Apple Butter Doughnuts



Making kids' lunches has to be the most thankless job in the world.  Even a person who loves to cook as much as me has little love for this chore.  At this point I could likely tell the kids to pack their own, but then I'd have to give up the control over what they're consuming.  There are a lot of things I will let the kids do on their own before I relinquish lunch making duty.

Trying to find treats to send on their lunches that are not full of sugar or fat are difficult.  I've been wanting to explore baking without sugar but have feared the results.  I'm happy to tell you that these doughnuts are made without any processed sugar and the kids loved them.  Of course, I did in fact slather some sugar-laden icing on top, so perhaps that is cheating but I figure we're taking things one step at a time here.  Don and I both enjoyed these without the icing and found it similar to an old fashioned plain doughnut.  The sweetness is achieved by using apple butter, apple sauce and grated apple.  Not familiar with apple butter? It  is a highly concentrated form of apple sauce, produced by long, slow cooking of apples with cider to a point where the sugar in the apples caramelizes, creating a preserve.  It's entirely natural and a great sweetener to keep handy for multiple uses.  I'm planning to tackle a few more creations without sugar and will post whatever success is achieved here.

I hesitated whether to share the recipe because it uses a specialty doughnut pan.  This handy pan allows you to bake doughnuts quickly and easily.  Putting the batter in a Ziploc bag makes for easy pouring into the doughnut spots.  It's pure genius from this mom's perspective.  It creates the illusion of a food that my kids rarely get their hands on.  Sometimes it's all in the marketing.  I believe this batter could be used in a muffin form as well with great success.  That is essentially what you're baking in a doughnut shape, but I can't guarantee the same level of excitement.

 Apple Butter Doughnuts

1/2 cup apple butter

1/2 cup grated apple

1/4 cup apple sauce

1 egg

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 325degrees and lightly spray donut pan with oil.  Whisk together wet ingredients in a large bowl.  Whisk together dry ingredients in a small bowl.  Add dry ingredients into wet and mix until just blended.  Pour batter into Ziploc bag and snip corner of bag.  Fill each donut cavity 2/3rd full.  Bake 10-12 min.  Cool on baking rack.

Icing

1/4 butter

1 Tbsp cinnamon

2 cups icing sugar

4-5 Tbsp milk

Cream butter, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.  Gradually add milk until desired consistency.  Spread on each cooled doughnut.