The Best Lemon Donuts Ever

Last night I watched the London Olympic Opening Ceremony and honestly, I don’t think it will be one for the books. It was interesting how they portrayed the different stages the UK’s history, but it wasn’t breathtaking like the Chinese performances. However, I have to say the Queen gets an A+ from me. 

As I am not a huge TV watcher, I needed something to nosh on while I watched cartoons. So I decided to whip up these amazingly light and fluffy lemon donut muffins. They aren’t too too sweet but they have a darn good lemon flavor. I filled mine with a silky smooth lemon curd (home made of course) and rolled them in butter and sugar to give them a nice crust when they finished baking. They are just devine

Mini Lemon Donut Muffins with Lemon Curd
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp lemon zest
3/4 cup buttermilk

2 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup sugar, for rolling
2/3 cup lemon curd (pref. homemade)

Directions

1.Preheat oven to 350F, grease a muffin tin with any cooking spray or butter

2. Wisk flour, baking powder and salt

3. Beat together sugar and egg until it is a light brown color. Then add the oil, vanilla extract and lemon zest.

4 Gradually add flour to the sugar and egg mixture, alternating with additions of buttermilk.

5. Divide into miffin tin (about 3/4 full) 

6. Bake for 9-11 minutes 

7. Melt butter and place in small bowl. Place sugar in a separate bowl. 

8. Remove donuts from pan, dip in butter and roll in sugar, and let cool.

9. When cool, pipe each one with approx 1 teaspoon of lemon curd (optional)

 

What did you think about the London Opening Ceremony?

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Procrastination. 

It is one of the scariest and most common diseases floating among the human race; infecting us and making us unmotivated couch potatoes. Unfortunately, it never really seems to leave the body once it enters. It just stays dormant until another challenge enters our lives.

I’m taking not one, but two SAT classes this summer in addition to having a personal tutor. Even though I would much rather spend my summer pouring coffee at Starbucks or saving lives by the pool, my mother believes that I should be spending my summers “catching up”. By “catching up”, she means learning things that you neglected to learn during the year. For me, that would mean more violin practice, more SAT practice, more reading, etc. Basically, more work.

So, after moaning over my sad life, I decided to make myself a pick-me-up snack. These are my staple oatmeal raisin cookies. They are exactly what a cookie should be. Not too thick, but not too thin. Crispy on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside. I use chocolate chips in mine, so I have the gooey, chocolaty goodness blending with the cinnamon and raisins to give the perfect tasting cookie.

SKINNY VERSION: You can sub 2 tablespoons of unsweetened applesauce for 2 tablespoons of butter. You can substitute half to all of the sugar with any 0 calorie sweetener you wish. Omit the walnuts/chocolate chips.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Yield: A little over 2 dozen cookies

1 stick      unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup       light brown sugar, packed

¼ cup       granulated sugar

1               egg

½ tsp         vanilla extract

7/8 cup     AP flour

½ tsp        baking soda

¼              salt

¾ tsp        cinnamon

> ¼ tsp     nutmeg

1 ½ cup    old-fashioned oats

½ cup       raisins

½ cup       walnuts or dark chocolate chips (sub. more raisins or just omit)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. In a large bowl, beat butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla extract until well blended. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture, stirring just until combined.

3. Fold in rolled oats, raisins, and walnuts (in this case, chocolate chips). Drop dough by rounded teaspoons (I used a cookie scoop) about 2 inches apart onto a cookie sheet.

4. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes (mine took 12 minutes) or until edges are lightly browned. Cool 2 minutes and remove to wire rack to cool completely.

 

Nutrition:

Regular: Calories 95, Total Fat 5.6g, Cholesterol 17mg, Sodium 58mg, Total Carbs 10.3g, Sugar 6.5g, Protein 1.4g

Skinny: Calories 63, Total Fat 3.1g, Cholesterol 14mg, Sodium 52mg, Total Carbs 8.1g, Sugars 4.6g, Protien 0.7g

What do you make when your feeling down? I’d love to know

Just A Start

I’m one of those people who have a take on everything in life. Whether its on the anorexic models strutting down the runway or just the weeds in the flower beds, I have an opinion on it all. I started this blog hoping to share some of my ideas with other people as well as for me to get to know about other people. I’ve always admired bloggers who could post anything about their lives and people would read about it and comment. I hope that I will be able to become one of those people one day.

 

After all, this is Just a Start.