Baked Apple Cinnamon Doughnuts

Living here in the south has been quite the adventure for our little family.  Perhaps my favorite store here has been Publix.  I subscribed to one of their magazines and quickly fell in love with their recipes.  Lots of delicious looking and sounding meals, healthy alternatives to favorite foods, definitely my kind of store!  This recipe is awesome and was a fast favorite for my little ones.  They get excited because they are eating doughnuts and I am excited because they are getting something much healthier.  My husband likes these but dislikes them being called a doughnut.  He calls them muffins in a doughnut pan.  Oh well, you can’t win every battle but it doesn’t stop him from eating them.

Baked Apple Cinnamon Doughnuts
makes 6 doughnuts or 6 muffins

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed meal
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp apple pie spice
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
2 Tbsp butter, chilled
1/3 cup butter milk
1/4 cup plain yogurt (I use fat free greek yogurt)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and finely chopped (3/4 cup)
Apple Glaze

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a large bowl combine the flour ground flaxseed meal, sugar, apple pie spice, baking powder, salt and baking soda.  With a pastry blender or fork cut in the butter until mixture resembles a fine meal.

In a small bowl whisk together the buttermilk, yogurt and egg until well combined.  Add mixture to dry ingredients and stir until just combined, being careful to not overmix.  Gently fold in apple.

Spoon batter into a ziploc bag and snip off the corner, the hole should be about 1/2 inch.  Pipe into a doughnut pan.  Cover pan lightly with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate for 1 hour.  Bake for 13 to 15 minutes, or until lightly golden brown and doughnuts spring back when pressed gently with your finger.  Cool doughnuts in pan on a wire rack for 5 minutes.  Carefully invert pan to remove doughnuts.

Drizzle warm doughnuts with some of the apple glaze.  Serve warm.

Apple Glaze:

3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp apple juice
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

Combine ingredients in a small bowl.  Add additional apple juice if needed to reach a drizzling consistency.

I usually make a huge batch of these (like 6 batches!) and freeze the unfrosted doughnuts.  Microwave them for 30 seconds and drizzle the glaze over the top.  If doing a large batch I refrigerate the batter in a gallon ziploc bag and then pipe out what I need and bake immediately, returning the pastry bag to the refrigerator between batches.  Just place the bag into a bowl with the snipped off corner facing up
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