Lemon Corn Mini Donuts with Gooey Blackberries

Let's hear it for one post a month!  Wow... this is pretty pathetic... and it's not like I haven't cooked in the past few months--make that almost 9 months.  I have a bazillion pictures ready to be re-sized to fit in this blog with recipes all ready, but honestly don't have the time!  This is my attempt to at least push one recipe out a week... trying to get back to it.  My original promise has been cut in half.  But it should even out because some weeks I posted almost every day.

Today I present lemon corn mini donuts with gooey blackberries...and toasted sweetened coconut flakes ;-)

These babies arose from showing off my previously-awesome-and-now-seriously-lacking blog at work to some folks inquiring about what a vegan eats.

One of my comadres (female comrade in Spanish, not a typo!) noticed a few of the mini donuts (sweet donuts & savory donuts, yo!) and said she too has a mini donut maker!  I had recently made banana bread with my mini donut maker... and she said "I bet you could use it with waffle recipes!" MISSION BORN.  Couldn't wait until the weekend to test out her theory!!

So, I went to my staple recipe that is just freakin' awesome, Lemon Corn Waffles from All-Hail-Isa's book.  My first vegan cookbook, the book that started it all!  An amazing gift from my hubby, so really he deserves a high-5.

Alright, so that recipe rocks by itself.  But it is intended for a waffle maker, so it had to be modified... plus I didn't have a few of the ingredients and wanted to use others.  So All-Hail-Isa's was the base for this recipe, and it did turn out most awesome indeed!  And also pretty darn healthy courtesy of whole wheat pastry flour, no oil, minimal sugar, and a dash of awesomesauce.

LEMON CORN MINI DONUTS with GOOEY BLACKBERRIES

(and toasted sweetened coconut flakes... because, well, why the heck not?!)

Makes 16 mini donuts, 4 donuts per serving; 1/3 cup of blackberry gooeyness (2 svgs)

50 calories per donut, 100 calories per serving of blackberry goop, approx. 35 cal/1 TBS coconut flakes.

CONTENTS
Lemon Corn Mini Donuts
1/2 c + 3 TBS whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 c cornmeal
4 oz applesauce
2/3 c milk (I used unsweetened Almond Breeze)
juice and zest from 1 lemon
2 TBS sugar

Gooey Blackberries
2/3 c frozen blackberries
2 1/2 TBS sugar
1 TBS ground flax seeds

FASCIST DIRECTIONS
1. Mix all of the dry ingredients, then add in all the wet ingredients through the milk.  Simple stuff.

At this point I realized I didn't have any lemons and I was ready to just proceed sans citrus, but then I finished off the milk.  I turned and told Rod and he said he'd go to Publix and get milk.  "Get a couple of lemons too please!"  While he was out I put the batter in the fridge, so I'm not sure if that had anything to do with the recipe but I thought to mention it in case.  Must have been 10 minutes total.  During this time I got started on the Gooey Blackberries, and toasted the coconut. Those instructions start at step 5.

2. When the lemons arrived, I rolled them to loosen the juicen'

 

This is the best way to juice a lemon :-D

Start to heat up your mini-donut maker (or your waffle iron... or frying pan, I bet these would work as pancakes too).

So, roll the lemon around, and then zest it into the batter.  

Because zesting an already juiced half a lemon sucks.  Learn from my soggy mistake.

2.1. Juice the lemon into the batter next.  I use these funky little "lemon 'doms" as Rod called them.

They're cool because they keep the seeds from getting into whatever you're juicing into.  Just slice the lemon in half...

Apply the 'dom...

and juice!

Dude, you can totally see the piddle of lemon juice in the center. Ha!

3. When the vehicle-of-cooking is ready (see the green light?), do what you gotta do to get them started.  In my case, it was add approximately 1.5-2 TBS of batter per donut section.

4. I use a timer because the internal timer is always off by a couple of minutes.  So for me, it was 5 minutes of baking time.

5. You could work on the sauce during these baking cycles (I had three in total for 16 mini donuts).  First up, in a small saucepan, toast the coconut over medium-low heat.  No need for oil.

Set the flakes aside to cool a bit.

6. In the same saucepan, add the frozen blackberries and sugar.

Simmer or low-boil over medium-low heat for about 10-15 minutes, covered.  At about 10 minutes you can add the flax seed meal and continue cooking uncovered.

While that's happening, if you have giant coconut flakes like I do, you can crush them with your fingers to make them more like shredded coconut.  Since they're toasted they're all crunchy and easy to crush.

7. At this point, your donuts should be ready!

Aren't they just adorable?!

I'm impressed every time.  I'm also getting a lot better with this contraption. I find that the fluffier the batter, the fluffier the final product.  Guess that makes sense though, eh?

Here's a picture of the sugar I use.  Because yes, sugar isn't necessarily vegan. When I'm in control, I will always use vegan sugar.  And the locavore in me is happy that it's from Florida :-D

8. Put all your mini donuts on one plate, the blackberry goop in a measuring cup and the toasted coconut in a ramekin.  Then take a few pictures.

hehehe...

9. Easy to serve... put desired amount of donuts on a plate...

...top with blackberry goop...

...and sprinkle toasted coconut on top!

The other cool thing about this recipe is that it looks super impressive.  I bet with a light lemon glaze under the blackberry goop it would be pretty spiffy.  It would be significantly less healthy because of all the powdered sugar required to make a glaze.  ;-)

YUM!!!

And just so you believe me, here is a small sample of some of the recipes I've made in the past few months that need to be bloggerized....

Above: Brown Rice with Red Beans & Carrots, accessorized with cilantro, cashews and spring onions...

Above: Carrot Burgers (From "Veggie Burgers Every Which Way")

Above: Brekkie Carrot Carob Raisin Cookies

Above: Fresh Green Beans with roasted Tofu, Peppers and Carrots (with toasted sunflower seeds)

...I sent Rod to buy some carrots and he came back with a horse-feed quantity... so I had to get creative! ;-)

Above: Tropical Rice with Roasted Asparagus and Toasted Pecans

Yummmmmm... Stay tuned!