New Year's Resolution Take 3: Donuts!

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)

Slightly sour December

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!

Breakfast bread: English muffins

Okay, I missed both September and October. We were out of town way too much. There was just no way. No way at all! Anyway...on to November.

I love breakfast for dinner. Since I work, I usually cram a yogurt and a bar for breakfast during the week and then weekends get crazy with the kids' activities. This leaves little time for a real breakfast. You know. Real.

So one weekend night I made English muffins. I know it says "muffins" which is not what you think of when someone says they are making bread, but it uses yeast. So it's bread enough for this quest. I got the recipe from Alton Brown.

It was interesting to pan fry the dough before putting them in the oven for the rest of the baking process. You have to be careful and watch them when frying. The cornmeal can burn quickly.

After we made the muffins, we made eggs and built sandwiches. So awesome I realized I hadn't taken a picture of the sandwich. They were gobbled up so fast!

Now Bake That!

Cheater cornbread muffins

Yeah. Life gets insanely busy with the beginning of the school year. I realized I ran out of time and it is the end of August. The thought of sneaking in making real yeast bread seemed exhausting. I just made chili and from-scratch cornbread muffins. The word "bread" is in there!!

I used the recipe on the side of the box of Quaker cornmeal. Not very original, but they were yummy.

Now bake that!

Parker house roll sliders

I missed June due to out of town guests and travel. No worries right? We were having an impromptu party for the 4th of July. We were grilling sliders so I decided to make rolls that could be used as buns. I used this from Baking Illustrated cookbook, which I won't violate copyright law to reprint on my blog. However, you can also find the recipe here via Bobby Flay on the Food network website.

They were excellent! Super buttery and yummy.

Now bake that!

Braiding brioche

This month I chose to try: Brioche. Looking at the recipe itself, it looks like fancy schmancy challah really...with butter.

I admit it. The only reason I made brioche is so I can make it into something else...

Now the tricky part was how to shape it. There were all sorts of options. Put it in a loaf pan, shaped pan, etc. I decided to go easy. I braid challah in a round for Rosh Hashana so I did the same for the brioche. 

So pretty!

It made killer french toast.

It also was incredible for bread pudding, which became my husband's birthday dessert (he doesn't care for cake).

Now bake that!

All booked up

One of my co-workers is retiring. She is the librarian for our Assistive Technology-Instructional Materials library at the Special Education collaborative I work for.

Not only is my friend super amazing, we spent some fun times outside of work going swing dancing so I wanted to do something extra, extra special for her retirement. It helped that we had two parties for her.

Our first party was at the office. I made her a Kransekaka (I have made it before, see the link here for Rings of Glory for more information). I tried a different recipe, nearly identical to this link from Artic Grub.

The difference from the online recipe is that I made chocolate icing and put on little flower shaped sprinkles. Traditionally you put a bottle of wine inside. But I didn't want anyone to get in trouble at work, so there is a small bottle of lemon flavored Perrier inside.

Later in the month we had a party outside of work at a local bar and grill. Here is where I got more creative. Since she is a librarian, I made books on a stick!

Here is how I made them:

1. I made a from scratch, yellow cake in a cookie sheet (or jelly roll pan, which is what we called them growing up) and cut them into rectangles




2. I melted a few candy melts in a bowl. I dipped the sticks into the candy and then poked
the rectangles. I froze the cake pops for 30 minutes.
 

3. I dipped the cake pops in white candy melts and let them dry. Sorry no picture of that.

4. Then I cut the sugar sheets into rectangles with a kitchen scissors.


I wrote on a few of the sugar sheet rectangles with Wilton writing pens (food coloring). Treating the candy melts like glue, I spread a little of melted candy on the cake pop. I wrapped the cut sugar sheet around the cake pop like a book cover.

 

5. Then I rolled out some shape-n-amaze edible dough and cut out book mark shapes with a knife. I used a little melted candy as glue again to keep the bookmark on the cake pop.

Ta-da!

Then I ran out of sugar sheets! Here is the bad part about baking at 11pm at night. No store with sugar sheets would be open. So I had to improvise. I rolled out some of the shape and amaze and used it as book covers. I used scraps of yellow sugar sheets to make yellow bookmarks.

The best was that my friend LOVED the the cake pops and they were completely personalized to her.

Now Bake That!