Bites from the 'Burg - Suzy Q Doughnuts

Happy Easter (Monday)! I decided my co-workers probably wouldn't be too appreciative of a bunch of baking the day after Easter so, instead of making something new, I thought I'd tell you about one of my favorite places in my neighborhood - Suzy Q Doughnuts. 

Sugar Munkki

Chocolate Coconut Doughnuts

I've had doughnuts on the brain lately. With Suzy Q's opening up around the corner from my place, and the endless Twitter chatter about their delicious doughnuts, they seem to be constantly in the back of my mind these days. 

Cinnamon Roll Pancakes

I have been waiting for quite awhile to make a pumpkin cinnamon roll pancake recipe I found online. This morning I came up with an idea to make the whole process easier. I removed the pumpkin from the equation and used my favorite President's Choice "just add water" buttermilk pancake mix instead of making them from scratch.

I know pancakes from scratch aren't difficult. I just figure, why make them from scratch when I like the results from the box just as much? I'm usually only making one large pancake and the mix lets me make just enough for myself without wasting a ton of extra ingredients. In an effort to spice things up a bit I added cinnamon filling and maple syrup glaze to my standard boxed mix.

Cinnamon Sugar Filling

Half the recipe as posted on RecipeGirl

enough for about 8 5 inch pancakes

1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

• In a small bowl, mix butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Scoop the filling into a small zip baggie and set aside until cooled and thickened
• It's best if it becomes a consistency similar to toothpaste

 

Use your favorite pancake recipe or mix. Pour the batter into a preheated pan. Let the pancake cook for a minute before swirling the cinnamon filling around the top of the pancake. Flip when the bubbles pop and the surface looks dry.

I ended up having to use a disposable piping bag after busting the seams on two different baggies. Only made four 5 inch pancakes so I had quite a bit of filling left. I wrapped it up in the piping bag and put it in the fridge. There isn't anything perishable in it so I'm going to see if I can keep it and use it another time.

Icing Sugar Glaze

1 teaspoon butter, softened

1 tablespoon maple syrup

a splash of milk

1/2 cup of icing sugar

• Mix all ingredients together with a fork or whisk until smooth
• If the mix is too thick, add a tiny bit of milk at a time until you reach the consistency you like
• If the mix is too thin, add icing sugar by the tablespoon until you reach the consistency you like 

Top your pancakes with as much, or as little, glaze as you'd like and enjoy!

  

I thought these were pretty tasty. I did feel like the filling was a little bit of a pain to make. However, I probably feel that way because I was starving and the filling took awhile to get to the "toothpaste" consistency the recipe called for. I would recommend making the filling about half an hour before you want to make the pancakes to give it time to cool down. I ended up throwing mine in the freezer for a few minutes because I was so impatient. If you're planning to feed a crowd for brunch I think the effort would certainly be worth the reward. 

What's your favorite breakfast for a lazy Sunday?

Double Chocolate Baked Doughnuts

The other night I was craving chocolate. I was also extremely bored and it was still pretty early in the evening so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make something to satisfy my craving. After a quick internet search I found the solution to my problem - double chocolate baked doughnuts. Ever since I made my first batch of cinnamon sugar doughnuts I've been waiting for the right time to try some more.

I found a good looking recipe on the blog, Milk & Honey. These turned out to be a great solution for a weeknight baking endeavor. They came together really quickly and I had all of the ingredients in the cupboard. I did hold myself back a little and decided I'd only make half the recipe. It was a pretty easy recipe to cut in half. A quick tip - when I half a recipe that only calls for one egg, I just use the white. I figure it's probably about half the egg and the healthier half to boot. Alternatively, you could whisk up a whole egg and measure out half of it. 

Ready for the oven

 

I had the same problem with these as I did with the cinnamon sugar doughnuts. I had a really hard time getting them out of the pan. You can see a few chunks out of a couple of them where I had to pry them out of the pan. It might also have something to do with my impatience. I tried to get these out of the pan ASAP thinking that would keep them from sticking. It probably hurt more than it helped. I really need to invest in some cooking spray. 

The glaze for these doughnuts was super easy too. The recipe calls for melting the chocolate chips, corn syrup, butter, and vanilla in a double boiler on the stove. Instead, I just threw it all in a glass mixing bowl and melted it in the microwave. Take it out and stir every 30 seconds until everything is melted. Simple as that. The doughnuts were dipped in the glaze and sprinkled with different toppings. I always have sprinkles on hand and noticed I had a few toffee bit in the cupboard so I used those too. 

Toffee bits

Sprinkles make me happy

 

These were delicious. The texture was lighter and they tasted more like the "real thing" that you'd get at a coffee shop than the cinnamon doughnuts did. The glaze had good flavor and wasn't too sweet. I would certainly make these again. They became a bit messy because I threw them in a container while the glaze was still pretty soft. Like I said, I'm impatient. 

Do you ever throw something together to satisfy a craving?