Homemade Donuts

Homemade Donuts

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 2 hrs
• Difficulty: moderate
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Ingredients:

• 5 cups of flour
• 1 1/2 tsp of salt
• 4 tsp of instant rapid rise yeast
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp of freshly ground nutmeg(optional) do not use regular ground nutmeg if you must then just use 1/4 tsp
• 2 cups of scalded milk
• 5 tbsp of vegetable shortening

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients together. Whisk to incorporate.

In a small saucepan combine your milk and vegetable shortening and bring to a simmer (scald). Once your vegetable shortening has melted, turn off the heat. Let the milk cool down to lukewarm. Make sure your milk mixture is not to hot or you will kill the yeast and the dough will not rise. (around 100 degrees F)

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a dough hook for 10 minutes or so. This is a very wet dough but the dough should clear the sides of your mixer. If the dough does not clear the sides of the bowl and is still very wet then keep adding more flour 1/4 cup at a time, until you get the right consistency. If you do not have a mixer and are kneading by hand this high hydration dough needs to be mixed by the stretch and fold method. You can watch Peter Reinhardt explain this technique. Use pam instead of olive oil as Peter does since we are making a dessert dough olive oil will be …well just weird 🙂 That all said and done this dough is not an 80 %  hydration dough and it is not quite regular bread dough (60%). Without doing the baker’s math right now I am going to guess-timate it to be around 68%  It should feel slightly tacky when you are done with the kneading.

Alright leave the dough rise for an hour in a greased bowl and cover the dough. I put plastic wrap right over my dough loosely then a tea towel on top of the bowl. The reason I do this is to prevent any of the dough from loosing moisture and developing a skin on top. After an hour take your dough and roll it out into a big rectangle approx 1/2 inch thick. Use two different size cookie cutters and start cutting out your donuts and holes 🙂

I also fried the donut holes and sprinkled them with powdered sugar when they come out. Yum. As you can see I also left some whole and piped in some jelly and lemon curd then dusted those with icing sugar as well.

Ok once all your donuts are cut out let them rise again till double in size.

In the meantime take out your fryer if you have one or else put vegetable oil in a heavy large pot, (dutch ovens work great). When you are ready to start cooking heat your oil to 375 degrees F.

Place 4 donuts (or however many will fit without overcrowding) If you overcrowd the donuts in the hot oil this will bring the temperature down drastically and your dough will absorb the oil and become greasy and heavy YUCK. So just a few at a time. The donuts will cook 1 min per side. Then let them cool on a wire rack.

The next step is the best step. Dip your donuts in whatever concoction suits your fancy or sprinkle with sugar, coconut etc. AND EAT!! YUM

I just used a little milk, icing sugar and few drops of vanilla extract to make my glaze. The chocolate glaze started off like the clear + chocolate chips and a pat of butter whisked over a double broiler until silky and shiny.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

• Servings: 6-8
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp of ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp of freshly grated nutmeg
• 3 cups of old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup of raisins

Directions:

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

Cream together the butter and sugars till light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and beat till smooth. In another bowl combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar.

Stir in the oats and raisins just until combined. Drop by tablespoon unto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 min till golden brown.

Apple-Fig Cookie with Caramel Icing Drizzle

Apple Fig Cookies

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of butter
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp of vanilla
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp of baking soda
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp of cloves
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg (I used freshly grated nutmeg)
• 2 granny smith apples peeled and grated (should equal 1 cup -1 1/4 cups)
• 1 cup of finely chopped dried figs

Directions:

First off,  turn your oven on to 400 degrees F. Beat the butter, sugar, and egg until smooth. Add the vanilla and the grated apples till combined. Stir together the dry ingredients (flour, salt and spices) and add them to the wet ingredients. Lastly add your figs and stir just until the ingredients come together.   Over stirring will = tough cookies. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Cook for 10 min. Allow to cool to room temperature on a rack before adding the icing.

 

Caramel Icing

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 15min
• Difficulty: easy
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Caramel Icing:

• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1 tbsp of cream
• 1 cup of icing sugar

Directions:

In a small saucepan brown the butter until a medium golden color. Off heat add the vanilla and cream. Whisk in the icing sugar and stir till smooth. Drizzle over cooled apple cookies.

Carnival Food…..The Corn Dog

I told my kids we would have a carnival dinner for fun one night. So I decided on corn dogs and a Sundae Bar.  Let me just start off by saying I rarely ever deep fry food! Super unhealthy but if I only do this once a year with the kids then I can splurge a little.

As it turned out the corn dogs were very delicious but heavy on the stomach and I decided to save their sundae bar for another time. Pics will follow when I have this desert sometime soon.

Corn Dogs

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of corn meal
• 1 1/4 cup of flour
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of milk
• 4 tsp of baking powder
•  1/4 cup of sugar
• pinch of salt
• hotdogs on a stick (I used wooden skewers I had for the barbecue)
• cooking oil

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together and skewer your hotdogs on a stick. I poured the batter in a tall cup so I can dip the dogs in easily and they get all covered with batter easily.  I placed enough vegetable oil to go up the side of the dutch oven aproximately 2 inches.Preheat oil to 375 degrees F. Gently lay the corn dog in the oil and rotate after 10 seconds so the batter adheres perfectly in thickness on all sides then allow to turn golden brown on all sides. I just kept rotating them.

Cool on paper towel for few minutes, serve with your favorite condiments 🙂

 

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies with a Twist

As promised here is the recipe from my knitting class.  I was inspired by Egos and Buffaloes and her love of Orange/Chocolate combinations.

She has some wonderful baking recipes.

Ok so the twist is I put Orange zest and a squeeze of fresh juice in the batter.  It is wonderful! Hope you enjoy!

• Servings: 8
• Time: 1hr
• Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

• 1 cup of butter
• 3/4 cups of sugar
• 3/4 cups of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp of fresh orange zest and 1 tbsp of fresh orange juice ( I zested 2 oranges)
• 1 1/4 cups of flour
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 1/4 tsp of baking soda
• 2 cups of bittersweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup of pecans chopped small

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cream the sugars and butter together untill fluffy, add the eggs, vanilla, orange zest and orange juice. Cream well untill light and fluffy.  Take all the dry ingredients and mix well, then add to your creamy mixture. Mix just until the flour is incorporated. Add your nuts and chocolate chips and give it a few more stirs to incorporate them in the dough. Drop by heaping tbsp onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or till the edges start to turn golden brown. Let cool and enjoy 🙂