Baked Vanilla Chai Donuts with a Chai Glaze

These warm and cozy donuts are the epitome of the Autumn season. During the colder fall mornings, I love grabbing one, two, or... five of these and cozying up with my Honey Maple Latte. Those mornings usually are my favorite moments of the entire week.

So, actually, donuts are a whole new world for me because... the first donut I’ve had was early this year, crazy right?! I'm really happy that I’m getting more comfortable to create something from scratch with some of my favorite flavors, while still making it healthy-ish.

These fluffy, baked donuts are have sweet & spicy notes topped with a chai glaze! You can either drizzle the glaze on, or dip it in the glaze if you'd like more of a strong flavor. Enjoy 🤎

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Baked Vanilla Chai Donuts with a Chai Glaze

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

2-3 chai latte tea bags

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1 egg - at room temperature

Chai Spice Mix

1&1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1&1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp ground ginger

3/4 tsp all spice

Vanilla Chai Glaze

1 cup confectioner's sugar

2 tbsp chai latte plus an additional 1-2 tsp (from the steeped tea)

1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 & grease a donut pan well.

2. To a small pot over medium heat, add 1 cup water, bring to a boil, and add your tea bags. Steep for 5-7 minutes, take out the bags, and set aside to cool completely.

3. To a small bowl, add all the chai spices, whisk, and set aside.

4. In a medium bowl, add: all purpose flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and all of the chai spice mix (except for 1/2 tsp, which will be later added to the glaze) and whisk.

5. In a separate medium bowl, whisk: 1/4 cup chai latte tea, veg oil, vanilla extract, & egg.

6. Combine the flour mixture to the chai latte mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, and mix.

7. Transfer the batter into the donut pans about 2/3 full and bake for 10-12 minutes. The donut should fluff up and spring back when touched. If it's not golden brown yet, bake an additional min or two. Transfer to a baking rack to completely cool before glazing.

8. While baking, work on the glaze. In a small bowl, mix confectioners sugar with chai latte tea and chai spice. Keep adding 1/2 tsp of chai at a time after that to get a sticky, powdery white consistency. Lastly, add in the vanilla extract and whisk to combine.

9. To glaze, invert the donut and dip for 5-7 seconds till whole top is covered. Let it drip down until you flip it back up. Place this on the rack and work on the other donuts. Dip each donut into the glaze about 2-3 times to get an even white coating. The other design is to use a spoon of the glaze and went back and forth to create stripes.

Notes

- For the chai spice mix, feel free to add less of an ingredient and add more of another spice if you prefer it more. Make sure to keep the measurements the same, though.

- Cool the donut completely before adding the glaze. If you try to glaze the donut while it's warm, it will slide off and create a mess... not speaking from my experience or anything LOL