An experiment in donuts. . .

Donut or Doughnut?  Which one do you choose?  I cannot decide, and I keep switching back and forth.  After drooling over this waffleizer post, I decided that I HAD to have these doughnuts.


Note: One batch, really is enough.  At the same time, if you have problems with scale (read: me), then you make two batches.  My eyes are still watering from the oil in the air.  


Ingredients:
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
3 tablespoons butter
3 cups (12.75 ounces) flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup strong coffee, cooled--as I do not drink coffee, so don't have it on hand, we mixed water with cocoa and added it in.
Canola oil for frying

Directions:
1. In a glass bowl or measuring cup, combine the bittersweet chocolate and butter. Microwave, stirring every 30 seconds or so, until the chocolate and butter have melted and are combined. Set aside.  
2. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa. Set aside.


Note: this made the house smell like a chocolate lover's dream.  


3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat together the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until lightened in color, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the sour cream, vanilla and melted chocolate.
4. Gently beat half of the flour mixture, a spoonful at a time, into the egg mixture, then beat in the coffee. Continue to beat in the rest of the flour mixture, a spoonful at a time, until all of the ingredients are combined and a sticky dough is formed.  


Note: if you are using a stand mixer, you should have used the bread hook, if you are using a hand mixer, about halfway through the flour, you will have switched to a spoon--and then your hands (picture coming shortly). It will be sticky.  

5. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough into a round just over one-half inch in thickness. Using a doughnut cutter, or 2 biscuit cutters (a larger one measuring 3 to 3 1/2 inches in diameter, and a smaller one measuring about 1 inch in diameter), cut the dough into doughnuts, spacing the doughnuts as close as possible. Collect the scraps and roll out to form another batch of doughnuts (note that this batch may be a little tougher than the first as the dough has been worked).


Note: Use a lot of flour on the surface you are rolling--in fact, roll on parchment or wax paper--it will make your life easier.  Also, with a double batch, we rolled out a few times, and it got easier. We also rolled it between wax paper, to make it less sticky, kind of.  Also, we tried a few different sizes.  The size of a goblet with middle of the vanilla cap was the best size, though the donut holes were delicious!


6. Fill a deep fryer with oil, or fill a large pot to a depth of at least 3 inches, and heat to a temperature of 350 degrees.
7. Gently place the doughnuts in the fryer, being careful not to crowd. Fry the doughnuts on each side until puffed and golden, about 4 minutes, flipping every 30 seconds or so.


Note: this is an experimental process.  Because the dough is dark, you have to make sure the oil isn't too hot, and that the donut is cooked all the way through (though we didn't mind some of the doughy in the middle ones--it is like brownie batter, so not a lot of bad there). It puffs on the side in the oil, so make sure you flip them well. These will not hold onto the oil, so you really just need paper towels to drain onto.  

8. Drain the doughnuts on a rack and cool slightly, then frost and decorate as desired.


Note: See the next post for the glaze.  LOVE the glaze. . . 


My thoughts:
I'd definitely make these again.  They are extremely dense, so you cannot eat a lot of them.  Well, you can, but, you know. . .  Also, the recipe says they take an hour, but they take more than an hour if you double the recipe.  I recently watched an episode of Top Chef Masters where they made a honey bacon donut, so that may be next in the donut experiment.  


I'm still trying to get the smell of the fair out of my house, so I am not loving that, but when you bite into one you've just glazed, and it all melts together in a smooth lusciousness of chocolate, you kind of don't mind.   I cannot wait to have them for breakfast tomorrow.  

Tantilizing Photos

I've been drawn to amazing pictures lately, but I've really been enjoying gorgeously rendered food photographs. Click on the image, and you can zoom in. Anything you haven't been able to look away from?

Many thanks to Fosters Market, Pixdaus, Waffleizer, Say Yes! to Hoboken, and A Cup of Jo.

P.S. Happy Easter!

Around the Web in Foodie Posts: Randomness

My favorites from the past few weeks:

• Pie Pops - brilliant!
• A menu plan for Sunday School
• Waffleizer - fabulous new blog I have stumbled across. This is genius!
• Ironman meets Ironchef - if you are into working out and cooking, do not miss this year's!
• Eating light for the new year
• An amazing way to reuse your lemon peel.
• A defense of crisco - it really does make the best pie crust!
• A conversation about school lunches.
• Gorgeous pictures of a Paris open-air market.
• Cocoa brownies to die for
• A restaurant in a tree!
• Bizarre Lady Gaga cookies
• Superbowl recipes! - just in time for this weekend!

ETA: Sorry, I have been MIA of late. I'm working on it.

