Half-Baked

Okay. One of the reasons I've been out of the kitschen so much as of late is my new diet & exercise regime. Essentially, I've been opting to dance my ass off at Jazzercize [talk about retro, right?] and been trying my damnedest to avoid one more beer, one more cookie, one more carb of choice. Well, Nutella nonwithstanding.

So far, I've been pretty half-assed. Heavy on the Jazzercize, light on the healthy eats. So today, I had an hour to burn, a cute blonde helper in an apron and this recipe from the Cheeky Kitchen for baked pumpkin donuts [you're going to have to click for this one, friends, I'm so annoyed I don't want to take the time to type the recipe - ugh].

I love glaze. I love donuts. I love fruity, spicy squash. What could possibly go wrong when I transformed this delicious dough [and Marge & I ate many small bites of this in the raw]:

Into this flat-ass donut?

[girth DOES matter - such is life]

A chewy, crusty, one-dimensional donut. Where did I go wrong? I did learn a lesson from the first batch and pulled the second go-round out ahead of the timer so I could trade the crunch for a cushion-y texture [and so I could treat my fresh mama friend Lesley to a few]. The flavor of the pastry is tasty, and the buttermilk glaze is to die for in a KrispyKreme way. But next time, screw baked. It's a Fry Daddy for this mama.