And don't they look good?
Mom helped pick the recipe for last week's challenge. I was nervous about taking on something like this - which to me, was very daunting! But they turned out AWESOME and were worth the effort in my opinion. Here's how it went down...
On Saturday I mixed up the dough (I halved the recipe) and got to use my dough hook attachment for the first time!
Sunday morning we got started **and for future reference, "hiring" the hubby to take pictures is a splendid idea! That's why I got so many great pictures of the process!**
So I rolled out the dough and used a glass to cut the big circles and then something Jeremiah uses to brew tea to cut out the holes-- yes, I had to get creative! My other option was tree-shaped doughnuts :o) I think they were a great size though, so I was happy with my cutter choices. Then, since our apartment/kitchen is pretty cool, I turned the oven on to 'warm' for about 5 minutes and then turned it off, covered the doughnuts with a tea towel and stuck them in the oven to rise for an hour.
Had to throw this picture in--- this is me most of the time when I'm baking new things: always reading and re-reading the recipe. Especially ones with lots of steps! (But I'm also wearing my Christmas apron!!)
I started heating up the oil because I figured it might take awhile to get it to the right temperature. I used nearly an entire bottle of canola oil!
I was very excited because when I took the doughnuts out of the oven, they had risen beautifully!
Then we waited, turned up the temperature, waited, turned down the temperature, waited, re-checked the recipe, then finally hit the mark:
Here we go **My ever-cautious, eagle scout, husband got out the baking soda, baking powder, and had the pan's lid nearby in case of a fire. Things I didn't even think about!** I dropped in the first one...
Bubble, sizzle, bubble, sizzle...
Flipped it...
Then I got fancy and started doing two at a time...
After taking them out of the oil, it was pretty important to try to get off as much oil as possible. Pioneer Woman suggests a plate with paper towels, plopping the doughnut on the paper towels, count to 5, then flip to the other side and get more off. It worked pretty well.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5...
Then I moved them to another plate covered in paper towels to cool a bit.
Growing up, we made doughnuts every once in a while. I always remember Mom making maple and chocolate ones. So instead of sticking exactly to the recipe **gasp!** I altered one thing-- subbing Maple extract for the vanilla extract. BEST IDEA EVER! I doubt that I will ever make the vanilla glaze because this one was SO good.
By the time I finished cooking the last of the doughnuts, I felt the first ones had had enough time to cool, so I went ahead and started dipping them right away (Plus I was running out of time before going to work at the nursery!) I forgot and totally submerged the first two -- not that that was so bad -- and then dipped one half for the rest.
Then I flipped them over and let the glaze fall over the rest of the doughnut on a cooling rack.
I also ate one right away. Yum! And kept dipping it in the maple glaze. Oh yeah! Not because it needed more glaze--- I just would have been eating the glaze plain, so I figured why not dunk the doughnut in it? :o) These doughnuts were SO, SO delicious! I will definitely recommend them to anyone. And if you think the process is daunting and tedious, well you're mostly right, but it's worth it and especially if you can have a helper! Don't be afraid-- try making your own doughnuts soon! Maybe next time I'll make some chocolate glaze too...
To life... full of homemade doughnuts-- yes!
