Vanilla Chai Donuts with Browned Butter Chai Frosting - Final Day of Donut Week!

We have come full circle so today is the last day of Donut Week boooooo sad I know, but it's OK it just means I can make something different to share with you! Today's final Donut Week post is Vanilla Chai Donuts with Browned Butter Chai Frosting.

These donuts are moist, fluffy and extremely light with a very delicate flavour, something I find much more appropriate for the summer season when it comes to spice!

Still using an iPhone to photograph as I am well and truly without a camera :( please bear with me and keep in mind that these photos do not do these donuts justice! Bake them, you'll see ;)

I have thoroughly enjoyed myself this week creating all kinds of baked donuts to share with you all, but I must admit that with my exams starting on Monday and having done very little work for them due to excessive photo taking, over dramatic meltdowns about the death of my camera and the terribleness of the quality of iPhone photos, and baking donuts like they are to me they are what Vicadin is to House, I have over stretched myself somewhat! 

Well let this be a lesson learned - my time management needs improving!

As well as it being the last day of Donut Week today is also the International Day Against Homophobia, so I thought it fitting to put my multi-coloured glitter to good use, rainbow up my vanilla chai donuts and raise some awareness about an issue that I feel very very strongly about. 

  
Here is a very good video from the UN to watch whilst eating these scrummy donuts with a cup of tea.

Back to the donuts!

In case you don't know, Chai tea is, according to wikipedia, a flavoured tea made by brewing black tea with a mixture of aromatic Indian spices and herbs. To me it is a fantastic latte Café Nero does that was introduced to me by one of my besties, Alice. Now though, as of this week it is also a fantastic baking ingredient to add to my repertoire and keep in my kitchen cupboard at all times.  

In these donuts the chai is toned down by the vanilla and the two flavours complement each other really well, but if you are a chai fiend then you could try leaving the vanilla out for a stronger chai flavour.

 

The smell of the brewing chai tea that will fill your kitchen for the next few hours is surely enough of an incentive to brew a cup and whack out your donut pan without even considering how beautiful that heavenly, spicey aroma infused in a donut would be! 

I have never tried browned butter before - this really has been a week for new things! - but it was scrumptious, a delight to my taste buds. This browned butter frosting is made with browned butter (which, I think, tastes like a light creamy caramel, oh my), icing sugar and, instead of using milk like a lot of recipes do, I thinned it out with well brewed chai tea (4 tea bags in approx 150 ml boiling water, left for about 30 minutes).

I found using all browned butter to make the frosting made it a little too heavy for my liking to I used 30 g of unsalted butter at room temperature to mix with the icing sugar initially to produce a 'too dry' mixture, then browned another 15 g of butter and incorporate that into the mixture for a much nicer, more delicate flavour that doesn't completely overshadow the chai donuts. 

Ingredients

For the donuts:

90 g self-raising flour
60 g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
45 g plain Greek yoghurt (or vanilla)
15 ml milk (I used semi-skimmed)
6 tsp chai tea (approx 30 ml)
1 medium free-range egg
1/8 tsp vanilla bean paste (or 1/4 tsp vanilla extract)
15 g unsalted butter
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger 

For the browned butter chai frosting:
90 g icing sugar
45 g butter
3 tsp chai tea (approx 15 ml)

Directions

1. Pre heat oven to 170 degrees C. Brew your chai tea by placing 4 chai tea bags in a mug and pouring 100 - 150 ml of boiling water over them. Leave the tea to brew for about half an hour.
2. Take two mixing bowls. In the smaller one combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and spices. Mix well. In the larger one combine the egg, butter, yoghurt, milk, vanilla bean paste, spices and 6 teaspoons of the well brewed chai tea. Mix well. It is important to mix really well at this stage so you don't have to overwork the gluten once it is activated by the wet ingredients. 

3. Transfer mixture to a piping bag and pipe into donut tins. Bake for 10 - 12 minutes, until a cocktail stick comes out clean but before they start to go golden on top. They should be light and spring back at you if you touch it gently. Mine took exactly 12 minutes, but be sure to check a few minutes before they are due as over-baking reduces their moistness. 

4. While the donuts are in the oven you can set about making your browned butter chai frosting. Firstly combine 30 g of unsalted butter with 60 g icing sugar. This will result in a mixture that is far 'too dry' - you want this at this stage, here 'too dry' is a good thing.
5. Put 15 g unsalted butter in a milk pan over a low heat and stir until the butter has browned - it will have formed a 'foam' and will take only a couple of minutes, be careful not to burn it!
6. Add your fantastic smelling browned butter to your too dry mixture and beat it in. Add 3 tsp of you even-better-brewed-by-now chai tea to thin the frosting out.
7. Once your donuts are cool, use a palette knife to generously spread the frosting over the donuts. Decorate with whatever you see fit, I love glitter, glitter goes with everything, you should use glitter too and then post a photo of your sparkly Vanilla Chai Donuts with Browned Butter Chai Frosting here!!

8. Serve, share, eat, ENJOY :)

Happy Donut Week (and International Day Against Homophobia!)!! I really do hope you have enjoyed my posts :) I want to hug anyone who read every single donut recipe as I released my posts! I would like to thank Emma from Bake Then Eat and Felice from All That's Left Are The Crumbs for being very supportive throughout donut week, I really appreciate it!
And Hannah, sorry for making us stay up far too late every night this week in order to get my posts finished - bet you'll be pleased that donut week is over! I can make you your onion bagels now :) Thank you for reining me in and being the best donut tester.

MORE DONUTS!! 

Thursday's post: Baked Banana and Chocolate Chunk Donuts with Marbled Dark and White Chocolate Ganache

Wednesday's post: Sticky Chocolate Orange Donuts



Tuesday's post: Wholewheat Breakfast Donuts with a Mango Streusel Topping

Monday's post: British Bakery Strawberry and Custard Filled Donuts

Sunday's donuts were: Chocolate Donuts With Gooey Glossy Salted Caramel

Saturday's donuts were: Vanilla Bean Baked Donuts With Raspberry Icing