Monster Doughnuts

September 19, 2018 by Claire | The Simple, Sweet Life 45 Comments

Make your Halloween morning, party or office potluck spooky AND sweet with these easy monster eye doughnuts!

Halloween is just around the corner! And you know what that means: Halloween treats! To celebrate, I’m doing a reboot of some of my favorite recipes and tutorials. First up: doughnuts that are every bit as easy and they are spooky (and delicious).

How to make monster doughnuts

These doughnuts really couldn’t be easier. In fact, there are just three steps

First, whip up some royal icing eyes or buy some at the store. Personally, I made mine so that I could have variety of sizes.

Second, whip up some doughnuts. Either follow the chocolate doughnut recipe below or whip up another favorite flavor.

Third, decorate! All these doughnuts require is a little icing, black sanding sugar and gluing those royal icing eyes on with a little bit of chocolate.

How to make perfect monster doughnuts

New to baking and decorating doughnuts? No worries! Here are some tricks and tips to help you make the perfect batch the first time around.

Use a piping bag to pipe your doughnut batter into your doughnut pan. This is a lot easier and less messy than trying to pour from the bowl.
Doughnuts are easiest to remove from the pan while they’re still warm. The sweet spot seems to be about 2 minutes after they come out of the oven. Simply turn the pan over and gently shake it until the doughnuts come out (hot-pads are a good idea).
Did you know you can make your own sanding sugar? If you can’t buy black sanding sugar at the store, here’s how to make it.
Be sure not to over-cook the glaze. Over-cooked glaze loses too much liquid and becomes too hard and thick to work with. The best way to make sure your glaze doesn’t get over-cooked is to cook it over low heat and remove it immediately once a crust starts to form. If your glaze becomes over-cooked, simply add more water in 1/2 tsp increments until the glaze breaks up enough to use.
Why we cook the glaze: You may be wondering why we’re cooking the glaze. After all, there are lots of doughnut recipes on the web that don’t require this step. Here’s why: cooking the glaze causes a chemical reaction that results in a glaze that hardens quickly and becomes a shell (rather than a soft glaze). It’s perfect for locking in moisture and making life easier if you need to pack these doughnuts.
Leftovers: Baked doughnuts don’t keep well and tend to dry out faster than the fried variety. If you end up with leftovers, the best way to store them is in a paper bag. Whatever you do, don’t refrigerate them or put them in plastic.
Reviving stale doughnuts: If you wound up with leftovers and they’ve gotten stale, no worries! You can soften them back up by microwaving them in 5-10 second increments until soft. Just watch out for melting icing.

Did you make this recipe? I’d love to hear how it went in the comments below. Better still, snap a photo and tag it on Instagram with #thesimplesweetlife. I love seeing your creations!