Banana Doughnuts with Peanut Butter Glaze

So, those of you who read the daily blog will know I've gone a bit doughnut mad lately! This started off wanting to re-make my original doughnuts without the egg replacer - something I no longer use. The first attempt was only ok but a bit chewy - this was mostly my fault in overcooking them. This led to me thinking about banana as an egg replacer and simply making banana doughnuts. The obvious glaze that came to mind here was a peanut butter glaze - and that stuff is amazing!! If you are not into doughnuts (!) I would still highly recommend pouring this glaze over a loaf of banana bread. That would be stunning!

Now my son is never overly keen on peanut butter flavoured things so I also made these with a chocolate glaze. It's the same chocolate glaze I used on the original doughnut post and works equally well with the banana doughnut.

I further started to think about filled doughnuts, as I had jam filled ones in the original post and only one filling came to mind for a banana flavoured doughnut - nutella. These were stunning! Now, I have cheated here and used store bought vegan nutella. Yes, we are very lucky here in Ireland as Spar's own label hazelnut spread is "accidentally vegan" AND cheaper than Nutella :-) But, there are loads of recipes out there for vegan nutella for you to use.

Banana Doughnuts with Peanut Butter Glaze

Yields 12 ring doughnuts

1 x 7g sachet quick rise yeast

400g flour

180ml / 3/4 cup unsweetened soy milk

50g / 1/4 cup vegan butter

56g / 1/4 cup golden caster sugar

130g / 1/2 cup mashed very ripe bananas

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/8 tsp nutmeg - optional

1/4 tsp salt

vegetable oil to fry

Heat the soy milk, vegan butter and sugar in a saucepan until the butter melts and sugar dissolves, stir in the vanilla extract. Transfer to another bowl and let cool to between 130F. Best to use a cooking thermomenter here, if not, you want it hand hot. The liquid when using quick rise yeast should be between 120 - 130F which is hotter than when using active dry yeast.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, yeast, salt and nutmeg. Pour the milk mixture over and stir well, add the banana and fold in well. The mixture will be somewhat wet here and you should have a shaggy dough. Sprinkle a bit of flour on a surface and add the dough, gently knead, adding a bit more flour until you just have a manageable dough and can shape it into a smooth ball. Resist the temptation to add too much extra flour here, you don't want a dry dough.

Grease a large bowl and add the dough, cover with cling film and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.

Punch the dough down, knead a couple times then roll out 1/2" thick. Cut out doughnut shapes with a doughnut cutter, or fashion your own! For the filled doughnuts simply shape into flattish balls. Re-roll scraps and cut our more shapes until it is all used. Place the doughnuts on a floured baking sheet lined with baking paper, cover loosely with oiled cling film and leave to rise in a warm place for 1/2 hour.

Now, get your glazes ready and get the oil on to fry.

Peanut Butter Glaze

1/3 cup smooth peanut butter (80g)

1 cup icing sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla

about 3 Tbsp hot water

Mix the peanut butter together with the vanilla then add some of the hot water and mix, it will turn thick and grainy here but don't worry. Add the icing sugar and the rest of the water and mix well.

Chocolate Glaze

1 Tbsp vegan butter

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/8 tsp vanilla

20ml hot water (1 Tbsp + 1 tsp)

50g plain or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped

Add everything to a bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until it all comes together in a syrupy glaze. Transfer to another bowl to cool slightly and thicken up before glazing.

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Use a large high sided pot and fill half way up with oil, heat to 350F. Carefully transfer the doughnut to a heat safe spatula (do not use plastic!) and lower into the oil. As these doughnuts are quite soft, I found it easiest to cut around the baking paper the doughnut is lying on then flip it upside down onto the spatula and remove the paper then lower into the oil. Fry each doughnut for about 1 or 2 minutes a side, until they are golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack covered in paper towels and repeat with the remaining doughnuts.

2013 Edit - Yes, I've just made these again and wanted to try them baked as some of you have asked if they can be. The answer is YES! After they are shaped and have had their second rise remove the cling film, give them a spray with cooking spray and pop into a preheated 200C oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until golden brown and well risen, mine took 12 minutes.They turned out really well, great flavour and texture, not sure I'll even bother deep frying again! Once out of the oven dip them while warm into the glazes.

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Give the glazes another good whisk then take a warm doughnut and dip the top into the glaze. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with baking paper and repeat with the remaining doughnuts. I found the peanut butter ones needed another dip once the first glaze set.

For the filled doughnuts, fill a pastry bag with a long nozzle with the nutella. Insert into the doughnut and move it around a bit to make room then squeeze the nutella in until it is coming out. Best to do these once the doughnuts cool so that the nutella doesn't turn to liquid. As you can guess, this happened to me :-)

Let the doughnuts fully cool and the glaze set then enjoy. These will keep only for a day or two before getting too dry. The next day we microwaved them for 20 seconds to get them warm and soft again :-) 

Also - the second time I made these it was summer and my kitchen was very hot. As a result, when I woke up the next morning the peanut butter glaze had melted off the doughnuts! The chocolate glaze was fine but just a note that if you have made these in a hot kitchen you should store the peanut butter ones in the fridge :-)

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Nutritional Information:

(based on 1 peanut butter glazed ring doughnut)

Calories: 303 (235 if you bake them)

Fat: 11.8g (5.3g if you bake them, rest of the figures are more or less the same.)

Sat Fat: 1.7g

Protein: 5.5g

Fibre: 2.1g

Carbs: 43.7g

Sugar: 16.5g

Sodium: 100mg

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