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.

Meringue Treats

My daughters favorite cookie is a meringue cookie so when I have a ton of egg whites left over from making custards or ice-cream I save the whites for her favorite treat.

These sweetened egg white fluffy clouds are easy to make and can be further flavored with extracts, zests, chocolate bits etc.

There are 3 different kinds of meringues:

French

• the most widely used by us home chefs. Egg whites are beaten with sugar till stiff peaks form. The french meringues are the least stable of the three and need to be piped or shaped and placed in the oven right away or they will start to fall. A pinch of salt or cream of tartar helps to stabilize the mixture.
• the resulting mixture produces light, crisp exterior, soft interior cookies that are delicious 🙂

Italian

• a hot sugar syrup is beaten into the egg whites till stiff peaks form. This is a more stable meringue and can be used in various desserts without collapsing. This is a more dense meringue that is well suited for frostings, pies etc.

Swiss

• the egg whites and sugar are whisked over boiling water (double broiler type of method) till the sugar dissolves, then taken off the heat and beat till stiff peaks form. This is also more stable then the french method but produces a denser cookie.

 

My Secret Base Recipe for French Meringue’s

Basically it is all about ratio’s for the meringue. Two large egg whites is equal to a  1/4 cup. You need to add a 1/2 cup of sugar to this or to simplify things you need to add 1/4 cup of sugar to every large egg white used. To this recipe add a pinch of salt or pinch of cream of tartar to help stabilize the mixture and any flavoring you would like.

I had:

• 6 large egg whites
• 1 1/4 cup of sugar
• pinch of cream of tartar
• pinch of salt (yes I used both because this will make a large batch of cookies)
• 1/2 vanilla bean scraped

Directions:

Place egg whites and vanilla bean in clean bowl with whisk attachment and blend till soft peaks form.

Add your salt, cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds. Now start mixing in your sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time till it turns glossy, increases in volume and stiff peaks form.

You can check to see if all sugar is dissolved by rubbing a bit of the batter between your fingers, if it feels gritty then back to the whisking for another minute or so.

You MUST MUST use parchment paper!! Not wax paper but parchment paper. Place a dab of your mixture on each corner of the sheet pan to hold down your paper.

Pipe cookies onto parchment paper and bake in 200 degree farenheit oven for 1 1/2 hours. Turn stove off and crack open the oven and let rest in the oven for another 30 minutes. The cookies should come off parchment paper easily, if they are sticking they are not dehydrated enough and you need to cook them a bit more.

To add some fun I painted 3 lines in my piping bag of some food coloring and then added my fluffy goodness to the bag.

Pretty huh?

 

Now here is an important tip. Once your cookies are completely cooled store immediately in an airtight container or they will become tacky.

Happy Baking!!

 

Hmm pink and blue……great to make for a baby shower!!

 

Meringue Cookies

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

 

• 6 large egg whites
• 1 1/4 cup of sugar
• pinch of cream of tartar
• pinch of salt (yes I used both because this will make a large batch of cookies)
• 1/2 vanilla bean scraped

Directions:

Place egg whites and vanilla bean in clean bowl with whisk attachment and blend till soft peaks form.

Add your salt, cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds. Now start mixing in your sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time till it turns glossy, increases in volume and stiff peaks form.

Pipe cookies onto parchment paper and bake in 200 degree farenheit oven for 1 1/2 hours. Turn stove off and crack open the oven and let rest in the oven for another 30 minutes. The cookies should come off parchment paper easily, if they are sticking they are not dehydrated enough and you need to cook them a bit more.

Roasted Leg of Lamb with Fig-Port Wine Sauce

My family loves lamb! I won’t lie there are a lot of steps to this recipe but the end result is worth it! Have you ever had lamb that was on the “gamey” side? The trick is to remove the silvery connective tissue on a leg of lamb, trimming off some fat as well. Then brining the lamb in salt/sugar/garlic solution for a few hours. I then rub a herb paste over the roast and let marinade for a few more hours. To make sure the roast cooks evenly I wrap tightly with twine. I threw this on the traegar med- high heat for 40 min or so till medium rare.

First off:

Trim the roasts fat and silvery connective tissue off of the roast.

The Brine:

Take a large container and add 2 quarts of water, 1/4 cup salt, 8 mashed garlic cloves, 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 tsp of peppercorns.

CHECK this shot out. Doesn’t it look like some nasty weird Mad Scientists brew 😉

Igor’s Secret Kitchen Brew! lol 🙂

Put this in the fridge for at least a few hours.

The herb Paste:

Ok so basically this is similar to a pesto minus the nuts.

I had about 1 tbsp of rosemary, 2 tsp of thyme, 1/2 cup of parsley, 2 garlic cloves and EVOO

I mixed everything in the food processor and drizzled in my olive oil aprox 1/4 cup

This gets smeared all over the meat and chilled for a few more hours to marinade. I use kitchen twine to get it back into a roast form then I grilled this on my traegar for about 40 minutes till medium rare. If you are wanting to use a regular barbecue please cook this with indirect heat. A traegar grill is a wood pellet grill that works the same as a normal convection oven with the smokey benefits of a wood fire stove.

Serve with Fig-Port sauce

 

Fig-Port Wine Sauce

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 30min
• Difficulty: easy
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The Fig-Port wine Sauce:

Ingredients:

• 8 mission dried figs
• 2 cup of port
• 1  cup of chicken stock
• 1 cinnamon stick
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tsp of fresh thyme
• 2 tsp of fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsp of butter

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and reduce liquids by half. Discard the cinnamon stick and place the sauce in a food processor. Puree the sauce till smooth then blend in the butter and serve with the lamb 🙂

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 🙂

 

Heirloom Tomato Salad

This is so easy I think my pics will tell you the recipe 🙂

Fresh heirloom tomatoes chopped.

Add Salt and Pepper, drizzle of balsamic vinegar and EVOO

Add Fresh Basil

Cheese of choice, traditional Mozzarella or I used Feta here 🙂

ENJOY!!