Things are starting to slow down this week. I've had a busy month with school events and cakes galore and this week sees my last few days of calm before the school holiday craziness begins. I love my boys but finding ways to entertain them for a couple of months takes a lot of invention!!
A couple of posts ago, I talked about a brilliant photography workshop I did with Aimee Twigger and Carole Poirot and after this, Aimee was kind enough to send me a copy of one of her books Love Aimee which is full of wonderful and inventive bakes. This is my second bake from her book -- I also made her Churros Doughnuts which I turned into lollipops with homemade mascarpone and dulce de leche ice cream and then topped them with salted caramel sauce and sugared almonds (no blog post for this one, but they were to die for!)
This week I wanted to try another of her recipes and although this is a simple, one-bowl bake, it's packed with bananas and chocolate chips -- a double thumbs up from my boys! So Banana and Chocolate Chip Doughnuts. Baked mini doughnuts that I then topped with a rich caramel sauce. The doughnuts are lovely and light and baked in the oven, rather than deep-fat fried. I have two KitchenAid mini doughnut pans but you can use whichever brand you like and make them bigger if you prefer (just remember to adjust the baking time). Because my doughnuts are quite mini (around 6.5cm in diameter) I managed to get 24 doughnuts out of the batter but obviously you'll get less if you use a bigger pan.
The boys really enjoyed these as a treat. You could change the toppings very easily and add a chocolate glaze and sprinkles for a more fun effect and they'd be brilliant at kids' parties. Aimee suggests dulce de leche as a topping which would be a great shortcut -- I've given you my caramel sauce recipe below as it's one of my favourites and I think the ultimate caramel sauce!! The doughnuts are best eaten day of baking, I think, but you could warm them up for a few seconds in the microwave if you manage to have leftovers.
There's a lovely flavour from the banana and the chocolate chips give that little extra treat. Topped with the caramel, it's a little taste of heaven. Another huge hit with the boys. And happy boys make a happy mummy!
Banana and Chocolate Doughnuts with Caramel Sauce
adapted from Aimee Twigger's Love Aimee
Doughnut Ingredients
- 60G BUTTER (at room temperature)
- 100G LIGHT BROWN SUGAR
- 2 MEDIUM BANANAS
- 125ML BUTTERMILK
- 2 LARGE EGGS
- 250G PLAIN FLOUR
- 1 TSP BAKING POWDER
- 50G CHOCOLATE CHIPS
Caramel Ingredients
- 300G CASTER SUGAR
- FEW DROPS OF LEMON JUICE
- 150ML SINGLE CREAM, WARMED
- 75G SALTED BUTTER, COLD & CUT INTO CUBES
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees (fan)
- Grease your doughnut tin (I use bake release spray for this but you could also use a light oil)
- Cream the butter and sugar together for around 5 minutes until pale and creamy
- Mash the bananas and add them to the butter mixture with the buttermilk
- Mix well
- Beat in the eggs -- don't worry if your mixture is looking a little curdled here
- Sift in the flour and baking powder and fold them into the mixture
- Stir in the chocolate chips
- Pop the mixture into a piping bag and snip off the end
- Pipe the mixture into the doughnut tin and bake for around 10-12 minutes -- if you want to check they're done, you can insert a skewer into a doughnut and if comes out clean it's ready
- Transfer onto a cooling rack and allow to cool for 30 mins before adding the caramel sauce
- Whilst the doughnuts are baking, make the caramel
- Start by putting the sugar and few drops of lemon into a large saucepan
- Gently heat until the sugar starts to turn an amber colour at the edges and carefully pull the melted caramel from the edge of the pan into the middle with a wooden spoon - but do not stir it!
- When the caramel’s melted, add the warmed cream taking care as it will bubble furiously
- Beat together until smooth
- Remove from the heat and add the butter, stirring until smooth
- You can either spoon the caramel onto the doughnuts or use a squeezy bottle (I prefer using the squeezy bottle)
- Allow the caramel to cool down before using it on the doughnuts -- you want the caramel to drop easily from the spoon or from the bottle, but not too runny as it will just disappear straight off the doughnuts
- These little doughnuts are best served warm and whilst the caramel is still a little gooey :)