Donut Cookies

Sounds like a win-win. A cookie that looks like a donut. Our inspiration came from a kids magazine, which my daughter got ages ago. She wanted to follow the recipe in the magazine, even though I have the perfect cookie recipe….

I went along with her plan, but wished I’d used my recipe 😉 The cookies turned out fine but they didn’t hold their shape as well as my dough. So I’ll share my dough recipe and instructions how to make donut cookies. Being a bit of a perfectionist, I would have liked to make the cookies again, with perfect rounds. I’ll resist, we’ve a list of recipes to test and share, so will just share our slightly imperfect ones instead.

My daughter decorated them with a friend (before social distancing, guess I have to state that. These pictures are actually from a 2019). The girls enjoyed being creative and showing each other their cookies.

Note – my cookie dough would have made better donuts. Yep, think I mentioned that before. Anyway here goes. It’s a recipe, which I’ve shared before as I swear by it.

Ingredients:

100 g butter at room temp ( I use unsalted)
100 g castor sugar
1 beaten egg (I use large)
275 g Plain Flour
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 190 (170 fan) and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Using a wooden spoon (or an electric mixer), beat the butter and sugar together until they are light and fluffy.
Add the beaten egg, a little at a time, until all the egg is absorbed in the mixture.
Stir in the vanilla essence
Sieve the flour into the mixture and stir to form a soft dough. Use your hands to bring the crumbs together.
Wrap in clingfilm. Leave to chill in fridge for 30 mins, this makes it easier to roll out
Place dough on floured surface and roll out until it is 1cm thick.
Use a circle shaped cookie/scone cutter, cut out circles. Using a smaller cutter cut out a ‘hole’ in the centre of the donut and place on lined tray. We used the back of an icing nozzle (as seen in picture below) for the centre of the donut. You can re-roll the unused dough to create more cookies.
Bake in the oven for 10 mins or until light golden brown.
Leave to cool for 5 minutes on baking tray after you remove them from the oven before transferring to a wire rack.

To decorate:

Roll out ready to roll icing and using the same size cookie cutters, repeat the shapes which you cut for the cookie dough.
Brush a little cooled boiled water on the back of the roll out fondant and place on cookie.
Press sprinkles onto the fondant cookie, while it is still soft and place to one side.
Optional – You can also make up some glace icing (using sifted icing sugar and water) to drizzle a design across the fondant and then stick little sweets onto the cookie.
Optional – You could use icing tubes, available in most supermarkets to drizzle a design too. I find these fiddly to use with kids but will include it, in case you want to try it.

Some @thecakemum observations/tips:

I often double the dough quantity. I freeze half the dough in a plastic bag. I then defrost it in the fridge overnight and bake as above – a handy treat to have in the freezer
The cookies keep well. Once left to air dry (a few hours on a kitchen counter), I place them in a tin or ziplock bag.
They are a nice gift as they are very tasty with a cup of tea/coffee

Happy Baking and #stayhome x

De (aka thecakemum)

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