Recipe: Mini Baked Chocolate Orange Ring Doughnuts

I know I'm not alone when I say that doughnuts are just one of the best tasting creations on earth yet incredibly daunting as a homebake. A lot of people assume you can only make homemade doughnuts if you own a deep fat fryer when in fact you can easily make some simple yet delicious doughnuts that bake in the oven. And recently after a trip to Homesense, I found myself with a doughnut tin and the overwhelming urge to make doughnuts. Yet life and work got in the way, so it was only this weekend that I finally got around to making them.

Ingredients 
- 85g Plain Flour
- 65g Caster Sugar
- 70g Butter, softened
- 1 Egg
- 60ml Milk
- 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1/4 Teaspoon Nutmeg, ground
- 1/8 Teaspoon Salt
- 100g Bournville And Orange Chocolate

Method 
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Spray your doughnut tin with cooking spray and place to one side.
2- In one bowl sieve together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a second bowl mix together the milk and vanilla extract. Set to one side.
3- In your stand mixer or a third bowl place the softened butter and caster sugar. Cream together using either a wooden spoon, silicone spatula or the beater attachment on your stand mixer until it's creamy and smooth.
4- Then beat in your one egg. Don't worry if the mixture doesn't look like it's coming together, mine looked absolutely atrocious at this point but perserverance is key as it will get better.
5- Once your egg is fully incorporated, alternate between adding some of the dry ingredients with the wet. I started off with some of the flour mix, folding it all together and then added some of the milk mix. I'd advise putting your mixer on low if you're using one, it'll help create a light batter which will translate to a fluffy textured doughnut but also means you can add the ingredients without the worry of them going everywhere.
6- Keep folding the mixture together until it's smooth. Again this will take time and you'll probably be left wondering if it's going to amount to anything but it does. Trust me, I was ready to throw it in the bing when it suddenly turned and became a smooth, pipable batter.
7- Spoon the batter into a piping bag and pipe twelve doughnuts into your prepared tin. They may look a little sloppy before you pop them in the oven but they certainly don't stay looking like that for long.
8- Place in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until a cake skewer comes out clean. Something to remember is that one side will come out looking paler than the other but it doesn't mean it's not cooked. It's just the way the batter sits in the tin when it's cooking. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
9- Whilst they're cooling, melt your Bournville in a bain marie. It'll take a while but will be worth it once you've dunked your doughnuts.
10- When the doughnuts are cool and the chocolate is completely melted, dunk your doughnuts into the chocolate. I dunked some so only half of it was covered and some I compeltely covered in chocolate. Leave to set and then enjoy.