What were the ‘Donuts of Your Day’ Today?

A while back, when five-year-old Clark Todebush decided to share his wisdom and some positive affirmations with grown-ups, his charming comments quickly went viral. This precocious kindergartener is a donut lover, and one bit of advice he gave was this: pick out the “Donuts of your Day” at the end of each day, in other words the best things that happened to you, as an exercise in gratitude. My husband and I have adopted this cute custom.

And sometimes the Donut of your Day is, well, a doughnut.

I love donuts, but they are strictly an American thing, something we miss (although the French boulangeries sometimes make beignets, donut’s richer cousin. They are stuffed with cream and will make you fat and happy) . So we were quite surprised when an actual donut shop suddenly sprang up in the center of Beaune.

But alas, the donut shop does a pretty sad imitation of a good American donut. They are chewy and sort of greasy, and they pile on cereal, candies, and other horrors. C’est trop.

From our new store. Donuts with gummies and candy bars on top? Just No.

Fortunately, I can make a good donut at home. Homemade donuts are a great party trick, because people think you spent hours in the kitchen making them, plus they are pretty, and they tend to evoke childhood memories for Americans, while being a novelty for the French.

But the secret is, as long as you have a couple of donut pans,  baked donuts are about as easy a dessert as you can make. The key ingredient is to add a generous dose of nutmeg, and you will believe they came from the best donut store.

These are my easy baked donuts.

I’ve shared my best recipe before, for the above donuts. Cinnamon/sugar is our favorite topping . But while having coffee with my French neighbor, who was waxing poetic about a wonderful carrot cake she had made, I was suddenly inspired to venture out and make carrot cake donuts. It took a few tries, but I think I’ve now got a version we really like. They are not as donut-y as the originals, but if you like carrot cake, these are for you. Try them, and maybe they too will be The Donuts of Your Day.

RECIPE: Carrot Cake Donuts

Feel free to play with these a bit. You could add nuts or raisins to the batter; you could top the glaze with toasted coconut; or instead of cream cheese, make a simple glaze of confectioner’s sugar mixed with orange juice and zest.

Makes 12.

1 cups (60 gr) white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour (30 gr)

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup  (180 ml) vegetable oil

1/4  cup (60 ml) milk 

1/2 cup (110 gr) packed brown sugar

1/4 cup (55 grams) white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cup  (115 gr) finely grated carrots

Topping:

4 ounces (115 gr) cream cheese at room temperature

1/3 cup (40 gr) confectioner’s sugar

a bit of milk as needed

1/3 cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 350 (175c). Grease a donut pan (for 12) thoroughly with cooking spray or oil.

Mix the first 7 dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the oil, milk, sugars, eggs and vanilla, fold in the carrots, then fold in the dry ingredients.

I don’t use the biggest holes on the box grater for the carrots. A little thinner is better.

Pour and scrape the mixture into a large plastic bag, cut off the tip at one end, and squeeze the batter into the pan, dividing it between the 12 spots. Bake until golden brown and set, about 15 minutes, but you may want to check earlier. A toothpick should come out with a few crumbs.

Give them about 5 minutes in the pan to cool, then remove them by gently running a table knife around the edges and easing them out.

When completely cool, mix the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth, adding a little milk as needed, until you have a thick glaze. Dip them in or spread it on, then sprinkle with nuts.

In the COMMENTS: Sandy and Vicky, there are regular village randonées without a meal all over France, but I think the randonée gourmand is now a thing. We actually went to one  20 years ago (though it was much simpler), but this year there were two of them near Beaune. So I’m not surprised there was one in Monpellier. They are quite a big production for a village. And Anne, 93 degrees here is nothing like a humid 93 in Charleston. But it’s still hot!

Favorite READS: Natalia has a great book for us, The Stolen Life of Colette Marceau, a historical drama by one of her favorite authors. Merci Natalia, comme d’habitude! And Martin Walker has a new Bruno novel out–like clockwork, every summer, he gives us a new mystery set in the Dordogne. This one is called An Enemy in the Village.