I have no idea how long I’ve had a donut pan, but I’ve never used it until today. Donuts have always scared me. Cakes are not yet my forte. I’m not sure what it is about yeast, but I never feel confident with working with it. Good thing for me that cake donuts are my favorite. I tend to judge a donut place by their chocolate cake donuts. I can say I do prefer them fried over baked, but I’m not picky. So far the best cake donut I’ve ever had was at Vortex Doughnuts in Asheville, NC. The Witch and I always search out local donuts places and take a picture wherever we go.

Recently I decided it was finally time to make donuts. I’ve searched around for recipes. Once I found the King Arthur recipe for baked Chocolate Fudge Cake Doughnuts I knew this is what I wanted to try out for my first attempt. I used to drink Peppermint Mochas all the time so I love that flavor profile. These were already chocolaty so I knew I could easily adapt them with some peppermint and espresso. I swapped the espresso power, I mean what is that shit anyway, for some award winning actual espresso from our favorite local coffee shop, Caffe Amouri. They offer great drinks and classes. One of these days I’ll take them all and then start on the darkartsofcoffee. More future projects and goals I guess. I decided against all chocolate chips for some mint chips and espresso chips in place of just chocolate. I added in some peppermint extract to the mix. Once I had them out of the oven, cooled a bit, and iced I knew something was missing. That last little bit to make them visually appealing. We eat with our eyes first. I chopped up some of the mint chips and sprinkled them on top.

When you read that you should fill the donut pan 3/4 full that’s not a lie. As you can see these have no real “hole” as they expanded and overflowed. Not sure if I have a smaller than normal donut pan or what. It actually worked out better as when I iced them it just filled in the hole part. These were a complete success. They’re very moist and flavorful donuts. They couldn’t be easier to make either. Confidence boost in a small tasty cakey circle. Next step is fried cake donuts I guess. Then the yeast monster.

The world has been changing a lot in the past few months and I took some time to give voices to those who are still oppressed. I used a lot of that time to reflect on my own personal biases and learn. I tried to spread the message that Black Lives Matter. They still do. I hope things can change this time. I also spent a lot of time on the site to redesign and setup for expansion. It’s nice to be back and bake again. I’ll be moving most of the recipes over to this format so that you can leave comments if you’d like to. Thanks, as always, for your support. The kind words mean the world to me.

Final note: I know I spelling it donuts. I’m too lazy to type doughnuts. This isn’t a post about what the true spelling is so yeah don’t hold it against me.

Ingredients

• 2/3 Cup dutch processed cocoa powder

• 1 3/4 Cup King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour

• 1 1/4 Cup dark brown sugar

• 1 1/2 teaspoons Caffe Amouri Dutchess espresso

• 1 teaspoon of salt

• 1 teaspoon of baking powder

• 1 teaspoon of baking soda

• 1/2 cup Toll house Espresso Chips

• 1/2 Cup Ghirardelli “Grand Chips” semi sweet chocolate chips

• 1/2 Cup Guittard Green Mint Baking chips

• 2 teaspoon of vanilla

• 2 large eggs at room temp

• 3/4 Cup whole milk at room temp

• 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract

• 8 Tablespoons (1 stick) of butter melted

Chocolate Icing (Optional)

• 1 Cup chocolate chunks

• 4 Tablespoons whole milk

• small handful of the mint chips chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, baking soda, salt, and chocolate, espresso, and mint chips. Set aside.

3. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla, and vinegar. You may notice some curdling of the milk; that’s OK.

4. Melt the stick of butter

5. Add the wet ingredients, and the melted butter or vegetable oil, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend; there's no need to beat the batter, just make sure everything is well-combined.

6. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan(s), filling them between 3/4 and full.

7. Bake the doughnuts for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean.

8. Remove the doughnuts from the oven, and after 30 seconds or so, loosen their edges and turn the pan upside down over a rack. Gently let the doughnuts fall onto the rack. If they seem to be sticking (see "tips," below), use a nylon spatula to gently pry under their edges and loosen them underneath.

Chocolate Icing (Optional - but really not):

1. Put the chocolate chips and milk in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 30-40 seconds

2. Remove from the microwave, and stir until the chips have melted and the icing is smooth.

3. Dip the top of each doughnut in the icing; or spread icing on the doughnuts.

4. Chop some of the mint chips and sprinkle on top

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