Another month, another type of donut. At the end of July, I wanted something summer-y. Seasonal. I selected sour cream-blueberry drops. I know, "drops" sound like candy or cookies. Really they are donut holes. Blueberry filled, cinnamon flavored donut holes.
Like last month, I used the recipe book: Donuts by Elinor Klivans.
I had some issues with the dough. It ended up really dry. I just mixed in some milk until the dough was not so dry. Actually, the dough was super sticky. I tried to use a metal spoon to scoop it out as directed, but found it easier to use a cookie sized, ice cream scoop. You shove three blueberries in the middle, making sure the dough completely covers the blueberries so they don't make a suicide jump into the oil while you fry them.
Then pop them in the oil for a little swim and afterwards, sprinkle them in powdered sugar.
They ended up absolutely fantastic, but just to warn you….the blueberries are blazing hot! Like little blue fire bombs. When you get over burning the roof of your mouth, they tasted like sweet, fried, blueberry muffins.
I made a batch of plain ones next and they were excellent too. Then I figured cinnamon flavor would be really good with butterscotch chips. The next batch I traded out the blueberries in one batch. You guessed it. Blazing hot butterscotch! Also amazing.
Now Bake That!
We had friends come over game night. Yes...we be geeks here. I have mentioned it before...but for new readers, my husband plays Dungeons and Dragons. Old school. Supported by dice, books, character game sheets and imagination. I honestly don't play. Yet I don't escape the geek label at all, I just prefer my role playing games with computer graphics. I'm a visual person. Anyway, game night is just as much about throwing dice to defeat monsters as being foodies. Seriously, there are more posts back and forth on Facebook figuring out what to eat than figuring out the date we are playing, which house and who is going to DM (for non-gamers, that means be the dungeon master, but a verb).
When one of my gaming friends found out I was making donuts this year, she gave me two donut cookbooks. This month she requested chocolate and bacon donuts for game night, so I yanked out of the books she gave me.
I have to be honest though. I am getting tired of this quest already. I could bake cookies every day if I didn't have such a full schedule, but making donuts is quite the production. It requires extra set up and the clean up is insane. I mustered up some motivation, but I was starting to feel like that half-asleep guy from the old Dunkin' donut commercials. Time to make the donuts....
I made the buttermilk cake donuts from this book: Donuts by Elinor Klivans
Once I took a bite I realized something. These donuts remind me of something else I love...yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting. It is sort of the same thing. But it's FRIED cake with chocolate glaze and then guess what? BACON. or sprinkles. 
I also used a new oil this time, safflower oil. Which is supposed to be sorta-healthy and good for frying. The results: the donuts were not greasy! Finally!
Now bake that!
I know that hush puppies are not *technically* donuts. If you haven't guessed so far, I do take family requests for food to heart. So when my husband asked for hush puppies, I couldn't, just couldn't, say no.
Though I don't agree with her personal/political views, Paula Deen does know how to make something fried. I used her Hush Puppies recipe off the Food Network website.
They were okay. I don't think it was the recipe. I think I just don't like onions in my cornmeal. I also thought they could be more crispy. Next time I will make them smaller and forget the onions.
Now Bake That!
Once again, Saveur magazine was my guide to this month's donut adventure. I made mini Long Johns with bacon or...
Long John Junior Bacon! Sounds like something I would get at Jack n' the Box or something.
I hear you ask, why mini? Simple. I wanted to try them various ways. Some with custard filling, some without, some glazed with chocolate, some with maple glaze, some with bacon, and some without.
First things first: THEY WERE AMAZING. I was very sad when I realized that I was done making them. Second, I can't think of one good reason not to put bacon on them. Even if you have to have turkey bacon, tofu bacon or kosher beef bacon, they were perfect perched on top of the donut. Crunchy, salty with sweet and chewy.
As for the recipe, it was a little weird compared to other recipes so far. I had to melt crisco with boiling water. I also used a whole packet of yeast, which seemed like a lot for a batch of donuts. They didn't even rise that much. I only use one teaspoon with several of my bread recipes and it turns out great. I'm thinking I can cut back on the yeast for raised donuts too.
