I think I just came up with the perfect treat for a winter-themed party. Forget cakes and pies which take hours to make, and bake these white chocolate snowmen donuts instead! They take under one hour to prepare and bake, plus two hours of cooling time for the ganache. Easy breezy.
The donut recipe is very simple and only requires simple ingredients you already have at home.
- eggs
- sugar
- butter
- cream
- vanilla extract
- baking powder
Unlike some of my previous donut recipes, this one also contains cream. The role of cream is to prevent them from drying. If you’re making these donuts to take to a party, I would imagine you’d like to bake them the evening before and don’t want them drying overnight.
Furthermore, I will also recommend you glaze the donuts as soon as they have cooled. Make sure to glaze them really well on the sides so they are as covered by glaze as possible. When the glaze hardens, it creates a moisture barrier and prevents the donuts from drying.
The white chocolate ganache, although easy to prepare, has to be made at least 2 hours in advance so it has time to cool. You can also make it one day before.
To make the snowmen, just scoop a ball of ganache and roll it between you palms to form an even sphere. It is best to use a mini ice-cream scoop for this step. However a spoon could work too. Just make sure to scoop the same amount of ganache each time.
Place one ball of ganache in the donut hole. Repeat and place a second layer of ganache on top of the first one. Use candy to add eyes, nose, buttons, and arms. Additionally, you can also sprinkle the donuts and snowmen with powered sugar to create a snow effect.
To bake the donuts I used a standard 6-cavity donut pan and it yielded 12 medium-sized donuts.
See more donut recipes here.
And finally, here’s the recipe for the white chocolate snowmen donuts:
White Chocolate Snowmen Donuts
Ingredients
For the batter:
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup (150 g/ 5 ¼ oz.) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g/ 3 ½ oz.) granulated sugar
- ½ stick (60 g/ 2 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup (120 ml/ 4 ¼ oz.) cream (35% fat content)
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature for greasing the pan
For the glaze:
- 100 g (3 ½ oz.) white chocolate
For the white chocolate ganache:
- 300 g (10 ½ oz.) white chocolate, chopped
- ⅓ cup (100 ml/ 3 ½ oz.) cream (35% fat content)
Instructions
For the white chocolate ganache:
- Pour the cream in a small pan and place it over low heat. When the cream begins to simmer, add the chocolate and stir. Once the chocolate begins to melt, take the pan off the heat and keep stirring until completely melted. Let it cool at room temperature (approx. 30 minutes). Place the white chocolate ganache in the fridge for 2 hours.
For the batter:
- Preheat oven to 180 °C (350 °F).
- In a bowl sift the flour, then add the baking powder. Mix them with a whisk and set aside.
- Gently melt the butter over low temperature. Make sure the butter does not bubble. Once melted, set it aside and allow it to cool a little.
- Crack the eggs into another bowl, add the sugar and beat at high speed with an electric mixer. The mixture is ready when almost triple in volume and light in color. Add the vanilla extract, salt, cream and whisk until incorporated.
- Using a spatula, add the flour mix to the egg mix in 2-3 steps, mixing gently after each step. Make sure the flour is well incorporated, but do not over mix. Once the flour has been incorporated, fold in the melted cooled butter. Allow the batter to sit for 5 minutes.
- Grease the donut pan with butter. Pipe the batter into the pan filling ¾ of each cavity and bake for 10 minutes, or until donuts spring back when gently pressed. Once baked, take the pan out of the oven and allow the donuts to cool in the donut pan 2-3 minutes at room temperature. Transfer them to a rack and let them sit until completely cooled.
For the glaze:
- Melt the white chocolate over a bain-marie. Once melted, brush the doughnuts with the white chocolate and place them aside. Allow approx. 1 hour at room temperature for the chocolate glaze to harden.
For the snowmen:
- Form balls with the white chocolate ganache and place them on the center of the donuts to resemble snowmen. Decorate the snowmen with candy and icing sugar.
