Sour Cream Apple Coffee Cake..Donuts!

Lately I've been pretty obsessed with the donut shape.  I don't know what it is about donuts that makes me so happy.  Maybe it's because the thought of donuts conjures up images of Homer Simpson or maybe it's because I'm on a quest to make all my desserts individually sized and donuts fit the bill perfectly.  Whatever it is, donuts are wonderful!

I've recently been participating in Food Network Canada's Cooking Club Challenges and this month's challenge is to make Anna Olson's Apple Sour Cream Coffee Cake.  I was pretty excited as a cake would mean I would be able to transform it into a baked donut!  So over the weekend, I made this coffee cake using a donut pan and although the picture above shows two fairly nice looking donuts, I have to admit that these were the only two out of the twelve that I made that came out actually looking like donuts.  The thing with coffee cake is that it has a really delicate crumb, so when using something small like a donut pan, it can be extremely difficult to de-pan without it just falling apart.  I suppose had I properly greased the pan, I wouldn't have had this problem.  

Despite the crumbly mess I made, these cake donuts were really delicious.  Crispy and sweet outer layer, crumbly on the inside and topped with sweet apples and brown sugar..very yummy.  I will definitely make this again!

Note: When greasing the pan, I used butter and coated it with granulated sugar.  The granulated sugar gives the bottom a nice crispy and bubbly texture.  Be sure to grease the pan completely so that there are no spots left bare.

I'm going to attempt to make this again sometime before the month-end, but I'll probably grease the pan and coat with flour instead of sugar...maybe!  I do love the effect the sugar has on the bottoms of these donuts though.

May 21, 2010 - UPDATE:

OK, so I made these donuts again today, this time really greasing the pans well, I mean, REALLY.  I used a cooking spray to really coat the donut moulds then dusted one pan with flour and the second pan with sugar.  The result: The donuts came out of the pans in a cinch from both flour and sugar coated pans but they all had super crispy bottoms.  Why: I sprayed way too much cooking oil onto the pans such that there was this thick layer of sugar/flour on the bottoms of the donuts (kinda gross actually), plus it was as if the bottoms were deep fried, in other words, really crispy.  Was it good?  Eh. The bottom half was not the best, I will stick to using butter but knowing to ensure that I don't miss any spots the next time.  The top half was moist though, so at least it was half good :D

Sour Cream Apple Coffee Cake...Donuts

Makes 12 donuts

Adapted from Anna Olson's Sugar

FOR THE PANS

Granulated sugar

Butter/shortening/pan grease

FOR THE CAKE

1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup 14% m.f. sour cream

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

FOR THE APPLES & TOPPING

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup walnut pieces

1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted

1 cup apples, diced

PREPARE PANS

Grease donut pans completely with butter/shortening/pan grease.  Dust with granulated sugar to coat.  Remove excess sugar.

PREPARE THE TOPPING

Combine brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, walnuts and butter in a bowl and stir.  Pour half of the mixture into a separate bowl and mix with diced apples.

PREPARE THE CAKE

Preheat oven to 350oF.   In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until smooth and pale.  Beat in egg until well incorporated.  Add vanilla and sour cream.  In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (flour, baking  powder, baking soda, and salt) and stir into wet ingredients until just incorporated.

ASSEMBLY

Fill a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tube with the cake batter. Pipe a thin layer of the batter into each donut mould.  Sprinkle with walnut-sugar topping (no apples) then pipe another thin layer of batter overtop the topping.   Sprinkle tops with apple topping.

Bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until tops have turned golden and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.  Let cool and carefully remove cake from pan.