The best tip was for how to fill the donuts. I used a skewer and poked two holes on opposite sides of the donut, pushing the dough inside to the edges to make a well. Instead of using a pastry bag to pipe in the filling, I used my cookie press with the decorating tips. The press looks like a caulk gun. Not just for bathrooms boys and girls! Anyway, the main reason I use the press is I think makes it easier to control. In addition, I'm a mom of boys, it is just a whole lot of fun to shoot food from a caulk gun.
The Maple Glaze recipe was also from another section of the very same Saveur magazine. My glaze turned out paler compared to the picture in the magazine, so I must of did a poor measuring job or something. Not that it mattered, it was still delicious. The maple flavor is subtle. It is more of a maple aftertaste, which was perfect with the bacon! Didn't overpower it. Just FYI, the recipe makes a lot of glaze.
My friend and I brainstormed other good uses for that leftover maple glaze. She came up with cinnamon rolls, french toast or drizzled on bread pudding. All wonderful ideas. I just grabbed some graham crackers I gave those a whirl. They were yummy.
Now Bake That!
My parents are visiting this weekend and though I have already tried old fashioned donuts, my mom told me that was her favorite. I had to try again. Maybe this time I will get it right.
I scoured the internet for a different recipe. I just couldn't find one that I wanted to try. So I decided to give the same recipe another go, (Old fashioned sour cream doughnuts) but instead of peanut oil that I did in January's adventure, I did canola like I did in February. I also came up with a plan. I would try it rolled, non-rolled, refrigerate first and non-refrigerated. I would try two different glazes (the one that came with the recipe and my family recipe.)
Trial 1: rolled, non-refrigerated: The donuts didn't look right. The glaze recipe that it came with was my mom's favorite. I liked the family version.
Trial 2: not rolled, non-refrigerated: I formed the donut with greased hands instead of rolling. This time the donuts looked right.
Trial 3: Not rolled, refrigerated: They tasted similarly, it was just easier to shape by hand.
Trial 4: Not rolled, refrigerated, higher temp: I was wondering if I upped the temperature from 325 degrees to 350 would help the flavor. It didn't seem to matter.
None of these adjustments seemed to help too much. I didn't like them again. They were a little greasy. However, by the last batch, they looked pretty!
Now Bake That!
I decided that I should only make donuts late at night. Mostly because that is when we have friends over to give their opinion. I am also hoping that it will keep me from gaining a 100 pounds this year. Fried dough. So dangerous...
After being disappointed with peanut oil last time, I decided to actually follow the recipe's suggestion for oil. Also, instead of making full sized donuts, donut holes seemed like a good choice. This way I could try many coatings without getting too full. I chose Saveur's Powdered Sugar Donut Holes! I used canola oil instead of peanut oil. In addition to powder sugar, I was going to also try out a different glaze and cinnamon sugar coating.
I wasn't disappointed this time. They were great! Or hole lotta awesome! (sorry, bad pun)
The glaze I used was from a family recipe.
Betsy's vanilla glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla
Instead of dipping in the glaze (which I think gets too much on it), I use a pastry brush instead. It worked better than the last time. Plus our friends we had over for dinner both voted that the glazed were actually the best of the three.
Now bake that!
Last week I was wondering if I should bother doing another baking quest, I kept missing months. I had a really tough and busy year in all areas of my life. I wasn't sure if I should bother.
Then I got pumped up again. Several friends asked me about what I was going to make this year. Strangers asked me if I had a New Year's resolutions and I found myself on the "no resolutions but learn a new skill" soapbox. Of course, we all should keep working on being healthier and give up bad habits. It's just not as fun or delicious! So I'm sticking to my ongoing baking quest even though I really struggled this year fitting in the time to do it.
The tough part was figuring out what to make. I like to pick stuff that I struggle with or have no clue where to begin. I was considering layer cakes (like fancy ones or the ones that a Grandma would make), pastries, bars or donuts. I narrowed it down to donuts and cake. I was still torn.
I did an informal poll amongst my friends via text message and Facebook to help me decide.
Drum roll....
I'm making donuts for 2014!
