COOKING: Maple Bacon Protein Doughnuts

Is this… health food? Well, not exactly, but no hydrogenated oils and a little extra protein in these maple bacon doughnuts make these a less naughty than most store-bought options? But of course, foods are morally neutral (although some are more delicious than others)… “health” food is a fuzzy concept at best and a harmful one at worst.  

And let’s be real. This is comfort food, and we don’t really care. Should these replace your daily oatmeal or eggs or kale smoothie (or whatever)? Probably not. Is it a delicious treat for a lazy Sunday brunch? You bet! Sometimes, you gotta treat yo’self. Self care, and all that. So, it’s time to make the doughnuts! 

The maple bacon doughnuts are a yeast dough, but made with high-protein whole grain Kodiak cake pancake mix, and so have a dense but lighter cake doughnut texture and yeast dough flavor. There were no complaints!

The Maple Bacon protein doughnuts were adapted from this recipe, with some adaptations. I substituted brown sugar for half the granulated sugar, added a bit more mix (the dough was extremely wet, which you want for a light doughnut, but they definitely needed a bit more dry ingredients to come together into even a shaggy dough). I added vanilla and maple extract to the frosting and a bit of lemon juice and Himalayan pink salt… it was still a bit flat, but the acidity and salt helped balance the sweetness.

These were good, and dense, and satisfying, but I am not sure they’ll make it into the regular rotation. Maple bacon doughnuts are my favorite, and while these were good, they’re not the fluffy yeasted clouds I was hoping for. This batch was a bit overproofed, so maybe I will give them another shot, though? You know. For SCIENCE.