Donut Challenge #1 - Baked Lemon Honey Mochi Donuts

  

*Dusts off blog* It's been over a year since I posted anything here and I felt it was high time that I got back to what I'm most passionate about which is food and photography.  I can’t improve if I don’t practice right?

To get things started again, I was inspired to bake my own donuts again.   After eating several fried, yeast raised glazed donuts (that I got for free) over the last week, I was really craving for a Pon de Ring donut from Mister Donut in Asia.   If you haven't heard of Pon de Ring, you must go to Asia and try it yourself!  I’m tempted to fly to Taiwan right now to do just that.  These donuts I speak of have a slightly chewy texture, but they’re also airy and not as sweet as the typical North American donuts.  

So anyway, I’ve been searching for a recipe that would give me that same chewy texture and finally came really close.  I came across a posting for Baked Lemon Honey Crème Mochi Donuts from Fuji Mama and was really excited to try it.  I made a few adjustments to the recipe since I didn’t have any Lemon Honey Crème on hand.  The outcome was pretty good – not quite like a Pon de Ring donut, but still delicious.  It had a nice chewy texture – not as chewy as a typical mochi, but slightly more chewy than a Pon de Ring donut.  The donut was also not as airy as I would have liked it to have been but that could be my fault.  I forgot to increase the amount of mochiko since I had added lemon juice which was not part of the original recipe.  Overall though, pretty good, but I would need to make some adjustments to make it more airy.  Here’s the recipe I used to make 6 small donuts:

Baked Lemon Honey Mochi Donuts

Makes 6 small donuts

Adapted from Fuji Mama's Baked Lemon Honey Creme Mochi Mochi Donuts

1 large egg, beaten

1/8 cup honey

1 tbsp sugar

1/3 cup milk

1/2 tsp lemon zest

2 tsp lemon juice

85 g Mochiko sweet rice flour

1 tsp baking powder

35 g butter, melted and cooled

Extra sugar for dusting pans

PREPARE OVEN AND PANS

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.  Grease pans with butter and dust with sugar.

PREPARE BATTER

Whisk together the egg, honey, milk, lemon juice and zest in a bowl until well combined.  Whisk in mochiko and baking powder until combined. Lastly, whisk in butter.

ASSEMBLE

Scoop batter into a pastry bag fitted with a large plain tip.  Pipe batter into donut pans and bake in a preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until golden.  Let stand for a few minutes, then run a toothpick or knife along the edges to loosen donuts.  Remove donuts from pan to cool. 

Let donuts cool completely before decorating.