If you’ve been on social media in the last year, you’ve probably encountered enticing, single-serving, microwave recipes for brownies, cakes and other desserts. They usually look amazing and always promise to be fast and easy.  I went to baking school, but I still became temporarily obsessed with the idea of making my favorite desserts in minutes in the microwave.  I tried several of the recipes and they we’re mostly satisfactory, if not stellar.

Throughout this quick-fix phase, I pondered how I could make a satisfying donut in the microwave.  I tweaked and tested recipes until I came up with a microwave cake that tasted similar to a chocolate cake donut.  Coming up with the recipe was the easy part.  Making a donut out of it was another matter.

I played with thicker batters piped in the shape of donuts.  That didn’t work.  The batter fused together in what was supposed to be the hole.  Plus, the cake was too dry from having to add extra flour.  I knew I had to find a way to stick to the recipe I liked, yet still create a donut shape.

Having no luck, I decided to drink my troubles away.  I was pouring bourbon into a shot glass to make a Manhattan.  The answer was in my hand.  I took the shot glass and rested it in a glass cereal bowl.   There it was… a donut mold.

I whipped up another batch of the cake batter, greased my makeshift mold and gave it a try.  It worked!  I realized on subsequent attempts that works best if the shot glass is right-side-up in the bowl with the smallest part of the glass touching the bowl.

In a reality, these donuts are just cakes in funny shapes.  But isn’t that what donuts are?  They need icing to make them really feel like donuts.  Without icing, they look kind of like sad, little, porous Bundt cakes.  But once you add icing, you get the donut experience.  At least, you get the best donut experience you can get in a couple of minutes from your microwave.

They’re not quite as good as a real donut.  But I would suggest that nothing is quite as good as real donut… except maybe bacon.  But for a quick fix, these are terrific.

Everything you need to know is on the recipe card above, but I’ll go into detail below in case you want further explanation on those purposefully simplistic instructions.

How To Make Microwave Chocolate Donuts

• 1 large egg
• 2 Tablespoon white sugar
• 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
• 2 Tablespoons salted butter – melted

This recipe makes 2 microwave donuts.

You will need a microwave-safe, small bowl with a rounded bottom (with about a 4 and 1/2 inch top diameter),  a standard glass shot glass and a mixing bowl.

In a medium mixing bowl (I like to use a big measuring cup with a pour spout), beat the egg.  Add the sugars and vanilla and whisk to combine.  Add the flour and cocoa powder and stir gently with a spatula until mostly moistened and combined.  Pour in the melted butter and continue stirring until fully combined.

Spray the inside of the small bowl with cooking spray (or see tip below about using butter). Spray the outside of the shot glass with cooking spray and place it right-side-up in the middle of the bowl.

Pour half the batter in the bowl around the shot glass.

Microwave on high for 60 seconds.

Remove the shot glass.  When the bowl is cool enough to handle, invert it to release the donut.

Clean the bowl and shot glass.  Re-spray with cooking spray and use remaining batter to make the second donut.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar or apply icing as desired.

Tips:

I like to melt the butter in the small bowl I use for the donuts and then swirl it around to grease the bowl instead of using cooking spray.

When preparing the batter, allow melted butter to cool slightly so it’s not hot enough to cook the egg.

In the picture above, you can see that the front donut was dipped in icing and the back donut had its icing applied with a spatula.  The dipped donut looks more like a donut from a donut shop.

How To Make Microwave Chocolate Icing

Makes enough icing for 2 microwave donuts.

• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons milk or cream
• 2 drops vanilla

Melt the butter in a microwave-safe bowl by microwaving for about 20 seconds (I wipe out my donut bowl and use that).  Add all remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Microwave on high for 30 seconds (mixture will bubble).  Stir and microwave 30 more seconds.  Stir and then ice the donuts either by dipping the donuts in the warm icing or by applying the icing with a spatula.  Add any sprinkles or other decorations immediately after icing.

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These granola bars are extremely easy to make and they taste “oat-standing”!

All you do is mix oats with brown sugar, melted butter and a bit of corn syrup.  Once the mixture is microwaved, you toss on some chocolate chips.  Microwave one minute more and spread the chocolate out like frosting.  Then you put them in the refrigerator and wait 30 minutes.  Once the chocolate has set, you chop them into bars or squares and enjoy.  Total active prep time is about 8 minutes.

For exact ingredients and the printable recipe, click here.

Video: How To Make Chewy Granola Bars In The Microwave w/ Kid Breakfast

You can modify the recipe by adding a handful of raisins or other small bits of dried fruit.  Same goes for chopped nuts.  As long as your additions don’t exceed 1/3 cup, the bars should still hold together well.

Quick cooking oats work a little better than Old Fashioned oats.  Quick cooking oat pieces are smaller so the final bar is slightly more condensed and holds its shape better.

If you use mini chocolate chips, you may not need to microwave the additional minute.  The heat left over from the first four minutes of microwaving is likely enough to melt the tiny chips.

The one thing I might do differently next time is to reduce the amount of chocolate just a touch.  These bars were delicious… maybe too delicious.  Less chocolate would make them more like respectable granola bars and less like the indulgent, delectable treats you see here.

When sealed in an airtight container at room temperature, the bars remain fresh and tasty for up to 10 days.

