Doughnuts - Untitled

I love donuts*.  Ten years ago, there were only a small handful of bakeries that had been around for years and years that made donuts.  In the past five years or so, there has been a donut explosion.  Most of the places that have opened up in the past few years have reflected the rise in foodie culture in the Cities.  Places like Mojo Monkey, and Glam Doll have taken the humble donut and filled them with things like mocha cream, or topped them with peanut butter, sriracha glaze.  They are good to be sure, but in my mind in order for a donut shop to be any good, they have to have high quality plain cake and raised donuts.  Cake donuts should be a little sweet, but not make me race for coffee.  They should have a very slightly crunchy exterior with a soft, tender crumb inside.  Bonus points for a bit of spice inside.  Raised donuts should not shy away from their bready ancestory.  They should be a little chewy and also not hit me over the head with sweetness.  The exterior crust shouldn't be too crunchy and the interior should provide a nice depth of flavor.

Matt Groening based this aspect of Homer on me.

I've got expectations with my donuts.  While I was looking forward to making donuts from the cook book, I wasn't going to hold my breath for something that really shines.

The recipe I'm using for donuts today doesn't have a title.  So presumably, they're donuts.  I've only ever made donuts once before, and those were ok.  The process was fun and the result was good enough, but I wouldn't call them good donuts.  The recipe was for raised donuts and were from Flour by Joanne Chang.  I wouldn't in a million years say that the recipe was bad because this is a fantastic cook book.  The experience left me wanting to try frying donuts again some time, so here we are.  Today instead of raised donuts, we're making cake donuts and we're turning to Mrs. Carl M. Green.  Wish us luck, Mrs. Green.

Writing as I cook here.  First impression:  Heck yeah!

We'll call that foreshadowing, or something.

Preparation

Anyway, here's the recipe.  I'm only making a half batch, 'cause Sarah says we don't need three dozen donuts.  That's the silliest thing I've ever heard.

No donut poem at the start of this section

The process to make the dough is pretty easy.  I debated about the shortening, though.  Crisco is made from palm oil and a great majority of the palm oil comes from plantations that were carved out of rain forests, and are now grown in monoculture.  There are lots of bad things about palm oil, so I debated whether or not to even get some.  I could use butter, but the melting point is likely different.  In the end, I got a small tub of Crisco.  Like dealing with any food or product that is harmful to the environment, it is often hard to hold a hard line.  Reducing use is better than doing nothing at all.  The Ladies used shortening, so I guess I will use it now and then too.  Maybe I'm just rationalizing...

Stop deforesting in the name of donuts!

I creamed the sugar and dead forest land.  Then I mixed the dry ingredients.  The recipe asks for some nutmeg and cinnamon.  We go through quite a bit of cinnamon in this house, and generally we don't use it for very special purposes so we keep a jar of ground cinnamon on hand that we refill regularly at the co-op.  We don't keep it around long enough for the flavor to go dead.  Nutmeg, on the other hand is different.  That is a fantastic spice that I refuse to buy pre-ground, because the flavor of fresh ground nutmeg is so much better than something already in a can.  This leads me to another of my favorite kitchen tools - the Microplane.  We have a paddle-shaped one with fine holes that is great for spices as well as hard cheeses.  I love it.

Friends don't let friends use pre-ground nutmeg

This is an appallingly small amount of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Ready to chill.

It was a good thing that the dough was chilled before it was rolled it as the dough was pretty sticky.  I probably also have should have floured the work surface, since the cut donuts still wanted to stick to the counter.  I didn't want to have too much loose flour ending up in the hot oil though.

Here's where I get to my second cooking tool of the day - ring cutters.  I don't remember what I bought these for, and I don't use them more than a few times each year, but I am glad I have them.  They're pretty handy.

Insert interesting caption here about cutting circles

Ready to fry

Nervous!

I've only ever deep fried a few things (aside from when I was in high school and worked at Heckle's Big Steer).  I helped my mom with fattigman a few times when I was in high school.  Up in the Boundary Waters, I attempted to do some battered fried cheese and that failed miserably.  So dropping the donuts into the oil left me pretty nervous.  I love donuts and I didn't want to mess them up.  I referred to a couple other donut recipes, which suggested two to three minutes per side.  These were brown after about 1 minute.  If your eyes are telling you something that the recipe doesn't, listen to your eyes.

Pre and post-sugar.  The bite I had there is what prompted my early assessment at the start of this post.

Nobody needs to know I made donuts, right?

I also had some chocolate sprinkles, but without making some kind of glaze, they weren't going to stick.  I prefer sugar to sprinkles anyway.  Maybe next time, I'll make sprinkle donuts for James and Sarah.

Tasting and Reaction

I will say right out that I am thrilled with how these turned out.  Like the previous recipes, it needs more flavor.  Instead of using 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, I would probably have used nearly a whole teaspoon for this half recipe.  But, that is my ONLY gripe.  The outside had just enough crunch to it, and the crumb was far better than I could have hoped.  It didn't rise to the level of the better cake donuts in town, but they are far better than many grocery store and all gas station donuts.

Sarah and Thomas were asleep, so James was the first taster

James was hovering as I was finishing up the donuts.  When he finally got a few donut hoes, he was pretty excited.

Me:  Well, James, what do you think?
James:  Good.
Me:  Why do you like it?
James:  It's good!  Thank you for getting me a donut!
He's nothing if not descriptive.

Thomas likes donuts too.  James insists he needs more.

A little later Sarah came down with Thomas.
Sarah:  Oh hey, those look good.
Then she takes a bite.
Sarah:  There's not a lot of flavor.
She takes another bite and contemplates.
Sarah:  A bit chewy.  Donuts you get today are more airy.  They are a good jumping off point, though.  You could put vanilla in them and cardamom in the sugar.
Me:  James, what's your favorite part of the donuts?
James:  Sugar!

I think Sarah is right that this recipe is a really good place to start.  Adding cardamom or vanilla to the sugar coating would be a good idea, or perhaps putting a little lavender oil into the dough.

All in all, these were really good.  I would definitely make them again.  As there is a half gallon of vegetable oil sitting on my counter, I may just have to do that again soon.  These donuts are the new high water mark for the Ladies.  Mrs. Carl M. Green, you are awesome.  High five.

Next time:  Pies & Desserts

* I am a donut person instead of a doughnut person, but not for any reason other than it is quicker to type.

UPDATE:  The donuts don't hold up quite as well when the donuts aren't very fresh.  They lose the good crunch on the crust, and they're a bit more dense than they were.  They're not bad at all, just not quite as good now.  Still, they're pretty darn good with a morning cup of coffee.