I don’t know how your weather shaped up this weekend, but ours was dismal. Sheets of perpetual rain interrupted only by hail storms, winds whipping spring bulbs to tatters, and colder than you might expect in April.  In other words, the weather was being Oregon.  

It was so wet, my Saturday alarm clock of over-eager gardeners with lawn mowers fell silent. The die-hards were sleeping in. Not even Yard Guilt could be talked into getting dressed this weekend. Instead of creeping at the edges, tugging at my shirtsleeves, nagging at my soul,  she threw the covers over her head in blissful knowledge that the grass could wait. 

We, here at Chez Wonder, didn’t mind. In part because we had no plans to leave our house, much less get dressed this weekend.  But also because we had donuts planned. And in the cosmic battle between the dismal grey skies that so define springtime in Oregon and the small glimmer of hope for summer we nurture in our souls—Donuts, my friends, donuts always come to the rescue. 

About these Donuts.

They’re baked not fried and you can find the recipe here. Be forewarned, the recipe makes a lot, a LOT of donuts. (Using a 1.5″ cookie cutter, about 100 donut holes) Too many for our tiny family to consume in one sitting. Sadly, they do not transition into day old donuts, slightly dry but still edible. No, they become rocks; because they’re baked, not fried. It’s trade-off, I suppose. One worth making when you start factoring calories. Which, might not be something you should do when you’re talking donuts.

Anyhow, unless your family is quite large or you’re feeding teenagers, I don’t suggest you  make the whole recipe at one time. Instead, you can do this:

After the first rise, split the dough in half. Roll out the first half, let rise, bake, devour. Set the second half aside in the refrigerator, covered in plastic wrap. Before bed, roll out the second half and put on a baking sheet. Cover that sheet in plastic wrap and pop back into the fridge. You’ll need to take them out an hour before baking the next morning–but if you let them rest and rise, you can have a second batch of fresh donuts the next morning.

And I know we’re not talking calories, but just the same—I sugar these donuts in small batches. I only melt a couple of tablespoons at a time and you won’t need as much butter as the recipe calls for. If you sugar them in small lots, then you’ll need fresh sugar/cinnamon about half way through the process.  The sugar mix gets too wet to stick otherwise. But in small batches you’ll have less waste. If that makes sense?

The chocolate glaze is super easy.  Just mix melted dark chocolate chips, a bit of milk, and powdered sugar until it’s the right consistency.