Chai Spiced Donuts With Maple Glaze

The small purchase of a donut pan has revolutionized the nights when I’m experiencing an unrelenting sweet tooth. Donuts can be made in an endless amount of varieties, the basics of the recipes are surely things you keep in your cabinet, and in most baked donut recipes, they only require ten minutes or less in the oven!

This particular variety, I dreamed up on a cold night when affected by the aforementioned sweet tooth. These donuts conjure all the warmth of a perfect cup of chai, a hot stack of pancakes on a frosty morning, and of course, donuts fresh out of the oven.

Ingredients:
For the Donuts

• ½ cup milk
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons room temperature unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup flour
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 bags of chai spiced tea
• ½ teaspoon ground clove
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the Glaze

• 1+ cup confectioners sugar
• 2 tablespoon milk
• 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350℉. Prepare donut pan by lightly greasing with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Heat the milk for the glaze and the donuts over medium low until steaming. Remove milk from heat and place in a heat safe bowl or mug with the two bags of chai. Set aside and allow to steep until milk is needed in the recipe.
3. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar on medium with an electric mixer until smooth and completely mixed together. Add milk(discard tea bags and be sure to reserve 2 tablespoons of the chai infused milk for the glaze), vanilla, and egg and continue mixing until both are incorporated.
4. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and clove to the butter mixture and mix on low until the flour is incorporated, then mix for one and a half minutes on medium.
5. Distribute the batter into the prepared donut pan, careful to fill donut cavities no more than halfway.
6. Bake for 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze by mixing remaining two tablespoons of chai infused milk, heavy cream, maple syrup, and confectioners sugar in a bowl large enough to accommodate a donut. For thicker glaze, increase the confectioners sugar, for a thinner glaze, increase the amount of heavy cream.
8. In a separate bowl, also large enough to accomodate a donut, mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
9. Allow the donuts to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack for an additional 5 minutes.
10. Once cooled, dunk each donut in the maple glaze, immediately followed by the cinnamon sugar.

The donuts are best in the first 24 hours, which makes them ideal to share, as this recipe yields 18 donuts. But you can also use that as an excuse to eat a bunch of donuts, I won’t judge you.

Below is what they look like without the glaze, and I can promise you they are almost just as tasty, and this version may be preferable for those who aren't all that big on sweets. Also you can skip either the cinnamon sugar or the maple glaze and do just one or the other. If you are just doing the cinnamon sugar, you will need an additional 4 tablespoons of melted butter to dip the donuts in before dipping them in the cinnamon sugar.