fine as well.  The result is still distinctly peanut butter cup but with a hint of pumpkin and spice. 

Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups

14 tablespoons butter (1 stick + 6 tablespoons)
1 cup pumpkin puree
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups peanut butter
1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
12 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat and mix in powdered sugar, pumpkin, peanut butter, graham cracker crumbs and pumpkin pie spice. Press peanut butter mixture into an ungreased 9x13 pan. Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler or the microwave and spread over the top of the peanut butter mixture. Cool completely then cut into squares.