Homemade Donuts

Similar to how we treat domesticated animals, we, as humans, like to reward ourselves with treats. Treat rewards are particularly relevant in managing children’s behavior and perhaps this is why I associate donuts with childhood.  Sit still for at least 50% of Mass on Sunday? Post-liturgy basement donut sale! Make it to morning swim practice over summer vacation without a meltdown? Dunkin Donuts is conveniently on the way home and has a drive through. No shoes, no shirts, no problems

The fall starting fourth grade was a donut heavy one as I managed to fracture my right arm and two fingers one after the other. My mother treated me to a coffee coolata and strawberry frosted (WITH sprinkles) post-orthopedist appointments that were aplenty that fall.  The subsequent sugar rush soothed my emotions as I was completely torn up having to miss out on all those Saturday afternoons in Umbros and a neon cotton t-shirt with some international team name emblazoned across the back (I think I would’ve been a member of the “China” squad that fall).

My  “adult” awareness of what constitutes a nutritional breakfast has decreased my donut consumption overall, as I walk by Dunkin Donuts on the reg without giving second thought to Barbie pink icing.  Food trends, however, have made donuts more prevalent than ever, as boutique donut purveyors beyond national chains churn out “gourmet” varieties that include exotic spices and booze infused fillings.  In Philadelphia we can enjoy Federal Donuts, the new Beiler’s Bakery stall in the Terminal, and an assortment of South Philly bakeries.  

I’ve always been hesitant to try making donuts because deep frying can really stink up a kitchen/apartment. I was sold on the idea, however, after reading a recent feature in Saveur magazine. The recipes were simple, the instructions clear. If I could get 2” of canola oil to 350 degrees in a 6-qt sauce pan, I could do it. I know places like Beiler’s will always hold a competitive advantage until I acquire bathtub size vats of glaze and an industrial deep-fryer and apparate them up the four steep flights of stairs to my apartment, but I was quite pleased with the results, and homemade donuts will be making a debut on the Mother’s Day menu this weekend!

I chose an Old-Fashioned Spiced Sour Cream recipe from the Saveur feature because I had all the ingredients on hand for the dough and the glaze.  Actually, I didn't have All Spice, but I did have ground Mace, so I used a few dashes of that instead.  Also, sour cream donuts are generally amazing, and I was not ready to take to the time to make a yeast-raised variety.   I cut the recipe by 2/3 and got 8 smallish (2 ½- 3”) donuts, more than enough for my purposes.

Pre-Glazing.

The spice really came through in the glaze, but I experimented with just powdered sugar, and that was really good, too. You could also use a plain vanilla glaze if you don’t have the spices (I have a lot of spices leftover from Lebkuchen baking at Christmas). I got a great crust on the batch I made, and they were not cloyingly sweet.  My apartment did sort of smell like McDonald’s after I was done, but nothing some open windows and scented candles couldn’t fix by the time I went to bed.

After the flip.

Getting Puffed and Golden.

I managed fine on my own, but this would be a fun thing to do in a group.  As with all deep frying, there is a lot to keep track of between managing the oil temperature, timing for flipping/rotating, actually forming and preparing whatever you are frying, so if you can divvy up the jobs, more power to the group. I was aided by the stopwatch on my iPhone and a small kitchen where nothing is ever really out sight or reach. 

The Finished Product!

Strawberry Muffins

There has been a big push over the past couple years to shop and cook seasonally and locally. As I’ve read numerous articles on the subject, browsed restaurant menus littered with names of local creameries and farms, and planned at home menus revolving around root vegetables and baby greens depending on the date, I’ve come to two conclusions:

1.       Shopping and cooking locally is pricey.

2.       Shopping and cooking seasonally is easier, and not so pricey.

Farmer’s markets are the classic, no-brainer outlet for local shopping.   They are an excellent opportunity for local producers to display and sell their wares without a brick and mortar establishment that they likely could not afford/nor have any interest in. Farmer’s markets are also about community--- local shoppers browsing local goods, supporting one another. Who doesn’t feel good helping a neighbor out?  I mean, even if I can’t digitally touch an Amish farmer from Lancaster County via Facebook friendship, I might as well extend a helping hand buy paying $20/lb for their goat milk cheddar.

