How Alaska eats: Trailgate with baked doughnuts, old-school hot Tang and black bean chili

This week I’m sharing an unusual but satisfying recipe for baked, gluten-free doughnuts. Like with most baked things that are supposed to be fried and gluten-free things that are trying to be flour things, you’ll be way more into them if you don’t try to compare them to actual doughnuts, but instead think of them as hot, delicious, coffee-dunking rings. (I also included notes for making the recipe with real flour.) They are perfect for carrying to a sled dog race.

I’ve got my mind on trailgating snacks for the next couple weekends, when the sprint races and the Iditarod ceremonial start send mushers through Anchorage. It is the most special of times in my mind (where else in America has dogs running through town?), and I like to haul my kids to the trail in the morning in a big sled filled with hot drinks and snacks. Aside from baked doughnuts, which I always make, I might consider Kim Sunee’s blueberry cornmeal muffins, Maya Wilson’s banana bread with cinnamon crunch topping or strawberry coffee cake muffins.

In my trail thermos, if I’m feeling super retro Alaska, I might just dial up some Russian tea. Remember that stuff? Lots of readers wrote me when I asked for a recipe a while back. Then I found a nice one in the archives from Kirsten Dixon, dean of Alaska trail food. It’ll take you right back to the Fur Rondys of your childhood. (Speaking of nostalgic Rondy events, we should all go to the Pioneer Pancake Feed from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, at the Pioneer Hall, 612 F St., above Flattop Pizza.)

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Before I go, I’ll set Maya Wilson’s black bean chili to warm in the Crock-Pot and, if I’m really organized, have her jalapeño-cheddar cornbread ready to go for lunch when we get back with friends and kids and peel off all our winter gear. Got to head off the hunger meltdowns!

[Read previous newsletters here. Find more Alaska recipes here.]

Speaking of hot Tang, I’ll be serving that and manning a pilot bread bar tonight as the Anchorage Museum opens its new food exhibit with the WHAT WHY HOW WE EAT tasting event. I’ve been helping out with the exhibit for the last year. I think it’s going to be all the things a food nerd loves.

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Here’s hoping your Tang is hot and your doughnuts are dunkable.

RECIPE: GLUTEN-FREE BAKED ‘IDITA-DOUGHNUTS’