Baked Raspberry Nutella Swirl Doughnuts

Kristin here again! With Valentine's Day coming up, I've been giving a lot of thought about trying new fruit and chocolate pairings. With it being another Saturday morning, I was also giving a lot of thought to doughnuts. These Raspberry Nutella doughnuts are the results. Well, they were. Before we ate them. The nice thing about these doughnuts is that even though there are a number of ingredients, they're all things that are commonly already in the pantry, and this is pretty much a mix-and-bake recipe. 

For the doughnuts you need flour, sugar, cinnamon, baking powder, a little salt, butter, an egg, milk, preserves, and Nutella. I decided to use raspberry preserves because raspberries and chocolate make me happy, but I bet these would be great with almost any fruit. The glaze needs powdered sugar, vanilla, a dash of salt, milk, and I threw some leftover preserves in there too. 

First things first, the obligatory mixed powders shot. Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. 

Once it's fairly homogenous, create a well in the middle of the powder. 

Put the milk, egg, and melted butter in the well. 

Mix until all ingredients are incorporated. The dough will be sticky. 

Now it's time for the preserves. I started with a couple tablespoons, mixed it up, and then decided that I wanted a little more of the flavor. It's not an exact science so just add more until you like how it tastes. 

Once it's all mixed in the dough will be considerably wetter, but that's okay. 

Now here's a step where I tried getting a little fancy. I've tried just using a spoon to fill up the doughnut pan, and it makes a gigantic mess. It can also make it really difficult to fill the pan evenly. Piping is definitely the way to go. Because I wanted ribbons of Nutella swirled throughout the doughnuts, I didn't just mix it into the dough. Instead what I did was smear two spoonfuls of Nutella along the side seem of my Ziplock/piping bag. 

Then I filled the rest of the bag with the dough. When you cut off the corner and start piping, the dough pulls a ribbon of Nutella out with it and creates beautiful swirls.  Before you start piping, make sure you grease your doughnut pan!

Although some of them looked more like beautiful globs. 

I filled my pan all the way the top, and it was enough dough for six fairly large doughnuts. You could fill them less full and make more doughnuts that are smaller. 

Because the consistency of the dough and the consistency of the Nutella are so different, it came out of the piping bag a little unevenly. When I saw this, I thought I'd give my tasty ribbons a little swirly help by running a toothpick around center of the doughnut. While this step is probably unnecessary, it certainly made the swirl a lot more pronounced, and it seemed to help distribute the Nutella throughout the entire doughnut.

These doughnuts are post toothpick-swirl. 

 Isn't that pretty? Now these are ready for the oven! Oh, did I mention that you should preheat the oven to 425 degrees? If you haven't done that yet, go do that now. They bake quickly, so they should be done in just about 8 to 10 minutes.
 

While the doughnuts are baking, you can whip up the glaze. Just mix the powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, and milk with the whisk. Because I felt daring I threw in a couple teaspoons of the raspberry preserves, and it really worked.

The edges of the doughnuts are light brown, and the tops of the doughnuts are springy to the touch. Time to take them out of the oven and let them cool. You should be able to get the doughnuts out of the pan just by turning the pan over above the cooling rack. If a little Nutella got stuck on the bottom of the pan they might require a little more convincing.

After about five minutes, dunk the doughnut into the glaze and then return to the cooling rack so the glaze can set. 

It is a beautiful sight. 

I will be honest with you. These doughnuts didn't last long enough for the glaze to set.  That meant that they were very sticky but oh, so worth it.

Beautiful swirl action. 

The raspberry added to the glaze is delicious and it adds a nice pop of color. 

 Po was really hoping for a recipe that involved pork. Or beef. Or chicken. Or bacon. 

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!


Recipe: Baked Raspberry Nutella Swirl Doughnuts
Prep Time: 45-60 Minutes | Cook Time: 8-10 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 2-3

Ingredients

Doughnuts:

• 1 cup Flour
• 1/3 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon 
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1/3 cup Milk
• 1 Egg
• 1 tbsp melted Butter
• 3-4 tbsp Raspberry Preserves
• 3 tbsp Nutella

Glaze: 

• 2 cups Powered Sugar
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Vanilla
• 1/3 cup Milk
• Optional: 1-2 tbsp Raspberry Preserves

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F, and grease your doughnut pan.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Create a well in the middle of the mixture.
3. Add milk, egg, and butter to the well and mix into the dry ingredients. Mix in 3-4 tablespoons of raspberry preserves, depending on how you want it to taste.
4. Smear two spoonfuls of Nutella on the inside of a pastry bag. (I used a Ziplock bag.)  Fill the rest of the bag with dough. Cut the corner off the bag and pipe the dough into the doughnut pan.
5. Optional Step: Swirl the Nutella in the dough with a toothpick.
6. Bake doughnuts for 8-10 minutes, until the doughnuts spring back when you touch them. Allow to cool on a rack for about five minutes.
7. To make the glaze combine powdered sugar, salt, vanilla, milk, and raspberry preserves. When doughnuts had cooled, dunk them in the glaze. Put the doughnuts back on the rack to let the glaze set. 
8. Devour. Be happy.