Farmer's Market in Lyon with my bestie, J.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good farmer’s market, but I’ve decided I’d much rather turn my consumer focus to driving my menus around seasonal goods, in any venue.  It’s simple economics. When a fruit or vegetable is in season, because it is the correct season for it to grow and flourish, there is much more of it. What happens when supply is in abundance, and a surplus occurs? Prices go down!  Ever pay $5 for a lb of semi-yellow/pink strawberries in the dead of winter just so you could dip them in chocolate and hand feed them to your lover in front of a roaring fire? That same $5 will get you TWO lbs of strawberries in May, and they will be red, and delicious, and taste like candy. You won’t need to slather them in cocoa calories either to enjoy them, so hello hot bod. It’s a win-win.

Probably the best strawberries I ever had. Went back for a 2nd carton.

Furthermore, when you end up with two pounds of delicious strawberries, the gastronomic possibilities seem endless! You can rinse on a handful and enjoy them as is, chop a few up and throw them in your cereal or yogurt, put some in a blender with some rum and sugar….

Or, you can do what I did, and make strawberry muffins.  I stopped at Whole Foods on my way home from work to pick up some regular milk to make yogurt (I usually only keep Soy in my fridge for cereal), and I was greeted in the front of the store by a beautiful display of strawberries (they are just so clever with their product placement there). I couldn’t resist, even though I knew I had a lb of strawberries I had cut up the other day sitting in the fridge, untouched.  

Also in my fridge were a lb of butter, a few glugs of buttermilk, and an opened container of sour cream with approximately one tablespoon missing.  What I had to open an ENTIRE container of sour cream to procure one tbs of the stuff for is beyond me, but I hate waste, and I’m definitely not down to eat sour cream by the spoonful with MDW a few weeks away. I turned to the interwebz for inspiration and decided some of 2 lb pile of sweet, juicy loot would go to a batch of strawberry muffins.  I was also inspired one of my favorite treats, the French Berry Roll from Metropolitan Bakery, which sometimes has whole pieces of strawberry in it.

Do you know the Muffin Man?

These muffins came out very moist, and not too sweet, just how I like them. I ate one right out of the oven with a little butter on it, some jam would’ve been nice, but I was too lazy to get up and get it once I settled down with my muffin and my book. They could be made sweeter with some more sugar, or maybe a swirl of Nutella, or some of that pretty crystallized sugar sprinkled on top, but these worked for my taste.   The strawberries I got are excellent, fragrant, and very strawberry (really looking forward to eating some plain), so their flavor really came through and they aren’t just anonymous pieces of fruit in a muffin.

om nom nom nom

Strawberry Muffins (makes a dozen)

Adapated from Joyful Baker 

Dry Ingredients

2 ¼ cups of flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

½ tsp coarse salt

½ cup light brown sugar

Tsp of lemon zest

Wet Ingredients

2/3 cup sour cream

2 eggs, lightly beaten

½ cup butter, melted and cooled to room temp

½ - 1 cup of buttermilk

1 tbs vanilla extract

1 ½ cups strawberries cut into small pieces

Preheat oven to 350 and line a 12 cup muffin pan with paper liners. Melt the butter and let it cool to room temperature.

In a large bowl, Whisk together the first four dry ingredients, and then add the strawberries. Mix the strawberries gently into the flour mixture so that they are coated with the flour. This will prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins. Mix in the sugar and the lemon zest and stir gently until just combined.

Lightly beat the 2 eggs in the bottom of a medium bowl.  Whisk in the sour cream, and then the melted butter once it is cool. Add the vanilla.  Make sure all ingredients are combined, but do not overbeat.

Add the wet ingredient mixture to the dry and give it a stir. Add the buttermilk as necessary. I found the batter to be really dense and sticky, and added close to a cup of buttermilk.  I would add it about ¼ cup at a time until the batter is still sticky, but definitely wet, with all the dry ingredients incorporated.   If you don’t have buttermilk, regular milk would work, too.

Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups and bake for 20-25 minutes. Definitely check the muffins at 20, mine needed an extra 5, but it all depends. Once a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, they are done. Remove the muffins from the pan and allow to cool on a rack.

You could certainly use yogurt in this recipe rather than sour cream. I always use reduce fat sour cream, and it’s what I had.   Adding a ¼ cup of white sugar would also sweeten them, perhaps if you were serving them to kids, and maybe melting a cup of Nutella and swirling it through the batter would make them more dessert-y.  I think the easiest addition would be a sprinkle of crystallized sugar on top, or maybe some sliced almonds.  If you want to be fancy, easy upgrade to a mixed berry muffin by substituting a portion of the strawberries with blueberries or blackberries.