Samoa Baked Donuts

samoabakeddonut-17

I have found it, my true soul of the baking world, beautiful to photograph, ridiculously simple to make and so indescribably special to eat. Samoa baked donut, you are mine forever.

I could eat the whole dozen in one day, I’m serious, but alas, it’s my turn to bring something in for ‘mystery cake day’ at school tomorrow (just a random arrangement between me and my friend), so these donuts are fated to be eaten by others instead.

(…Could I eat some more and pretend that I only made a half batch?)

They are just so incredibly amazing, the donut is soft and fluffy, the chocolate is slightly bitter and the caramel…oh the caramel… it’s a godsend. If you have the time, I strongly recommend that you make it yourself using coconut milk, it’s completely worth it. But if you’re pressed for time, go for the easier method so you can get your samoa fix quicker.
They’re the perfect size too, large enough to just last through that cup of coffee.
I made them using my diy donut pan method (which I made a little smaller this time) and they were the perfect size for a batch of 12 mini donuts (I think about 4-6 cm in diameter). Feel free to make them in a larger donut pan, however, you would get less donuts (nooo!) and you’d have to bake them a little longer. Plus small things are extra awesome.
Just promise me that you’ll make these, okay? Yeah, promise?
Great, enjoy!


Samoa Baked Donuts

makes 12 mini donuts

1 cup (4.6 oz / 130g) flour
3/4 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of baking soda
1/4 cup (2 oz / 55g) butter
6 tbsp sugar
1 small egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp yogurt
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
Caramel coconut topping (easy method)
6 oz (170g) soft caramels
1-2 tbsp milk
1/4 desiccated coconut
3.5 oz (100g) dark chocolate
Stir together the flour, yeast, baking powder, salt and baking soda in a small bowl, set aside.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and grease a mini donut pan (or learn how to make your own here, just make the foil donut shape about 5 cm in diameter).
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Then beat in the egg, vanilla and yogurt.
Stir in 1/3 of the flour mixture, then mix in half the milk. Repeat this until you’ve added all of the flour mixture and the milk.
Pipe the mixture into the prepared donut pan and leave to rest for 5 minutes while you put everything away.
Bake the donuts for 10-15 minutes until puffy and golden brown. Remove the donuts from the pan after 5 minutes, and put them on a cooling rack.
For the caramel coconut topping (easy method):
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
Put the unwrapped caramels and milk in a small sauce pan and heat gently whilst stirring until the caramels have completely melted (alternatively you can melt them in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl : heat on high for 2 minutes, remove the bowl and stir the mixture, then return to the microwave for a further 1 – 2 minutes and stir again).
Spread the desiccated coconut out on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven for 5 minutes, stirring it often, until it becomes a slight golden-beige colour. Stir the toasted coconut into the caramel. You might have to gently reheat this mixture to keep it fluid enough for dipping, but if you work quickly, you should be fine.
Dip the top of a donut (carefully!) into the caramel topping, turn it right side up, and place on the cooling rack  (you can spoon any extra caramel on now, that’s cool with me). Repeat until all the donuts have been dipped. Whilst the caramel cools, melt the chocolate.
Either melt it in the microwave, in a microwave safe bowl, for about 1 minute, stirring it every 30 seconds;
or put it in a heat proof bowl, then place the bowl over a gently simmering pan of water and stir the chocolate until it’s completely.
Line a cookie sheet with grease proof paper. Dip the very bottom of each donut into the chocolate and place them on the lined cookie sheet. Then take a fork and drizzle them with the remaining chocolate. Let the chocolate cool and set at room temperature, then store in an airtight container (just fyi, they’re best on the day you make them)

47 thoughts on “Samoa Baked Donuts”

    • Once I ate these I ate 13 then i puked but it was worth it because it tasted like the donuts too lol

  1. O. M. G. I came across your post through Tastespotting and wow, these are heaven sent. I can’t begin to describe how good these look! And I noticed you made the Samoa Vupcakes and I made the same recipe as well and absolutely fell in love.

    I pinned this recipe, I can not WAIT to try these! And glad to be your newest follower 🙂

    • Aw, thanks 🙂 I’m always glad to get a new follower! Yeah, those cupcakes were so good! (unfortunately, my photography skill 6 months ago weren’t….)

  2. Oh my god, you’ve turned my favorite cookie into a doughnut. That is genius. And they actually look almost identical to the cookies too, except puffier. I want to eat them off the screen.

  3. I’ve resisted the urge to buy a donut pan, but now I have to just to make these. (I’m not a DIY kind of girl)

  4. I had to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming!! Don’t let Krispy Kremes see this recipe or they’ll jack you! but then again, let them see it so I can go buy them in a hurry instead of impatiently rushing through a batch of my own 🙂

    • haha, loved the post! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve messed up recipes by leaving ingredients out :/ You’re welcome, I’m glad you tried it!

  5. The picture of your donuts has my mouth watering. I absolutely love samoas and donuts and to combine the two in genius.

  6. These look delicious!!! I love samoas! I also love to find other teen bakers out there (I am sixteen as well). Shoot me an email sometime!

  7. Oh my gosh! DIY doughnut pan – that’s perfect. I’ve been wanting a doughnut pan for a while now, just because making doughnuts in their typical shape always seems better than making them in muffin form. Thank you for the idea, and these donuts look amazing!

  8. Hello! Made the donuts today. Can’t believe you are so young and you smashed out this recipe. Nice work, lady! I’m an American living in Nottingham. I dearly miss the States so it was great to have a little taste of the beloved Samoa cookie in this form. They turned out GREAT!

    Ok….one question….why the yeast and not just leave it at the soda and powder? Think it would turn out the same w/o the yeast? Have you tried it w/o it?

    • thanks! I dunno, I just added it because I was wanting a more yeasty doughnutty taste, I have no idea if it makes a difference to the final product though, I’m sure you can leave it out – it was for flavour rather than rise.

  9. been reading recipes for baked donuts. Yours look great. One question what is desiccated coconut? In the U.S. they don’t have this that I know of. Thank you.

  10. So I made these last night and they were MAGNIFICENT!! So so delicious and they turned out just like the pictures (bonus!). Lucky I was making them for a fundraiser though, otherwise I probably would’ve eaten them all myself…haha!
    However, there was just one thing – it tasted more cake-like than a proper doughnut, but I guess that’s kind of expected when you’re baking instead of frying them.
    Regardless of that, they tasted pretty fine! So thank you for this beautiful recipe!

  11. I wanted to try baking something new so I decided to give baked donuts a go and stumbled across this recipe. I followed it to a T and made the caramel glaze using the condensed milk method (highly recommend). The caramel was absolutely delicious, if you have time, make it the long way instead of using the caramel squares. I could eat this by the spoonful. As for the actual donut part, I wasn’t sure what to expect since I’ve only ever had fried donuts. But like another review stated, the texture is more cake-like, though tasty nonetheless. Thank you for the recipe.

  12. I made these when I lived in the UK two years ago and I used Tesco caramels, plain chocolate, and the desiccated coconut. Now I am back in the US and used Kraft caramels, Hershey dark chocolate chips, and sweetened coconut. The caramel just didn’t melt the same. I was not impressed. I loved how clearish the UK caramel was. So, cheers to the UK for not using mass amounts of chemicals in their food to make it strange and nuclear. But this recipe is still phenomenal. I sprinkled christmas sprinkles on them and serving them for a christmas party tomorrow. Really does taste like a Samoa girl scout cookie!

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