Doughnuts with Berry Glaze

One day my daughter was sick and stayed home. In the afternoon we made a little walk around the neighbourhood, which is a city neighbourhood with lots of grocery stores, shops, and bars. It was spring and still cold and rainy. We walked past a bakery with had put a sign out. It pictured a couple of doughnuts, all in different bright colours. When F. saw the sign she begged me to buy a batch. The bakery was one of those chains with self service and products made with much more than flour, yeast, salt, and water. Germany has come a long way with its bakeries, but it’s not a good one. Discounter stores with self service are popping up everywhere and their products are so cheap that they can’t be made in a bakery where employees are paid decent wages. Instead of quality you get a jamboree bag of enhancers and preservatives. These baked goods don’t keep fresh very long and taste pretty bland, but they can be produced quickly and without skilled employees, I guess.

I didn’t want to spill all that over my kid, so I pulled out my second argument and mumbled something about „crushed bugs“ in the glaze and asked her if she wanted to make her own doughnuts instead. After that I immediately thought, „Damn, why did I say that? Doughnuts take time and patience.“ Even if I sometimes have these character traits, my doughter definitely doesn’t know what they mean. Ah, well. Sometimes I am my own little discounter store. I like shortcuts, too. So I decided we should pull out the doughnut pan and make some baking powder leavened baked treats instead of yeast leavened deep-fried ones.

I used a simple muffin recipe as a base and for the frosting I cooked some raspberries, strained the juice and mixed it with powdered sugar. These quick fix donuts are not comparable to their fried counterparts, but my daughter still thought they were perfect. Since all kids love bright colours, these would be great for any kind of children’s (birthday) party and we will probably make them again. And even if you’re not a kid, you deserve bright colours and a little sugar, too.

Note: The colour of the glaze can vary a bit. For some reason mine came out very bright red the first time I made these. The next time the glaze had more dark pink shades. So if you want red instead of dark pink, use frozen (or fresh) red currants or strawberries instead. The light pink version that you can also see in the pictures was made by thinning the glaze with some lemon juice.