Mini Banana Donuts with Coconut Caramel Glaze

Miniature Banana Donuts with Coconut Caramel Glaze are a moist and flavorful breakfast treat.  They're special enough to serve for a relaxing weekend brunch, but quick enough to throw together on a hectic weekday morning.  

My husband and I don't see eye to eye when it comes to bananas.  I prefer them to be completely spotless and so under-ripened that the skin is still partially green.  On the other hand, my husband won't eat a banana until it's almost mushy and completely covered in brown freckles.  If we buy a bunch of bananas, I'm likely to eat them all before they've reached his desired level of ripeness.  And if I'm saving an overripe banana to use in a recipe, my husband is likely to make a snack of it.  Somehow, we still like each other.

But we're also different when it comes to banana-flavored sweets.  I love them all: banana bread, banana muffins, banana cake, pumpkin banana cupcakes, banana ice cream, banana smoothies.  Bananas foster?  It's heavenly.  My husband isn't a fan of any banana-baked good, and will always opt to eat bananas on their own.

So, when I baked up this batch of miniature banana donuts with coconut caramel glaze, I knew that he wouldn't really like them.  I wasn't surprised when he sampled one and proclaimed, "It's good...if that's your kind of thing."  Well, these banana donuts are definitely "my kind of thing."  And since my husband only sampled one, that left me with the entire rest of the batch to myself.  Yep, 23 banana donuts all for me.  But they're baked.  And they're really small (1.5" diameter, or so).  And I ate them over three days.  So that makes it acceptable, I think.  

(click here for printable recipe)

Miniature Banana Donuts with Coconut Caramel Glaze

Ingredients

For the Banana Donuts:

• 2  Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. milk
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup mashed banana (about 1 medium)
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2/3 cup flour

For the Coconut Caramel Glaze:

• 1/3 cup toasted coconut*
• 1 Tbsp. salted caramel sauce, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2-4 Tbsp. milk, depending on thickness of your caramel sauce

Instructions

For the Banana Donuts:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spray a mini donut pan with cooking spray.

2. With a whisk or a hand mixer set to low speed, beat together all ingredients except flour.  With wooden spoon, gently stir in flour until fully incorporated. 

3. Using a spoon, fill donut pan with batter.  Be careful not to overfill. 

4. Bake for 7-9 minutes.  Donuts should spring back when lightly pressed. 

5. Cool for 2-3 minutes in pan.  Then remove to wire rack and cool completely. 

For the Caramel Coconut Glaze:

1. In a small bow, mix together caramel sauce, powdered sugar, and milk until smooth. 

2. To cover donuts with glaze, hold sides of donuts.  Turn upside down and dip top of donut in bowl of glaze.  Turn donut right side up, and place on wire rack.  Sprinkle with toasted coconut.  Glaze will harden slightly and set up.  

Yield: 24 mini donuts

 

*To save time, you can toast the coconut while baking the donuts.  Simply spread your sweetened, shredded coconut on a baking sheet, and bake at 375 degrees for 4-5 minutes.  Watch carefully to ensure coconut does not burn. 

(click here for printable recipe)

Thanks for reading, friends!  I hope your week is starting off well!