Dining In: Waffle Bar

Deeply pocketed squares or small-holed round waffles? That was the question of the day yesterday as a few of us met to enjoy a dining in waffle bar and plan the structure of Dining Outs to come. Marti is all for the small rounds--that way they evenly hold all of your goodies and no one divot gets too much topping--equality in bite. I normally agree, but for some reason yesterday, I was reaching for the square waffles with the deeper holes. Strange. It is the dilemma of a two waffle iron house--choices, choices.

With strawberry puree, chocolate sauce, syrup, or the funky French cookie spread (that was like 5000 calories per 1/4 cup), and a healthy dose of whipped cream, we chatted about food, farmers markets, and so much more. The end was spent lazily talking about our Saturday plans as we nibbled grapes, pineapple, and a little bacon.

All in all, I felt I learned more about the other sisters who were there--and I cannot wait for next month's. Mac & Cheese party at Marti's (we'll have a date for you shortly). Make Mac & Cheese, bring a recipe, and try some of everything (and remember, you can bring friends, even if it is just to steal their amazing mac & cheese recipe). I recently made a three-cheese, ham and asparagus, mac & cheese that was delicious; but I am going to have to really think about what I am going to bring next month. Mac & Cheese Dining In will be the stuff that dreams are made of.

Easy Dessert: Fruit Pizza

To celebrate the warm weather we have been having lately I decided dessert should include FRUIT!

This is an easy recipe and one you can be creative with too!

Fruit Pizza

1 small pkg sugar cookie dough
8oz cream cheese
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
fruit of any variety (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, grapes, bananas, kiwi, etc)

1. Roll out cookie dough into a thin shape (circle, square, triangle, you decide) on a cookie sheet. Bake as directed on package.
2. Cool completely.
3. Mix cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, egg and vanilla.
4. Spread on cookie. Place in oven at 350 for 4 - 7 mins until mixture melts.
5. Now pile on the fruit...be creative! (I opted for a circular design yet only got a picture of half as it was being consumed)
6. Refrigerate for about 15 mins, to allow everything to stay in place.
7. Serve in slices like a pizza and ENJOY!

Fried Jelly Sandwiches

My sweet, loving roommate often likes to accuse me of remembering her childhood better than she does. I do--mostly because some of what I remember is what she wouldn't. Miss B had a few semi-sibling inspired accidents as a kid. Once while Nathan or I were supposed to be watching her, she grabbed Mom's curling iron and burned her poor little hand to nearly a crisp. The weekend after, we visited friends of my parents (whose name for the life of me I cannot remember). That trip included a visit to the local dump to watch the local bears dine, multiple walks in the woods (which you don't get a lot of in the Midwest--B's first comment on my first apartment here in Chapel Hill? "It is like living at camp!"), and an explosion of delicate flavor on my tongue as I tasted these amazing creations for the first time.

Years later, in my second year at girls' camp, one of the extra goals to pass off was "bring a recipe and prepare it." Being the overachiever that I was, I decided to bring this delicious recipe. Yep, in a cast iron skillet, I deep fried jelly sandwiches. They were such a hit, that the next two years, the other girls in my year begged that I make them again--and I did.

Ruth's Birthday Jubilee has been happening now for a few years. If you know Ruth, one of her favorite events is the North Carolina State Fair. The girl could give tours of the best food places at the fair with a map of what order to eat them in (deep fried Oreos, Methodist ham biscuits, a pineapple whip halfway through to cleanse the palate in order to keep going). In order to bring October's State Fair to February, fried jelly sandwiches have made another appearance.

The entire house smells like the fair when you make them (It is how Evelyn found the house this year), but biting into a golden, fried triangle made with homemade, Bear-Lake-Idaho-raspberry jam and sprinkled with powdered sugar, brings heaven a little closer. They are a little rich, but you don't have to make a lot.

The basic recipe:

• Make Jelly Sandwiches - 2 slices of white or wheat with your favorite jam or jelly smeared in between.
• Mix up some kind of pancake or waffle batter (adding a little more water--or milk depending on the recipe--to make it more liquid than regular batter).
• Heat vegetable oil, canola, or Crisco (butter-flavor adds a little extra flavor) in a deep pot or deep fryer (enough to cover the sandwich pretty well).
• Dip sandwiches in the batter and fry until golden - either hold it under with tongs or flip halfway through.
• Place sandwiches onto napkins or paper towels to blot off excess oil.
• Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into fourths.
• Eat warm if possible, but cold is great, too.

I know this is pretty much the opposite of a healthy post, but what can you do--sometimes you just need a little of the fair.