Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Daring Bakers - Let's Go Nuts for Doughnuts!


What can beat the smell of a hot cinnamon donut and a cup of coffee? Not much, in my books, especially first thing in the morning. The combination says "rise and shine, today will be a good day". Which leads me on to this month's Daring Bakers challenge:

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

After a huge thumbs up from Audax, I chose old-fashioned yeast donuts from a recipe by Alton Brown. I didn't feel too daring this month, as I have made donuts before - both baked and fried. However, it is always a challenge to do battle with my deep fear of deep frying.

Here is my donut dough after rising - the yeast got pretty excited:



After punching down the dough and rolling it out, I cut out the donut shapes using a round biscuit cutter and the lid off my Italian vanilla essence:



I left some donuts "whole" so that I could fill them with jam after frying - I wanted the best of both worlds.

After leaving the donuts to rise a little, they are deep fried in a pool of oil:


Immediately after removing the donuts from the oil and draining them briefly in a slotted spoon, I tossed the donuts in a combination of vanilla sugar and cinnamon sugar, then fillled the round hole-less ones with jam by inserting a piping bag filled with jam into the base and pumping in the jam. The end result is what you see at the top of this post.

Thanks to Lori for being our host this month. She will have the recipe for these and a few other types of donuts, if you are feeling hungry enough to go and make your own donuts right now. And you can check out a veritable rainbow of all kinds of other donuts by visiting the Daring Bakers blogroll.

32 comments:

Renata said...

A typical Brazilian breakfast does not include doughnuts (I'm Brazilian), but I totally agree with you when you say there's no better combination than warm doughnuts and a cup of coffee! And yours look so yummy!

egbkid said...

Yummy! My mom made cake donuts often when we were kids. Not so often now, much to my father's dismay. She has never made yeast donuts...maybe i should pass this recipe on!

Mary said...

I love the photo of them in the hot oil, but I'd prefer to believe they are low-cal, so I can have 3 or 4 or more with my coffee in the morning! Vanilla sugar sounds like a great coating. Next time...

Juliana said...

Wow, donuts...haven't had this for a while...and homemade must taste so good...would love to have with a cup of coffee...SO SO yummie!

. said...

This was such a great recipe - so much easier than I thought! Enjoy your doughnuts!

Beth said...

I'm afraid of deep frying, like you. Your final result makes it look worth the effort!

Anonymous said...

I would like one of each! These look really delicious. I don't think I've ever deep-fried anything!

Claire K Creations said...

I'm scared of deep frying too. I think having fresh hot cinnamon doughnuts is worth overcoming the fear for. Yum!

Brenda said...

Yay donuts! They are one of my favourites...but my waist hates them LOL!! They look sooooooo good!!

Brenda said...

Yay donuts! They are one of my favourites...but my waist hates them LOL!! They look sooooooo good!!

Finla said...

We loved them here at home too. This looks yumm.

Unknown said...

Hi,

Love them dough nuts..Used to much them away bak in school days...:)

Dr.Sameena@

www.myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

I'm so sad that I ran out of time to do this month's! Yours looks great! I wanted to do a pumpkin flavoured donut! :(

Emma @CakeMistress said...

These look so great!
Someone needs to invent special long-sleeved aprons for deep-frying avoiders like us :)

Anonymous said...

Nothing spells love like fresh donuts LOL. I want to make these, but I am afraid to deep fry.
*kisses* HH

Conor @ Hold the Beef said...

Using the lid of your vanilla essence? Brilliant. I can imagine you rifling through the cupboards for something just the right size :)

Great doughnuts, would definitely love one of the jammy boys.

Hindy said...

These look wonderful! I've never made donuts because I know I'd eat them all.

The Blonde Duck said...

You can never go wrong with Alton Brown!

Unknown said...

YUM! I have only made the easy doughnuts, from a can of refrigerated biscuit dough. This would be cool to try one day. One day. One day.

blackbookkitchendiaries said...

a lovely snack to have right now... thank you for sharing this..it looks just lovely!

Tracy said...

Your doughnuts look great! Wonderful job on the challenge!

Jeanne said...

The vanilla sugar doughnuts sound fantastic! I'm tentative about frying too, but the doughnuts were definitely worth the trouble. Great work on this challenge!

Anonymous said...

They look really good - well done! I followed the same recipe as you and we all enjoyed the results! ~Nicola

Joyti said...

I bet those are so good! And its nice to see something sweet that doesnt involve an oven sometimes :)

chef_d said...

Vanilla sugar yum! Jam-filled double yum! Your donuts look delicious!

Amanda said...

I avoid deep frying, too, although the fried doughnuts taste way better! I'm pleased that you left some whole for filling with jam - there's not much better than that!

Audax said...

Your doughnuts perfect and yes the dough does rise a lot LOL LOL lovely colour you got on the outside of the doughnuts. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.

And thank you for the kind words and the link to my blog.

Baker at Law said...

Your doughnuts look delicious. Nice job frying :-)

Nutmeg Nanny said...

I love love love homemade donuts. I rarely ever make them only because I hate frying in the house. I need to get over that fear because I need one of these bad boys ASAP! :)

Sarah Marshall said...

It's scary to see them being fried - I prefer not know about that aspect so I can allow myself to occasionally eat them! While you say it's not daring for you I would find this quite daunting as I've never made doughnuts and I also have a bit of a fear of deep frying. Well done and they look yummy!

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

Very well done! Those look delicious.

Cheers,

Rosa

lola said...

This was such a fun cooking project. It seems everyone got into the challenge. Yours look great!