Glazed Pumpkin Donuts

Have any leftover pumpkin puree in your pantry from Thanksgiving like we did? Still craving sweets? We were, and we wanted something SUPER TASTY! We decided to try a bizarro combo of King Arthur Flour's pumpkin donut recipe and this glazed pumpkin donut recipe while not having exactly enough ingredients.

The results were still perfection! We managed to get 16 donuts out of it!

Ingredients

Donut batter

• 1/2 c. vegetable oil
• 3 large eggs
• 1 c. granulated sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 can pumpkin puree
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• just shy of 2 c. whole wheat flour

Glaze

• brown sugar
• butter
• water

Directions

1. Set oven to 350 degrees and grease your donut baking pan.
2. Whisk all but the flour in a large bowl, until well mixed.
3. Add flour and mix just until clumps disappear.
4. Add batter to donut pan.
5. Bake 15-20 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.
6. While baking, sprinkle enough brown sugar to cover the bottom of a small sauce pan. Add a couple pats of butter (I recently learned what "pat of butter" means!) and half a tablespoon of water. We only wanted to make enough for a few of our donuts, just to test.
7. Melt together on low heat, whisking until thick and smooth.
8. Remove the donuts from the over. Cool slightly and then transfer from the baking pan to a cooling rack.
9. Dip the tops of the donuts into the prepared glaze.
10. Scarf.

These donuts are surprisingly delicate while warm, but oh so moist and tasty! The brown sugar glaze is also a beautiful touch!

Vegan Oatmeal Juice Pulp Muffins

We decided to go back on that juice pulp thing and see what else we could make. Turns out, you can! We adjusted this oatmeal pulp muffin recipe.

Makes about 12-15 muffins, depending on how big you like your muffins. :)

Ingredients

• 2/3 c. juice pulp
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. honey
• 2 c. steel cut oats
• 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp cloves
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/3 c. almond milk
• Any extras (I used a trail mix with almonds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and dried cranberries)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prep a muffin tin. We have silicon cupcake cups, but greasing the tins works just as well.
2. Mix pulp, vanilla, and honey in a large bowl.
3. Add oats, flour, spices, baking powder, and salt. Mix well.
4. Add in your extras.
5. Fill the tins as high as you would like. It won't expand when you bake.
6. Bake 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
7. Cool.

Now, we like to separate these into batches of 4 and pop them into freezer bags once they're cool. This makes for super easy breakfasts on-the-go! We just pull out the next bag to thaw when we finish one. Certainly packed full of nutritious and filling goodies!

Leftovers Bread

Moving to the San Francisco Bay Area has its perks. Easier access to healthy, organic options has made for some excellent meals.

Katy and I have become a part of the juice craze! Yes, juicing, and it is amazing. Not only are we feeling happier and healthier, we can manage to use all parts of the fruit and vegetables we use.

Many juicers feel guilty about throwing away so much pulp, but it's really very simple to save them in a freezer bag for soups, muffins, breads, all kinds of things! This time we decided to made bread. You know, like zucchini or banana bread - except you use leftover juice pulp!

There are all kinds of options, and everything that goes into a delicious juice can be used for a sweet bread.

In our case, it was a mix of carrot, celery, orange, and apple. Yum! It's also a beautiful fall day and we were looking for something autumnal. ;)

Our beautiful fall view.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ c. pulp
• ¼ c. oil
• ½ c. honey
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 ½ c. whole wheat flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¼ tsp cloves

Directions

1. Beat honey and oil in a mixing bowl; then add eggs and vanilla.
2. Sift together the dry ingredients and add to the wet mix.
3. Bake in a greased bread loaf pan on 350 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes. This will depend on how wet your pulp mix is.
4. Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan and consuming. (We're always too impatient and don't wait as long as we really should - we want to eat it while it's still warm!!) 

This recipe is really great because you can use whatever pulp you have and tweak the recipe according to any other ingredients you'd like to add: oatmeal, nuts, dried berries, chocolate chips. It all depends on what you've juiced for the week!

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts

We have lost the D and R of our DARK meals, so I'm afraid we're down to AK meals! KA Meals? We're working on the new name...

But what better way to bring back our blog than the mouth-watering homey goodness of apple cider doughnuts? 

K and I have moved cross country to the beautiful San Francisco: home of the 49ers, Golden Gate Bridge, hippies, foodies, and multicultural beauty. We may now have access to all the cheap avocados one can consume! But oh! the heart-wrenching sadness of a Midwesterner and East Coaster when we discovered that the closest apple cider mill was three hours away. Well if we can't get to the apple orchard, we're going to being the cider mill to us!

When we got the idea in our head, we tried to find a way to make a healthier version than the delicious deep-fried variety. Searching online, we found we could BAKE doughnuts, but couldn't figure out how to do it! Then we discovered the most exciting kitchen bakeware ever: doughnut baking pans. Just like the cupcake pan. The most exciting purchase of my adult life thus far. Pumped to hit the kitchen, we searched for the best recipe.

We adapted this recipe from Spoonful of Flavor to only make half a dozen and use whole wheat flour and soy milk. 

Ingredients:

Yield: 6 doughnuts

Doughnut Batter:
1 cup whole wheat all-purpose flour
3/8 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup apple cider
1/8 cup soy milk
1 egg, beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. butter, melted

Cinnamon-Sugar Topping:
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp. butter, melted (for coating)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix:

Mix together all dry ingredients. Then add the wet stuff. If your mix seems a little dry, add a splash more of the cider.

The next step was a little tricky since we don't have a pastry bag. After greasing the baking sheet, I was able to use spoons to drop the dough into the doughnut cups and carefully spread them around. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until the doughnut is springy when poked.

While the doughnuts cool, mix together the dry parts for the cinnamon-sugar topping into a ziplock bag and melt the butter for dipping. We dipped each of the doughnuts [lightly] into the melted butter and then dropped into the ziplock bag. Shake the bag around for an even coating.

Place on the cooling wrack to cool, or om nom while still warm. We chose to wait for dessert and consume with warm cider while watching some collegiate football. Nothing screams autumn in America quite like warm apple anything with football. These actually came out much denser than we had hoped. Next time, we're going to try using apple sauce and a little less flour.

Enjoy!