We made donuts!

Courtney and I decided to make donuts yesterday after school. Here she is, working hard, stirring them up. She loves getting her picture taken nowadays, can you tell?

But she stirred on...

And on, diligently.

After the batter was mixed, I put it in a cupcake pen that I'd read was recommended for making it easier to fill the donut pans without making a mess. I didn't get any pics of that. I was pretty busy guiding the little hands that were squeezing the batter into the pans. Just click on that link, and you can see what one looks like. It worked quite well. It was easier than trying to pour the batter into the pans from a bowl. The only thing I didn't like about it is that you end up with quite a bit of batter left in the "pen", so either you have to reach in and scrape it out (which is not too easy to do) or it gets wasted. I did read a review that recommended spraying Pam into it before adding the batter so it slides out more easily. Maybe I'll try that next time.

Here is one of the two pans, which I got for Christmas. (Thanks N&S&C!) This was after removing the baked donuts. They came out very nicely, and the pans were a breeze to wash up afterwards!

Here are the donuts, in a photo taken very quickly with poor lighting:

Here's the donut tester:

I think this is a smile of somewhat-satisfaction:

Conclusion from the tester: They needed some sprinkles. :)

I thought they were pretty good, although not exactly like fried-in-oil donuts. They're a bit cakey, yet denser than cake or a cupcake. I suppose a glaze and the requested sprinkles would've added something, but I was just wanting to test the donut itself first. Maybe next time. I used the recipe that came with the pans for these. I've found a few other recipes that I want to try. We'll see how they go.