Mini Chocolate Donuts

This has been a crazy week between work, sick Lucas (thankfully, he is ok now), school and my 30th birthday. Oh yeah, I turned 30 on Monday and it feels great. A friend of mine told me "Birthdays are good for you. Statistics show that the people who have the most, live the longest. So enjoy and keep them coming." HA! funny guy. 

I had an awesome time, my friends worked hard to make it special. 30 of them share one thing, flavor, recipe, experience etc. (about herbs and spices) that I should try or do in this new decade of my life. Everything came together in a beautiful little book they called "Najwa's Delicious 30's" Isn't that a cool idea? Special thanks to all of you! 

Instead of baking a cake, I went for baked mini donuts, chocolate of course, covered with ganache and sprinkled with crushed pistachio which added texture to each bite. Don't let this miniature cake goodness fool you, you DO NOT eat less because they are small, on the contrary, you eat more because to think they are small, ha! We never win! I now leave you with this must-try recipe! 

Ingredients:
(makes 48 mini donuts)

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar

1 cup flour

⅓ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ cup oil

1 lg egg

½ cup buttermilk

½ cup hot water 

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease a donut cake pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the sugar, brown sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt and mix on low speed until blended. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the oil, egg and buttermilk. Slowly add the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients on low speed until well blended. Scrape around the bowl with a rubber spatula, scrape the bottom and the sides. Slowly, add the hot water into the batter, blend well on medium speed for 20 seconds. The batter will be thin, don't worry, that's the way it should be. pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool the donuts in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a cooling rack and cool completely. 

For the ganache:

3 oz dark chocolate, chopped

½ cup heavy cream

1 tbsp butter

Place all the ingredients in a heatproof bowl over simmering water until the chocolate and butter melts. Mix well until smooth. Dip the cool donuts into the chocolate and sprinkle them with crashed pistachio.