Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Never Thought I’d Make Glazed Donuts!

The cliché you always want what you can’t have stands as a hard truth for me.  I’ve heard some of my lady friends say that this is a typical male trait, maybe so, but this is basically what has happened to me since my move to Peru.  Peanut Butter was never something I would consider eating as a delicacy, but here I find myself defending my jars of JIF like a drug addict his last hit of cocaine.  These things I want so badly are things I just took for granted in the States.  I can count on one hand the amount of times I had Peanut Butter in a year, but now it just reminds me of home, AND. THAT’S. WHY. I. NEED. IT!

I was never a huge fan of donuts as a kid.  I think the worst are the kind you buy from your locally owned grocery store… you know the ones that feel like you stuck a cotton ball in your mouth and need a gallon of milk to save your tongue from drying up.  My two favorite donuts are the boring glazed and the dangerous jelly-filled.  I always happen to be wearing a white shirt without a Tide To-Go pen when I eat jelly donuts, it’s risky business, but I like the rush.

Because donuts are in about every grocery store nationwide… in the States, it’s not popularly thought to make your own.  Being in a foreign country, on the other hand, where donuts are like a nearly forgotten story, I am faced with making them as my only option for bringing a piece of home to Peru.

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I found this donut recipe via Joy the Baker, a woman blogger of wit and heavenly kitchen talent.  I envy her in more than simply her creativity with words and flour, but I imagine that her cupboards are full of all the usual kitchen necessities, while I have to make a molasses substitute out of something called Chancaca… honestly would you eat something eagerly with that name? 

Joy said on her blog to not schedule anything when you are making these donuts.  Stop everything.  Take the night off.  Tell your friends you’re sick and can’t go out.  You really will need the evening to make these… and don’t be a fool like me and decide to start at seven.  You will be up until midnight.

Classic Donuts
via Joy the Baker

makes 12 donuts

1 (1/4-oz) package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons warm water (105–115°F)
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for sprinkling and rolling out dough
1 cup whole milk at room temperature
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
3 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
About 10 cups vegetable oil for deep frying (this is debatable)

Donut Glaze
via Alton Brown

1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners' sugar
(how easy is that?!)

Not only does the recipe make just donuts but also donut holes.  They also function to make a nice gage as to whether the oil is too hot or not hot enough before you go all gung-ho and burn all your perfectly formed donuts.    

So, I go to my handicapped kitchen and fight the impossibilities to make a dozen glazed donuts.  Here were my handicaps for this recipe.

  • I didn’t have confectioner’s sugar, and it’s expensive here
  • I don’t have a rolling pin
  • No cookie cutters for cutting out the donuts (it’s not that big of a handicap, but it’s there nonetheless)
  • I don’t have a thermometer to gage how hot the oil is
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The first thing to do is get your yeast mixture prepared.  So, in a cup or small bowl combine the yeast and warm water and let sit until it is foamy (should take at least 5 minutes).  If it doesn’t foam your yeast may be bad or you just need to start over.

When your yeast is foamy combine your flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, butter, yolks, milk and yeast mixture in a large mixing bowl.  Now, Joy suggested using a mixer, but the only mixer we have might as well be from and little girl’s Easy Bake toy set (chinsey!).  I tried and the dough just was too thick, so I put the toy away and just used my hands.  It is a dough after all!  It’s half the fun of making bread kneading the dough.  So, go ahead.  Take off your rings and your brass knuckles and get your hands dirty. 

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Once you have kneaded it well, I kneaded mine for about 5-6 minutes, sprinkle some flour over top and put aside to let rise for 1 1/2-2 hrs (Joy said you can alternatively put it in the fridge overnight for 8-12 hours so you can cook them for the morning).

IMG_9828 A neat trick that I learned from another blogger that I used this time was to throw a small cup of water in the microwave and nuke it for 3-4 minutes.  When you pull it out the microwave is warm and humid inside.  So, you quickly exchange the glass of water for your bowl of dough and let the dough rise the time you need it to.  Commenters… is this a good idea?

Once your dough has doubled in size turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out!  Handicap: I don’t have a rolling pin.  So, I used Kristen’s metal water bottle to roll it out.  Worked like a charm!  Roll the dough out to a 12” round so the dough measures about 1/2” thickness.

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Handicap: I don’t have any cookie cutters so, I just used a cup and to make the hole in the center of the donuts I used a pop bottle cap.  Cut out your donut shapes and place them in a cookie sheet, cake pan, whatever as long as it’s lightly floured.  Cover with a clean towel and set aside in a draft-free area and let rise 30 minutes.  They should puff up slightly.

Quick side note: your technically not supposed to reroll the scraps of dough, but you will be left with a ton of waste.  To ensure that you don’t botch the amount of dough you’re using take whatever you decide to cut your dough with and lightly press it down around the dough to make slight indents where you plan to cut (see the picture above).  If you discover you have a lot of waste and could cut it better take your hand and brush over the dough with slight pressure and start over until you get the most donuts you can out of your dough.  I did, however, roll up the rest of the dough and cut small dots to make more donut holes like so:

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After your thirty minutes are up you’re ready to fry these babies up!  Here is my other Handicap.  I thought this was the most challenging part.  The recipe calls for the oil to be at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and like I said before, I don’t have a thermometer.  So, I looked up some advice as to what to do online.  I found some tips:

  • Preheat the oil and dip the handle of a wooden spoon into the oil.  If it bubbles mildly you’re good to start frying.  If it bubbles furiously, the oil is too hot and needs to cool.
  • Preheat the oil and drop a small square of bread into the oil.  If it browns in 60 seconds the oil is at 365 degrees Fahrenheit.
  • While the oil is preheating drop a corn kernel in the oil and when it pops the oil has reached from 350 to 360.

Luckily, I had means of testing all three of these, but I chose the third option.

IMG_9859 Pour oil into a large heavy-duty pan until you’ve got 2 1/2” (may be about ten cups…).  Preheat and when you’re oil is ready, which if you have a thermometer then by all means use it you need to be at 350, cook two or three donuts at a time for about 2 minutes flipping them rather often.  Remove them with a metal slotted spoon… it’s probably best not to use anything plastic or silicon, I don’t know that for sure, but it just seems wise.  Place your finished donuts on a plate with a paper towel to let them cool.

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     These look just about done!

Here are your donut holes.  Right after taking them out of the oil you can roll them in powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar

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Let’s talk about glaze!  This is pretty simple.  Throw your milk and vanilla in a medium sauce pan over a low heat.  Once this is warm start whisking in the powdered sugar little by little.  Here is my last Handicap.  I didn’t have powdered sugar, so I took white sugar and threw it in a blender and pulsed it for about fifteen minutes.  What came out was as close to powdered sugar as I was going to get.  I used this and the glaze turned out glazy, but it was slightly gritty.  Next time I’m going to use real powdered sugar and add a bit more milk to make the mixture thinner, it was just too thick. 

You’re supposed to put the donuts on a rack to drip dry for 5 minutes, but I just didn’t have that so I put them on plates!  It just made it harder to peel them off, but they still tasted GREAT!

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Huh?

Oh?

Oh YEAAAA!

ENJOY!