If you’re going to have a donut, then have a donut!

That is a baked cake-style donut, flavored with dulce de leche, studded with pretty flecks of vanilla bean, and covered in more dulce de leche. It’s borderline dessert wearing breakfast camouflage.

But at least it’s not fried, right?

I took the spiced cake donut recipe that came with my donut pan, the same one I modified to make the Pumpkin Spice Donuts, and stripped it down to use as a base for these donuts. The vanilla and caramel flavors are pretty much out of this world. You know, if you’re in to the whole dessert-for-breakfast or breakfast-for-dessert thing.

Just please don’t call it “bressert.”

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Dulce de Leche Donuts

A moist, baked donut flavored with vanilla bean and dulce de leche.

Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 Tbsp butter, cold
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tbsp dulce de leche, divided
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (optional)
• 2 Tbsp milk
• Sprinkles (optional)

Instructions

1. Spray a 6-well donut pan with baking spray (or use your preferred non-stick method).
2. Add flour, butter, salt, and baking powder to the bowl of your stand mixer and mix on low until the chunk of butter disappears, ~1 minute.
3. Add 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp dulce de leche, egg, vanilla, vanilla bean scrapings, and milk to the bowl and mix on medium speed until thoroughly combined.
4. Transfer batter (it will be thicker than your standard cake batter) to a ziptop bag.
5. Snip off the corner of the bag (make the opening ~ 3/4 inch) and pipe the batter into the donut wells until 1/2 - 3/4 cup full (you'll get exactly 6 donuts; the batter is very thick and holds it's shape, it won't really settle or bake smoothly if you spoon it into the pan).
6. Bake 8-12 minutes, until the top of the donut springs back when lightly tapped.
7. Let cool in pan 3 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
8. To make the glaze, warm the dulce de leche slightly in the microwave (~15 seconds). Stir until smooth.
9. Drizzle the donuts with dulce de leche and add sprinkles.
10. It's easier to store unglazed donuts in a ziptop bag and then glaze them before eating. Or you can store glazed donuts in a covered cake plate. They'll keep fresh ~3 days.

Notes

Yields: 6 servings

Adapted from Norpro

Estimated time: 20 minutes