Page 30 – Izy Hossack – Top With Cinnamon

Samoa Baked Donuts

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!

Crunchy Sweet Potato ‘French Toast’ Fries

Yup, I totally went there. Oven baked fries now got even better. Sweet potato coated in crushed cornflakes, graham crackers and cinnamon-sugar, and served hot from the oven with maple syrup.

It’s like a ‘french’ food mashup : fries and toast

Cinnamon Roll Pull Apart Bread

I needed the perfect opportunity to make this, and believe me, when you’re in the middle of exams, you need some of this cinnamon goodness to pull you through the next two weeks.This really is perfect. It’s extra cinnamony and the swirled dough means pulling the bread apart is even more fun!

Mmmm, just look at those coils of pillowy soft dough, uncurling as you pull apart each layer…

The satisfaction of doing that is well worth having to wait for it to rise. I thought I might as well brush on a vanilla glaze too, just for the heck of it. Oh and for leftovers (ha, probably no chance of that but…), can you imagine how good this bread would be for french toast!? Any excuse to eat this for breakfast, and I’m in. Just look at it, come on, you know it’s your destiny to eat this.

Anyway, you don’t need me distracting you from baking this right. now. Get mixing!

Cinnamon Jam Bran Muffins

Ha, I love saying that.

Jam Bran

It’s a pretty satisfying thing to say, as are these muffins to eat. They’re moist, light and slightly crumbly with a cakey texture. They’re topped with plenty of cinnamon and sugar and swirled through with the jam of your choice (raspberry for me, as per ushe)

They were going to actually just have raspberries in them, like the raspberry bran muffin I had at Bird Bath in New York. However after I realised that in fact the large bag in the freezer was actually full of loganberries, I was forced to use jam instead. I ended up liking my mistake, but if you want, you can replace the jam with about 1 cup of fresh fruit folded into the batter.

Little Lemon-Pistachio-Cornmeal Cakes

It’s almost Christmas!

That was fast, I didn’t even get the chance to count down the days.

But anyway, to feed my lemon obsession, and after being told about this flavour combination by my brother, it was decided that these bright little cakes would be the perfect Christmas Eve dessert following an untraditional meal of Tapas.

This colour combination of bright green pistachios and the yellow cake is so refreshing, and I love love love baking things in mini loaf pans! Aww they’re so sweet!

Happy Holidays!

Baked Cinnamon Vanilla Donuts (plus DIY donut pan)

Sometimes, a girl just needs a cinnamon covered donut.

Like now, seriously. Now.

I didn’t want to be kneading, rolling out or frying dough for hours. I wanted a cake donut, brushed with warm, melted butter, and rolled in extra special cinnamon and sugar, infused with vanilla.

That’s what I wanted. But alas, there was a problem. I don’t actually have a donut pan.

This was not going to hold me back, if you can’t beat them, join them I say. (By them I mean the people who make the donut pans). Although I can’t hammer steel into donut shapes, I do have a brain, my hands and a roll of aluminium foil. Good enough for me!

I wanted to keep this idea to myself at first. However after eating every last grain of cinnamon sugar off my hands once I had eaten a donut (or two), I was feeling more generous, so decided to share it on here.

If you have a donut pan (lucky face), then I don’t know why you’re not making donuts right now! But seriously, then you can then skip the pan making part, and get right to the recipe. If not, read on!

DIY Donut Pans
(this looks long but takes only 15 minutes to do)

You will need:
Aluminium Foil
Paper towels / tissues / paper
Tape
Scissors

First, we’re going to make a donut shape to form the mold around:

Take your paper towels/tissues/paper and roll up into a cylinder.

Wrap the foil around it tightly until you get a cylinder whos diameter is as thick as you want your donuts to be.

Curve the cylinder round into a circle (you can trim the ends to make the donut smaller so the hole in the middle of the donut is narrower).

Secure ends with tape.

Voila, your finished foil donut!

Now for the actual molds:

Cut a large sheet of foil out and fold in half.

Cut it in two so you now have two pices of folded in half foil.

Center one of these pieces on top of the foil donut you just made and carefully push it into the middle of the donut, making sure you don’t tear the foil sheet. Then tightly form the foil around the edges of the donut.

Roughly trim the edges off the mold.

Remove the foil donut from the foil around it.

Form the scraps of foil into a ball you can use to help you form the center of the next donut mold you make.

Repeat until you have enough donut molds ( I made 6 because I got bored, but this recipe needs about 12)

Cookie Dough Cake Balls

Date and Walnut Loaf

Easy Overnight Danish Pastry Dough

Carrot Streusel Muffins

Now that it’s getting colder here, it’s always a good idea to have muffins around, especially big, streusely, dome topped muffins. It’s also a great time for baking; Being able to stand by a warm oven and stuff warm food into your face, perfecto!

These are definitely autumnal muffins, with earthy flavors and colors from oat bran, cinnamon and carrots.

The raisins and streusel bring texture and sweetness to the muffins, creating a perfect balance of soft, moist and crunchy.

Of course, just like any carrot cake, you have many ways to make these muffins extra special. You don’t have to just stick with the obvious additions like pineapple, coconut or pecans; Experiment with different spices, dried fruits, zests and glazes. Go wild!

Bite Sized Pop-Tarts

Mini versions of food are so much cooler than normal sized food, you can eat more of them, hold more of them, have more variation and they look adorable.

Seeming I already have experience in making miniature foods, these were pretty easy to make. Luckily I had a friend helping me out so they were faster to make (and eat).

They’re so cute and small, aww, look at the little sprinkles 🙂
They’re like little gooey filled bits of popcorn and are perfect for snacking on, especially cos you don’t even have to commit to a certain flavor so you can make them fit your craving! We love these flavours

– nutella
– chocolate
– cinnamon + sugar
– raspberry jam
– cinnamon, sugar + raisins

However, the possibilities are endless! You can change up the cookie dough (I opted for a very plain dough so as not to overpower the fillings), e.g. adding cocoa powder, using sugar cookie dough, using pastry, using homemade graham cracker dough, gingerbread, lemon sugar cookies, adding cinnamon etc..

Or change the fillings, use marshamallow fluff, dried fruits, different types of chocolate, frangipane, jams, cookie doughs, lemon curd, nut butters, meringue…

Frost with different things like toasted marshmallow frosting stuff, buttercream, melted chocolate, coffee glaze, maple glaze, finely chopped nuts, grate chocolate, lemon zest

ahh the list goes on and on. Whatevs you be a-wanting, these be a-giving.

Make sure you have someone else to share these with so you don’t end up eating them all, it’s quite easy to end up inhaling more than you first intended…

they all gone now, sad times

*note: these can totally be eaten for breakfast just like cereal, delish!

Double Chocolate and Peanut Butter Muffins (with DIY pb chips)

School has both upsides and down sides. You get a cold within the first week of going back, just in time for the weekend, ruining your plans. But that means, you now have time to make you some good old comfort food!

Comfort food has to be one of the best things ever when you’re ill.

For me, double chocolate muffins are it, you always know they’ll taste good no matter what and you can always seem to find somewhere that sells them.

Mini Muffin 🙂

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