Strawberry Challenge

Its a little early here in the slowly thawing out northeast for really good ripe local strawberries so I turned to my frozen stores but what to make? I wanted to try something new and I REALLY wanted to try out my donut pan again. Who could say no to (mostly) guilt free donuts? Not me! Living as I do in the land of perpetually breakfast free items, I figured the perfect way to kick off a weekend morning had to be with some donuts. I scanned the web and pulled together a recipe I thought I would enjoy, meet the challenge, and ensure a limited amount of treadmill time. These are just fluffy light yet solid enough to pass for a real donut sans the crispier shell you would get with the genuine fried article (a small sacrifice) while being not too sweet and combined the classically elegant flavors of chocolate and strawberry. Best of all its peeeeeennnnnnnkkkkkkkk!

Baked Chocolate Donuts with Strawberry Icing

Donut:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup skim milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
4 tsp oil
2 tblsp cold coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl. In your mixing bowl blend milk, sugar, egg, oil, coffee, and vanilla until combined. Add in the flour mixture and continue whisking until blended and smooth. Light oil the wells of your donut pan. Fill each well about 3/4 full. Bake at 325F for about 13 minutes. The donut should spring back when poked lightly.

Icing:

1 cup frozen strawberries
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp melted butter

Rinse off any ice from the strawberries and drain. Puree in blender. Mix together 1/4 cup puree, sugar, and melted butter. Icing should coat a spoon thickly but still be runny rather than goopy. Add more sugar if not thick enough, more puree if too thick. Place cooled donuts on a rack over a pan to catch drippings and brush icing on. Allow it to sit for 30 minutes to harden. This makes for an icing that is hard enough to touch but will easily crush if pressed by your finger.