… Otherwise known as A Happy Accident.
Long story short, these were supposed to be muffins but I couldn’t find my beloved muffin tin. After tearing my place apart, mumbling a few choice words under my breathe, and slamming every IKEA cabinet in my kitchen, the dang tin never showed up. And goodness knows where it is! For all I know, my kitchen gadgets could have a party out there every night while I’m sleeping, like in Toy Story. Maybe the tins just forgot about curfew? Needless to say, I’ll probably wind up finding it in the oddest of places months from now.
After searching high and low for far too long, I decided to just make them into donuts because, evidently, my donut pan is a lady and comes home after a crazy night… unlike little Ms. Muffin Tin.
Don’t ask why I’m naming kitchen gadgets… it’s been a long day 😉
I loved the idea of these muffins/donuts because if you’re going to eat a baked good, why not include some veggies? Especially zucchini and carrots, two of my favorites, that both add a great deal of moisture. I very loosely followed this recipe from Whole Living. I used it as a base for measurements but definitely switched several things up according to my own tastes and what I had available in my kitchen.
Here’s what you need:
Makes about 8 donuts
• Vegetable-oil cooking spray
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup toasted wheat germ
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and grated
• 1 large zucchini, peeled and grated
• 1/2 cup vanilla Greek yogurt (Sues and I are literally obsessed with Cabot’s. It’s pretty unreal.)
• 2 large eggs, separated
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest
Here’s what you do:
Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray your donut pan (or muffin tin, if you’re making muffins!) with cooking spray.
In a small bowl, mix together the flours, wheat germ, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
In a large bowl, combine the carrots, zucchini, yogurt, egg yolks, syrup, and orange zest.
Slowly begin to fold the flour mixture into the carrot mixture until combined.
Beat the egg whites until shiny, stiff peaks form. I swear I have a REAL whisk, too. I just really enjoy my lil’ pig one!
Gently fold the egg whites into the carrot mixture.
Now you can begin to spoon or pour the batter into your prepared donut pan or muffin tins.
If you’re making donuts, bake for about 10 minutes. If you’re making muffins, you’ll want to bake a bit longer since the muffin tin isn’t as shallow as the donut pan, about 25 minutes. Be fully prepared for your kitchen to smell like, well, Heaven. To check for doneness, insert a toothpick into the center of one to make sure it comes out clear.
As my donuts were baking, I decided to make a frosting for them, too. Because I felt like it. They’re absolutely perfect plain, since they’re filled with such great flavors, but a little frosting never hurt anyone, now did it? Unfrosted, they make a great breakfast. Frosted they make a good dessert. It’s okay to eat two in one day because they have veggies in them. And whole wheat flour. And wheat germ 🙂
I decided to incorporate the Cabot vanilla Greek yogurt into the frosting, really, because I wanted another excuse to eat it. I took about 1/2 cup of the yogurt and mixed it with 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, a few dashes of vanilla, and let it sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes to thicken up.
Then, I dipped the donut into the yogurt frosting.
Then, I immediately devoured said muffiny donut.
You see, sometimes mistakes actually lead you to something better. Although I do love a muffin, I kind of think donuts are just more fun!
What’s your favorite happy accident in the kitchen? Or in life in general?
[Chels]
I haven’t tried cabbots greek- I will put it on my list! I think its pretty awesome that these turned into donuts by accident- they look totally yummy. My favorite happy cooking accidents usually come from having to find a random substitute for an ingredient when you’re halfway through a recipe and realize you don’t have something you need!
These donuts look so perfect and a nice change from muffins! OMG too numerous to even think!
ha this looks like the perfect “mistake”!
I have a grapefruit knife that seems to travel too. Here one day, gone the next. 🙂
Looks like you didn’t need a muffin tin anyway…love the idea of donuts! And such healthy ones too.
these were delicious! and i loovve that yogurt too! 🙂
Everytime I see a donut recipe I tell myself to buy one. Now I REALLY want one! These look amazing. I love that you combined both carrot and zucchini in there.
all these donut recipes are killing me! These look so good 🙂
I’m loving this! I never thought there could be a “healthy” donut that would make me forget a good Krispy Kreme….but I think this could do it!
I have to experiment with this sometime soon! What a great way to improve traditional doughnuts!
This ended up being a *really* healthy doughnut! Nice work. My biggest kitchen blunder turned blessing was when I omitted flour entirely from a banana bread recipe. Incredibly enough, it didn’t turn out like bread. Instead it was a sweet, banana-y, mushy mess… that ended up being excellent on ice cream. You live and you learn!
I’ve been wanting a doughnut pan FOREVER and the idea of baked carrot doughnuts sounds like the perfect excuse to finally pull the trigger. These look amazing!
I recently had a kitchen mistake gone right as well. What was supposed to be cookie dough almond butter turned into chocolate almond butter when I stirred the chocolate into the still-warm almond butter. A delicious accident, just like your doughnuts :).
I need to seek out that Cabot Greek yogurt. I love their cheeses!
These look amazing! Bet they’d also be great with some kid of nut or raisin mixed in….?
I love that my brain says healthy, but my eyes say Tasty Treat!! 🙂
“Ms. Muffin Tin” oh its been a long day indeed. that line cracked me up!
P.S. I think you just invented a new movie. “Kitchen Story”. Lets sell it to Pixar.
Any baked good with zucchini in it is always great in my book! These look fantastic!
Anything is fun in donut form! What a great idea!
Ehehehe….great post. 😉
These look delicious. I’m going to have to try out the zucchini/carrot combo. The yogurt frosting is very unusual, what a neat idea.
Toss the muffin tin! keep the donut pan!
I keep seeing your doughnut pan and wanting to run out to Sur La Table and getting one! damn… and last night i totally had a carrot cake doughnut from doughnut plant that was life changing.
I think this is even BETTER than muffins. You could totally fool people into thinking these are sweet donuts!
You know, everything happens for a reason. I think your muffin tin ran off in order to leave you and the donut pan alone long enough to create beautiful donuts together 🙂 haha… ok I’m just being cheesy. These look awesome.
What a fabulous mistake to make!…These look so moist and yummy. I’ve really been wanting to make donuts but we don’t have a donut pan 🙁 I’ll try out those muffins though!
LOVE that you named your kitchenware. These do look great.
I am so excited about this! I make carrot muffins almost every week, this is all the convincing I need to go out and get a donut pan!
Donuts are more fun! And they baked faster, so that’s a plus too! I love carrot cake so I bet I’d be a huge fan of these.
Ms. muffin tin sounds like a bit of a floozy. Haha. I think the donuts are SO cute. I would take them over muffins any day!