Final Verdict: These Chewy Microwave Granola Bars were “oat” of sight, man!

Store-bought frozen breakfast burritos are disgusting. Often times, you wouldn’t know what you were putting in your mouth if the package didn’t tell you.  If I asked you to describe most store-bought burritos, you would probably say, “Oh… it’s some vaguely breakfast-flavored amalgamous gloop plopped into too much tortilla.”  Your words.  Not mine.

This phenomenon baffles me.  The majority of non-supermarket breakfast burritos are excellent.  To recreate the store-bought experience, you’d need a blender and some kind of solvent that removes color.

Luckily, fantastic homemade breakfast burritos are exceptionally easy to make and they freeze amazingly well.  They taste and look 1,000 times better than their store-bought equivalent.  In this post, I’ll show you how I make 10 days worth of frozen breakfast burritos in less than 2 hours.  You may never buy a frozen breakfast burrito again.

When making a bunch of frozen burritos, most of the ingredients can be prepared hours before assembly.  The exception is the eggs.  If you let them set out too long, they get dry and lose their tenderness.  For my burritos, I fried up 2/3 pound of sausage, 10 strips of bacon and two big handfuls of tater tots.  Then, I grated 1 cup of Cheddar cheese and 3/4 cup Pepper Jack cheese and a diced one red bell pepper.  I used 14 eggs to make 10 burritos.  I like to mix my eggs and meats so the main ingredients are uniformly distributed in the burritos.

Lay out as many tortillas as you can on a table or on the counter and fill the burritos as you please.  I use large or burrito-size flour tortillas.  If you offset the mound of fillings to one side, you’ll find it easier to fold the burritos.

I filled some with bacon, some with sausage and some with both meats.  Same with the cheeses.  Anything goes.  It’s a free-for-all of variety!

Once filled, just fold, fold, fold and roll.  Wrapping a burrito is much like wrapping a present.  The image above shows the technique that I use.

To prevent freezer burn, I double wrap each burrito in plastic wrap.  If you create a wide variety, it’s a good idea to label each one.

How To Microwave Homemade Frozen Breakfast Burritos:

Do you remember 2012 presidential candidate Herman Cain?  He had a 9-9-9 plan to reform the U.S. tax code.  I have a 2-2-2 plan for heating frozen breakfast burritos.

Defrost for two minutes at 40% microwave power.

Flip the burrito and microwave on high for two minutes.

Let set two minutes.  2-2-2!

Here’s a sampling of how the burritos turned out.  Each one was heated days after they were frozen.

Sausage Potato Pepper Jack

Double Meat & Double Cheese

Bacon Potato Cheddar – For this one, I defrosted for 2 minutes, microwaved on high for 90 seconds and then topped with cheese and threw it under the broiler for 2 minutes.

Sausage Potato Cheddar

Bacon Potato Pepper Jack

More Homemade Frozen Breakfast Burrito Tips:

When preparing a lot of bacon at once, consider using the oven.  Just lay the strips out on a baking pan and bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes until well-browned.  Place cooked bacon on stacked paper towels to remove excess grease.

I find that frozen tater tots work better than shredded hash browns.  Strangely, the tots taste more like hash browns that the hash browns do when everything is reheated. I think it’s because the tots have such a defined fried exterior. Each piece is like a wee-small serving of hash browns – crisp and tender in each bite.

I recommend NOT putting salsa in the burritos before freezing.  I find that it can make parts of the tortilla soggy after heating. However, I do keep a lot of salsa handy for serving.

Check out these recipes for breakfast burritos:

Basic Sausage Breakfast Burritos

Breakfast Tortilla Wraps

Low-Fat Breakfast Burrito

This is so easy, it feels like a magic trick.  Take two apples and… abracadabra!  Five minutes later, you have a delicious Cinnamon Maple Apple Topping for your pancakes, waffles or French toast.  The combination of baked apple, maple and cinnamon results in a a warm, autumn-like flavor that adds a cozy, fresh finish to almost any breakfast.

Cinnamon Maple Apple Pancake Topping (In The Microwave)

• 2 medium apples
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon maple syrup
• 3 dashes of cinnamon

Peel, core and slice the apples.  Place in a microwave safe bowl and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Toss to coat. Microwave on high for 5 minutes.  Stir in maple syrup.  Serve warm.

4 servings.

For these pancakes, I used Granny Smith apples to make the topping.  They’re sweet and just a little bit tart.  Their flavor really comes out when you mix them with sugar and maple syrup.  For the finishing touch, I added a little dab of whipped cream to the top of the stack.  It was better than apple pie.

Just look at how homemade apple topping turns a bowl of boring oatmeal into a breakfast delight.  I like to sprinkle a Tablespoon or two of granola over the baked apples so you get a little crunch.  Of course, a dab of whipped cream works here too.

Any topping that’s good on pancakes will usually be equally awesome on a waffle or French toast.  For the waffle shown here, I drizzled just a little extra maple syrup so each dimple of the waffle had plenty of flavor.

This topping also makes a great filling for crepes.  It’s terrific on toast in place of jam.  It’s even good just on its own… with maybe a dab of whipped cream.  Is it clear yet that I like whipped cream?

This recipe is so easy and it really does turn plain breakfast fare into something special.  I hope you’ll give it a try.