Doughnut Pass. Go. Go Make This. Make This Now. The End.

How great am I at titles? So great, right? I’m great.

How positively positive do I sound to you? Positive enough? OK, here’s the thing: this week, I am going to actively try to be more positive. Unless I am maimed in a horrible accident or Glen Hansard decides to retire, I will not complain at all this week. No complaints. None.

Why, you might ask? Well, as I’ve mentioned maybe a bajillion and a half times, I have been under a tremendous amount of stress lately, and it all seems to have finally caught up with me. Instead of crumbling under it, though, I’ve decided to pretend none of it exists. That’s super healthy, right?

Relax, I’ll deal. But for now, I’m going to be grateful and joyful. I’m also going to be doughnutful. Well, I actually already am doughnutful.

Indeed. There are doughnuts. And cool ones, at that. Can we please all just focus on the doughnuts?

Yes? Cool. Because I am SO proud of these things.

Chocolate Chip Doughnuts With A Whole Lot of Different Toppings (makes 6, but you’ll totally make this again immediately)

3/4 cup of all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

pinch of salt

1 egg

4 tablespoons of granulated sugar

6 tablespoons of milk (I used skim, but you can use any kind of milk you want)

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1/4 cup of semisweet chocolate chips (Don’t go too crazy…the doughnuts will crumble under the weight of too many chips)

Preheat your oven to 325°F and do a really excellent job greasing a 6-mold doughnut pan. Like, an amazing job.

In a large bowl, beat the egg and add your sugar, milk and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt, then add your dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients, mixing until fully incorporated.

Then stir in your chocolate chips, and pour evenly into your pan. This is hard to do if you’re a klutz, but you can and you shall! Positive thoughts! 🙂

Send into the oven and bake for 15 minutes, or until the tops of the doughnuts spring back a little when you touch them. Let them cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove– super easily, since you greased the pans like crazy– and let cool completely. Then you can top them. This is the part where you say “YAY!”

Ok, so, as you can see, we got creative. I say “we” because my boyfriend the sudden baking prodigy was there to assist. Apparently, doughnut toppings are his jam. Seriously. Dude knows his stuff.

Here’s a list of our toppings:

Chocolate Sea Salt

Chocolate and Cinnamon Sugar

Chocolate and Raspberry Pim Cookies (purchased on a whim, regretted purchasing and then decided to use as a topping, which was a pretty good idea)

Chocolate and Lemon zest/Coconut/Sea Salt

Chocolate and Toasted Coconut Curry

Cardamom Glaze

Cardamom Glaze and Toasted Coconut Curry

Now, for the chocolate topping, simply melt about 1/4 cup of dark chocolate chips in a small bowl set over another bowl of simmering water. Then, dip the tops of your doughnuts in the chocolate and refrigerate until hardened. If you plan on adding other toppings on top of your chocolate, wait until you’ve added to refrigerate.

In my opinion, the last four toppings that I listed are the most interesting, and also the tastiest. Boyfriend thought most of them up, so props to him (I claim coconut curry, though. It would be kind of sad if the brown girl did not think up the curry topping first, right?) I’ll take you through the cardamom glaze and coconut curry.

For the cardamom glaze, heat 1/4 cup of confectioner’s sugar, a couple of teaspoons of milk and four cardamom pods in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until just starting to boil, then remove from heat and start dunking your doughnuts!

For the toasted curry coconut, preheat your oven to 350°F. Spread a big handful (I don’t know, use your judgement) of shredded coconut on a baking sheet and toast for 10-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Then evenly distribute a couple of teaspoons of curry powder (the amount will depend on how much you like curry powder) over the coconut and shake around to mix the two. Then sprinkle over your doughnuts.

Then you may proclaim the joyous words/profanity laden exclamations of your choice. You know, with a smile on your face.