Every now and then when I go to the downtown Farmers Market I get a delicious treat from one of the Amish vendors. A Powdered Angel Cream Filled Donut. The best donut I’ve ever had. I was browsing Foodgawker (only my favorite website ever) today and thought “oh my gosh, what if I could make the angel cream donuts????” So I looked up some recipes and came up with this extreme experiment.

I have an aversion to frying my own donuts, I’ve only ever wanted to bake them. You know, cakey baked donuts? Yum. But I didn’t feel like that would work with the angel cream. Then I remembered the Soft Pretzel recipe I love and decided to turn them into a sort of donut instead. This Soft Pretzel recipe makes those mall pretzels that, when smothered in cinnamon sugar, pretty much taste like a slightly salty donut. Again… Yum.

So here’s my experimental recipe…

Soft Pretzel Sandwiched with Angel Cream

Soft Pretzel Donut:

1 Cup Whole Milk

1 TBSP Dry Active Yeast

4 TBSP Brown Sugar

2 1/4 Cups AP Flour

3 TBSP Melted Salted Butter (plus extra for painting)

In large bowl, warm milk in microwave for about 50 seconds. Add yeast and let sit for 5 minutes to activate yeast. Add sugar and let sit 2 more minutes. Add 1 cup of flour and stir with a wooden spoon until comes together. This is important, don’t add all the flour at once. Stir in melted butter (if using unsalted butter add between 1/2 to 1 TSP salt). Then add remaining flour and stir until sticky ball is formed.

Turn out onto floured surface and knead briefly to form soft ball. Place in a clean, oiled bowl and cover to let rise. May take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, depending on climate to rise. You want the dough to double in size. Once doubled, preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Punch dough gently and turn out onto floured surface. Separate into balls to form your donuts. Knead into donut shape, almost like a round disk. The number of balls depends on the size you want your donuts. Remember! they will increase in size after baking soda bath & bake. Which brings us to the next step!

Baking Soda Bath:

1/4 Cup Baking Soda

Enough water necessary to bathe your donuts.

Combine baking soda in bowl or pan of water. Dunk the donuts in baking soda bath so that they are completely covered. They only need to be in the mixture for about 10 seconds. They’ll puff up immediately. Remove and transfer to baking sheet.

Brush top of pretzel ball lightly with melted butter. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 450 Degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Icing/Filling:

1/2 stick Crisco Vegetable Shortening

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

2 TBSP Granulated Sugar

1/4 Cup of Whole Milk

Blend until light and fluffy.

Once Pretzels in shape of donuts are cooled, cut in half. Slather with Angel Cream Icing and sandwich sides together. If desired, dunk top in melted butter then powdered sugar or combination or powdered sugar & cinnamon.

These are very dense & rich. I recommend making them SMALL. Mine were a little big and as a result a little dense and a lot to eat. Also, when I was making them I became pretty nervous that the combination would be strange but it was actually delicious. Soft pretzels and angel cream icing? Totally delicious.