Yes, I totally agree, this an excellent follow-up to two fitness posts. But I believe in balance. And balance means that sometimes you have sweet treats.

Like donuts. For some reason I was really craving them this past weekend – I think I developed a weird addiction while working in an office setting. When the smell reaches my nose, it’s like those cartoons with the fresh pie on the windowsill – the eyebrow raise, the manic look in my eye, the magnetizing pull of the aroma – I am so there. I am pretty sure I started planning to make them last Thursday. So on our Monday off, we made these.

And you know that taste – that assertive spicy bite you associate with cake donuts? You can taste it in an artisan donut and you can taste it in a packaged donut you pick up at a gas station. That taste is fresh nutmeg.

Which is why you must must must use fresh nutmeg when you make donuts. You just can’t leave it out, or the experience won’t be the same. Plus, you will find so many other uses for it in the kitchen. Get some!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa (Dutch process if you can!)
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 3 Tbs melted butter

And for the orange chocolate glaze:

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 4-5 Tbsp. milk
• 1 tsp. orange extract (you can change this up)

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and grease two donut pans (mine hold six traditionally-sized donuts). This recipe makes a dozen.

Withholding the melted butter, mix the solid ingredients together in a mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) and the liquid ingredients together in a liquid measurement vessel. Use a fork to blend the liquids a bit and break up the eggs.

Add the liquids to the solids and mix until all of the flour is mixed in. Gently fold in the melted butter last.

Spoon into the donut spaces in the pan (you can also put it in a zip-top bag, cut off the corner and pipe it in if you so choose). Fill them almost full, but not quite.

Bake for 10 minutes, and then turn the donuts out onto a cooling rack. In the meantime, Use a fork to mix the glaze ingredients in a small bowl wide enough to fit a donut and your fingers.

When the donuts are cool, dip them in the glaze gently and then place glaze-side-up on a cooling rack to set up. The thicker your glaze, the less time this will take. If your first dip makes it clear that the texture isn’t right, you can either thicken by adding more sugar or thin it by adding more milk.