Baked Cardamom Donuts with Cinnamon Sugar

These baked cardamom donuts are light as air on the inside and have a delicate and crunchy sugar shell on the outside. What sets them apart is the fact that the fragrant cardamom in the donut is paired with a little bit of cinnamon in the sugar shell. The combination of the two spices creates incredible flavor and makes these donuts special.

In this recipe, use cold milk and cold egg:

This recipe uses melted butter and conventional baking wisdom usually says to use milk and eggs at room temperature when mixing them with melted butter. That's because when you add melted butter to cold ingredients, the butter will solidify into tiny clumps. Often, that leads to uneven mixing of the batter and a denser texture in the baked good. For things like cakes and cookies that is generally not preferable. For this donut recipe though, I recommend to use cold milk and egg. Why? Because I did a side-by-side test and the batter I made with cold ingredients produced a texture in the donut that I liked better.

I photographed the inside of the two donut versions I made and posted the photo below. You can see that the cold ingredient batch rose a little less and produced a slightly denser crumb. The donuts were still light and airy but had a firmer texture. While that would not be desirable in a cake, in this donut I preferred the firmer, less fluffy texture.

Photos of the recipe process:

See ingredient amounts in the full recipe below.

Step 1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously brush 9 donut pan wells with melted vegetable shortening.

Step 2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cardamom, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Step 3. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg and sugar.

Step 4. Whisk milk and melted, cooled butter into the egg mix.

Step 5. Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Step 6. Using either two spoons or a piping bag, divide the batter into the 9 wells of the donut pans. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Step 7. Let the donuts cool completely in the pans. Whisk together sugar and cinnamon. Carefully unmold the donuts, then brush them on one side with melted butter.

Step 8. Dip the brushed side into the cinnamon sugar to coat.

More cardamom sweets:

• For another recipe that combines cinnamon and cardamom try these no-knead cinnamon rolls with apricot cardamom cream cheese frosting.
• This apple frangipane tart with cranberries, orange and cardamom is a delicious winter Holiday dessert.
• This cardamom lemon cake is light, delicate and not overly sweet.