Baked Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

Ingredients

• 2 2/3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup + 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
• Seeds of 1 vanilla bean I sell them!
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• Softened butter, for tins
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 small pinch salt
• 2 – 3 Tbsp milk
• Food coloring and sprinkles, optional

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 425 degrees. Butter 14 wells across 3 doughnut tins and keep the pans ready. In a mixing bowl, whisk the baking powder, baking soda and salt into the flour for 30 seconds, then set that bowl aside. In another mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat the sugar and vanilla bean seeds with the melted butter and vegetable oil until smooth, about 1 minute. Add the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla extract. Alternate the dry mixture and the milk in 3 separate batches, starting and finishing with the flour mixture: add 1/3 of the flour mixture, then half of the milk, mixing after each addition only until combined.
2. Spoon the batter into the buttered doughnut wells, stopping about 1/4-inch from the top. Bake in the hot oven for 7 – 8 minutes, until a toothpick poked into a doughnut comes out clean. Move the doughnuts to a wire rack and let them cool until lukewarm, then dip them in glaze and return them to the rack. If you’re using sprinkles, add them right away, then let the glaze set at room temperature.
3. For the glaze, whisk the powdered sugar with the melted butter, vanilla and salt in a flat bottomed bowl. Stir in 2 Tbsp of milk, then add more milk 1 tsp at a time until the glaze has the consistency you want; whisk until smooth. Add food coloring if desired. If the glaze starts to set while you’re dipping the doughnuts, warm it in the microwave in 6 – 10 second intervals on HIGH power as needed, whisking after each heating.