Bourbon Glazed Donuts

Yesterday, I had a craving for donuts that kind of came out of nowhere. I think what may have happened is someone said the word “donut” and I thought, “Yes, I would like many of those.” Obviously, I jumped at the wonderful opportunity to put donuts and bourbon together. After briefly crawling through the interwebs and pretending I know how to bake things, I decided to make this donut recipe:

Fluffy Cake Donuts (via AllRecipes):
(makes 12 donuts)

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. melted butter 

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease a donut pan.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla, and shortening. Beat together until well blended.

Fill each donut cup approximately 3/4 full. Bake 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until donuts spring back when touched. 

Allow to cool slightly before removing from pan.

Bourbon Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar
real maple syrup
heavy cream
bourbon (I used Maker’s Mark)

Mix powdered sugar with enough maple syrup to create a thick paste. Add a splash of cream to get the consistency you want. (We didn’t have cream, so I tossed in a spoonful of leftover cardamom whipped cream from our Banana bourbon bread.) Add bourbon to taste.

Dip the donuts in the glaze and eat! 

The donuts came out a little thicker than I thought they would, though they were still pretty light. I think they should’ve been cooked longer. Our prehistoric oven deserves as much blame as my novice baking skills. They were still delicious, though. The donuts were cakey and sweet, and the glaze tasted like maple syrup with the caramel/vanilla sweetness of Maker’s Mark, plus a little bit of the Maker’s finish.