I’ve mentioned in my quiche post that I’m not one for sweets in the morning. Give me something cheesy/salty/eggy in the morning and I fare much better (not to mention that the protein holds me over to lunch much better than something sweet and carb-loaded). David, on the other hand, really enjoys the heavy, sweet pastries known to grace many people’s breakfasts.
Since I’ve been so focused on getting all the intricate details of my shop worked out and spending a lot of time crafting/researching/glued to the computer, I haven’t spent a lot of one-on-one time with him and am trying to find ways to break away from “work” so we can have some couple time. This morning, I decided to indulge one of his favorites and try my hand at making doughnuts.
Let me be completely honest – I’ve never deep-fried anything. Visions of a burning house have kept me away from trying to heat up 3 inches of oil in a saucepan upwards of 400 degrees. But this morning, with a Costco-size bag of baking soda nearby and with a recent purchase of a candy thermometer (which can also be used for frying), I made history in this household. And you know what, it was so much easier and even tastier than I could have imagined.
The recipe is here, at my favorite cooking site, AllRecipes.com: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Crispy-and-Creamy-Doughnuts/Detail.aspx
Seriously, this is not a difficult recipe at all and sure, while it’s not diet-friendly, it’s good for an every-once-in-a-while treat. These guys really do taste like Krispy Kreme doughnuts, especially while still warm. It does take time with the rising of the dough twice, but so worth the wait. Oh, and I don’t have a biscuit cutter so I use what I have on hand that doesn’t require an additional kitchen-gadget purchase. For the outer ring of the doughnut, I used a very-well-washed-out tuna can; for the inner hole, I used the mouth of a glass jar that used to hold spices. Easy, free and environmentally sound.
I made 3 kinds – glazed, chai spice (recipe below), and cinnamon sugar. This made for 15 donuts, 15 donut holes and the leftover dough I rolled out into long, thin tubes (for lack of a better term, brain misfiring right now!) and will be making cinnamon twists at a later date. Clearly I should have halved the recipe because I had to put the donut holes/twists back in the fridge (in their dough state) because it’s just too much for us – although David did eat 6 doughnuts in one sitting and when I offered to either give some to the neighbors or keep for later this week, he quickly agreed to the latter!
For the chai- spice, I used the recipe in “Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day” – which is where I get my bread recipe (link to the right) originally published in Mother Earth News. I had this book on hold for a couple weeks at the library, it finally came in yesterday and I perused it before bed. In there, they had a recipe for chai-spice doughnuts. However, their dough requires hours of rising, so I chose to use the “quicker” recipe for the doughnuts from AllRecipes, yet the sugar-coating from the book:
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ginger
- 1/2 tsp. cardamom
- 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
Yum. Actually all 3 flavors were great, although using the icing provided in the recipe is fantastic and really makes it taste like the authentic glazed doughnut at Krispy Kreme.
Although I’ve mentioned the famous doughnut shop a few times in this post, I’d be remiss not to include Homer Simpson when speaking of doughnuts. So in closing, I will honor his famous line which pretty sums up this DIY project:
Mmm, dooooouuughnuts!
