Baked Cinnamon Squares

Such a yummy start to the day. And middle and ending if we are being totally honest..

This morning's challenge was to find something new, simple and yummy for breakfast. I'm not typically a sweets person, but my husband and daughter are. In fact Charlotte just hears the word cake, donut or just plain sweets and her little-fat-2 year old feet come running as fast as she can from wherever she is. 

For this reason, sweets are at a minimum in the house.

I stumbled onto this great recipe a few weeks ago from Cooking with my kid, and thought that it might be a nice alternative to the store bought options and the recipe is really easy, light and surprisingly not chucked full of fat or sugar.

OK, OK.. I know its also not full of any kind of nutrition, but not everything we eat has to be perfect. How else are these kids going to learn Good Karma Balance, if I never show them the dark side?

Since I don't have a donut pan (although these nearly put me in a trance straight to William Sonoma to pick one up) I made them into what I hoped were donut holes. They came out more like squares, so for now, that's what I am calling them.

Prep Time: 10 mins Cooking Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 1 6 oz container of non fat organic vanilla bean yogurt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 1/2 tablespoons real maple syrup
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter (melted)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Toss the cinnamon and sugar together, put into a ziplock bag (shake and bake style) and set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients.

In another bowl stir together oil, lemon juice, maple syrup, egg and yogurt.

Make a hole in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the hole.

Gently fold everything together until combined.

The batter will be pretty thick and airy.

With a spoon ice cream scooper drop dough onto greased pan.

If do have a donut pan, fill each pan with dough at this point.

Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Let cool for a few moments and then flip over onto a cooling rack while still warm.

Dip each donut into butter and then place in bag of cinnamon sugar. Shake and place on plate (or directly into mouth)

Makes 6 donuts or 15 squares.

** could use powdered sugar as well.

Results
Love all around! 8 thumbs up.. Jake was more into the plain version so I wish I left more plain. He just didn't want to get messy he said. .