Coffee Cake Donuts with Cinnamon Streusel Crumb

Weekends are meant for comfy pants, sleeping in, unwinding and these Coffee Cake Donuts with Cinnamon Streusel Crumb topping!  You owe it to yourself!  Enjoy!

Donuts vs doughnuts? When is a doughnut a doughnut and when is it a donut? Yeah…these are the things that I think about and have often had serious, in-depth discussions with fellow foodies and chefs. I personally think it’s pretty straight forward – a doughnut is something that is made from a dough typically involving yeast that is fried. A donut is more of a batter that is cake-like in texture and often baked. I could be off on my thinking but logically that makes sense. Plus in my head it justifies why I hate doughnuts but like donuts. I like cake and baked donuts are cake-like.

*shrugs* I’m weird, I know but this is kind of how my brain works. Want to hear something even more crazy – I even go so far that if a cake donut is fried (larger donut shops fry their cake donuts)… I hate them.  I think it’s the whole texture/frying part I don’t like. I drive Mr. Fantabulous crazy with my “logic”. We’ll stop and I’ll get him donuts (er doughnuts) and when they ask me if I want one I always ask how their cake donuts are made. If they fried I’ll pass. Trust me I get odd stares.

That being said I, when I wanted a (real) donut I would make my own. A couple of weekends ago I got up SUPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPER ridiculously early on a Saturday. It wasn’t by choice as my stupid neighbors have stupid roosters that crow all night and day. Well the one decided “No Lori, you don’t need to sleep at 4am so cock-a-doodle-do to you lady now get up!”. Trust me, there is no love between me and those roosters. I didn’t quite feel like getting out of bed so I laid there scrolling through Pinterest – seriously who here wouldn’t love a job at Pinterest where all you have to do is look at feeds of foods and other deliciousness? Anyway, as I was scrolling through I came upon this section of donuts (REAL donuts) and just stared at them. Some beautiful shots…and some not to pretty but hey, we all have to start somewhere (as she tells you to not look at her first 2 years of blog posts and recipes for those pictures are HORRIFIC).

About an hour into my Pinterest obsession I decided to get up as there was zero hope for me to fall back to sleep as that stupid rooster wouldn’t shut up. I decided that since I was up I’d whip up a batch of donuts. Now Mr. Fantabulous doesn’t like “real” donuts. He only likes the fried kind – yeah! more for me!! It was still winter here even though the calendar said mid-April the weather outside was saying “Nope, It’s January 112th” as it was still snowing. As I was sitting at the counter, sipping my tea I was trying to figure out what type to make. Chocolate is typically my go-to flavor as I love chocolate cake. No frosting (yes really) – just a super moist chocolate cake and a glass of milk. But since it was snowing and chilly I opted to go with a coffee cake style donut. I figured it would go perfectly with my tea AND since Mr. Fantabulous loves my coffee cake perhaps I could convert him to real donuts. lol

Since I wasn’t sure if he’d eat these I felt it best to only make 6. I grabbed my favorite donut pan from the supply room and got to creaming, mixing, blending and piping. One thing I recommend when making donuts is to not only spray the wells but also spray around the tops of the wells. This batter, when you put it in and top it with the crumb topping is pretty much at the top of the well. Don’t worry, it shouldn’t overflow. If you’re weary you can always put your donut pan on a baking sheet into the oven to catch any possible spillage. But I’ve never had that happen. Could it happen? Eh doubtful though if your batter somehow ends up runny (which it should not) then maybe.

 Now this batter is thick and while you can spoon it in, honestly the best (and easiest) way to get it into the cavity wells is to pipe it in. You can use a piping bag or do what I did – grab a large plastic food storage bag, put all of the batter into it towards the one side, squeeze the top together and twirl to make your own piping bag. Snip the tip (you want about a nickel size hole to pipe it out. What you’ll see is that the batter goes pretty high up, definitely more than 3/4s of the way but I’ve never had a problem as the batter is thick and it rises up. If you’re leery make the rest into mini donuts or donut holes!

I’d say the only real crucial thing you need to pay attention to is the crumb streusel. Yes, it makes a lot. Yes, this is on purpose. I. LIKE. STREUSEL! When you put it on the donut you need to press it down “into” the top of the batter. You want it to stick. And yes it mounds up high, over the donut well. Again, that is OK. There is simply never too much streusel but if you want you can make only half the amount. I won’t judge you. *wink*

These donuts baked up in no time and, after a few minutes of cooling in the pan, I removed them. Now normally when you remove cake donuts from the pan you flip the pan over and they fall out. I didn’t want to do it on these as I didn’t want to lose the streusel. I used a thin blade icing spatula to remove them. BUT you can totally (gently) flip them out and if any streusel falls off it’s all good. Why? You’re glazing these dudes (and dudettes!). Before you glaze them, add the streusel crumbs that have fallen off back on top of the donut and let the glaze act as ‘glue’!

Genius, I know! By 6am I had fresh, warm, coffee cake donuts on the counter, another cup of hot tea ready for me and FINALLY silence. I guess that rooster decided to go to sleep. <jerk> LOL

Equipment used in this recipe:

Check it out! Right now if you order the set of Donut pans, there is a coupon to save $1 off! Look for the coupon logo and tick box!

If you have extra batter, you could easily make donut holes!

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