Right now I drive 15 minutes to get decent donuts from one of those little mom and pop places called Baker's Dozen in Overland, Missouri (they don't have a website). Ya know...where it's owned by local. Where the only other thing they sell are beverages. No barista with multiple sentence, complicated orders. It's coffee (regular and decaf) and a refrigerated case with soda, juice and milk. Most importantly, they have real donuts. Crispy on the outside, tender and fluffy on the inside. Not greasy. The kind I want to know how to make.
Cake donuts. Raised Donuts. Fritters. Iced. Glazed. Sprinkled. Sugar coated. Spiced. Savory with sweet.
I have tried homemade donuts only once before. I made them for Chanukah years ago. I used vegetable oil and fried them in a dutch oven on my stovetop with a candy thermometer. I struggled keeping the temperature constant. The oil got too hot at some point and it broke my candy thermometer. They also had a weird vegetable oil aftertaste. The kind that coats your tongue in a gross way.
My plan is to make donuts that would make Homer Simpson murmur dreamily (mmm. Donuts). I had a couple of things to figure out first.
Deep fat fryer
I need to make sure I don't have to worry about stocking up on candy thermometers.
I did a little research on the best fryers thanks to an article in March 2013's edition of Saveur which did a whole feature on donuts. Then armed with coupons we bought the Waring Pro at Bed Bath and Beyond.
Different oil
I want to get rid of that greasy aftertaste. Saveur listed several to try (Canola, Safflower, Peanut). I am going to try them and figure out my favorite.
Attempt 1: Top Pot Sour Cream Old Fashioned Donuts
I found the recipe on The Messy Baker's blog. I made a couple of adjustments. I tried them with peanut oil. Instead of rolling them out, I hand shaped them (Saveur tip) so they wouldn't be too tough.
I made them unglazed, with chocolate icing and sprinkles (my youngest's preference) and regular vanilla glaze.
Honestly, I thought they were just okay. The good news is that they weren't greasy. What was wrong though? I don't know if it was the nutty flavor of the peanut oil that I didn't like. Perhaps it was because I found the crispy outside-fluffy inside ratio was off (too crispy). I might have cooked them too long. Or even though I didn't roll them out, they seemed sort of tough. I also didn't get the glaze right. It wasn't translucent. Anyway, I have all year to figure it out.
However, my husband liked the crunchiness. My youngest gave them a 7 (out of 10). So not bad for a first try.
Now Bake That! (or fry it)
Well not quite "December". I'm a few days late. Sorry readers! Anyway.
Sourdough bread. It seems intimidating. In fact, it's been so intimidating that I have been putting it off all year. So I decided I need to find a simple version of it. I found it....Alton Brown's Knead Not Sourdough!
The lack of kneading wasn't what attracted me to the recipe. My 6qt Kitchenaid mixer is my iron work horse. It's the lack of complicated, multiple steps that drew me in. You mix it and leave it on the counter for 19 hours. Then roll it a little in some flour and let rise it again in a tea towel. Since I just got home from holiday traveling and I'm behind on my deadline, sign me up for simple and easy!
This is what it looked like after resting for 19 hours. Super bubbly.
Okay, it wasn't with some, um, issues. You have to preheat a dutch oven and then pull it out and slide the fermented dough in it. It stuck on an edge and I decided to give it a quick shake to get it in. I forgot to use hot pads. Oops! I burnt my thumb and finger. Burn gel, five bandaids later and a set of latex gloves and I was ready to keep on going.
Now I did one extra trick, which I learned from making ciabatta. The bread is first baked with dutch oven's cover on. Then you uncover it for the last 15 minutes of baking. When I uncovered it (with hot pads on this time), I sprayed my oven walls with water using a squirt gun to create steam and to make that crispy crust.
Here are the results:
The squirt gun trick worked. The crust was crispy and chewy and the insides fluffy.
My husband said it was amazing! He also warned me that the loaf might be "missing" in the morning.
Compared to sourdough I have had other places it didn't have a super strong sourdough flavor. Probably because it wasn't made from an aged starter. Slightly sour worked just fine though because it tasted amazing to me too!
Now Bake That!
