Homemade Donuts!

In an effort to keep pushing myself in the kitchen with recipes I'm not familiar with, I decided to fry something. That something ended up being donuts.

I thought I had enough time to make them before meeting friends for brunch, but I didn't realize the dough needed to rise again after cutting the shapes of the donuts. But my friends had no issues coming to my place and eating fresh donuts and THEN going for brunch. Imagine that.

These cute, doughy donuts brightened up my kitchen. They were so cute! I don't know why, but my room mate agreed that yes, they WERE cute! And just think, they then got to swim in hot oil and become delicious donuts.

I glazed a couple and handed  them over to my friends.

My room mate loved how fluffy they were so I made him model the donut. :)

I also used different toppings for some of the donuts. Creating different glazes made the making of the donuts even more fun!

If you have 3 hours on your hands, try this recipe. As long as you've worked with yeast before you'll have no problem making your own homemade donuts.

Homemade Donuts (adapted from allrecipes.com)

1/2 cup warm water (100 to 115 degrees F)

2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
1 teaspoon white sugar
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2eggs
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
2 quarts vegetable oil for frying
1 tablespoon warm water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar, sifted
Directions

1. Pour 1/2 cup of warm water into a small bowl, and stir in the yeast and 1 teaspoon of sugar. (Erika's Extras: Stir right away with a fork.) Allow the yeast mixture to stand until it forms a creamy foam layer on top, 5 to 10 minutes.
2. While yeast is sitting, place milk and vegetable shortening into a small saucepan over medium-low heat and cook until the shortening has melted and the milk has tiny bubbles around the edge. Remove from heat.
3. Place 1/4 cup of sugar and the salt into the work bowl of a large stand mixer and pour the milk and shortening into the bowl. Mix on low speed just to dissolve sugar; and allow mixture to stand until warm.
4. Beat in the yeast mixture, eggs, and 1 cup of flour on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in remaining flour to make a soft dough. (Erika's Extras: I felt that 4 cups of flour was a tad too much so add a little at a time with the last cup of flour. It's ok to not use it all if it doesn't seem like it needs it.)
5. Continue beating the dough on low speed until dough leaves the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes. (Erika's Extras: This happened after the 3rd cup of flour.)
6. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured work surface and knead until smooth and elastic, 2 or 3 more minutes.
7. Form the dough into a ball and place into a large greased bowl. Grease the top of the dough, and cover the bowl with waxed paper. Set the bowl into a warm place; let the dough rise until doubled in size, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
8. Punch down the dough and roll out on a floured work surface to 1/2 inch thick. Cut doughnuts out of the dough with a 3 1/2-inch round doughnut cutter with a 1-inch smaller cutter in the center. Let the doughnuts rise on the work surface until very light and fluffy, 40 minutes to 1 hour.
9. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large saucepan to 350 degrees F.
10. Gently pick up and drop the doughnuts into the hot oil, working in small batches of 2 or 3 at a time, and cook until the doughnuts are light golden brown, turning once, about 2 minutes. (Erika's Extras: I used a metal spatula to gently drop the donuts into the oil thus helping not to spill oil on myself/the counter.)
11. Drain the doughnuts on paper towels to absorb oil.
12. In a bowl, mix 1 tablespoon of warm water and vanilla extract, and stir in the confectioners' sugar to make a glaze. Spread a thin layer of glaze over the warm doughnuts. (Erika's Extras: I had to add more water to this glaze, but it worked very well. I also used a tiny bit of milk in a different batch which created a richer glaze.)

Bake well and prosper!

Overnight Coffee Loaves

So, last week I had a pretty important birthday.

Watch out New York City! You just gained another 30 year old female! I was very excited to leave my 20s behind. Not that they were bad. But I think there's something great about being in your 30s in NYC. I guess I just feel that this city caters to a slightly older crowd.

 

Speaking of catering to crowds, I baked up a storm to feed my friends for my birthday party! (I'll be posting all my baked goods this week, so keep your eyes out for everything.)

 

To usher in my 30s I decided to give back to my favorite city. I held a two part party. First part was picking up trash in Astoria Park. Second part was meeting at a bar. Those friends who volunteered were treated to a free happy hour on me. Those who decided to not volunteer and just meet at the bar paid for their own drinks. People really enjoyed this concept and everyone understood the rules.

 

Well, I couldn't have people picking up trash on an empty stomach now could I?

 

Since I had taken some days off of work to celebrate my birthday, I decided that I finally had enough time and I was finally mature enough to make Overnight Coffee Loaf.

 

You see, this is from my Mom's Favorite Recipes Cook Book. And all of my siblings and I LOVE this bread. So, I had some trepidations about making it. This bread had a lot of history behind it and I didn't want to mess it up.

 

Guess what. Within the first steps of the recipe I was a mess.

Thus, the bread turned out FANTASTIC.

I was fortunate enough to have a friend over who got to taste test it with me right when it came out of the oven. It was to die for. We ate a whole mini loaf. (I couldn't find my other loaf pan so I improvised. See below.)

I was very excited to share it with my volunteers before picking up trash. Too bad it was a gloomy and somewhat cold day. This bread is just so much better warm than cold. Nobody had a problem eating it though. :) And tons of trash was picked up! (Must have been the boost of sugar that helped. Here's a little bit of the trash that was found.)

Yes, that's a prescription bottle on the bench filled with lithium. Found. In. A. PARK! Eek!

So, as you can see, the first part of my birthday party was a success. Many of my friends told me that they didn't expect to have so much fun picking up trash. Ha!

Second part of party and more recipes from my birthday week to come. For now, here's the recipe for this delicious bread.

Overnight Coffee Loaf (from my Mom's Best Recipes Cook Book)
Makes 2 loaves of bread

1 pkg dry active yeast (or scant 1 T)

1/4 C warm water

4 C flour

1/4 C sugar

1 t salt

1 C butter or margarine (softened)

3 egg yolks

1 C lukewarm milk, scalded and cooled

2 T melted butter or margarine

1/2 C sugar

1 1/2 t cinnamon

powdered sugar glaze (powdered sugar and milk)

Soften butter. Cut in flour, 1/4 C sugar, and salt until mixture looks like a pie crust mixture. Dissolve yeast in warm water and stir with a fork so no big lumps form. Once stirred, mix in yeast, egg yolks, and milk. Cover; refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight. Grease 2 loaf pans. Divide dough in half; roll out each half into an oblong shape that will fit into your loaf pan length wise when rolled up. Does not need to be super thin. Brush one side of each flattened dough with 1 T melted butter. Mix sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle half on each half. Roll up dough, placing seam side down in pan. Cover and let rise 2 hours; dough will not double in size. Bake 350⁰ for 1 hour. Remove from pan and let cool for a couple of minutes. Frost with powdered sugar glaze (mix 1 C powdered sugar and a tiny bit of milk.)

Erika's Extras: Add more cinnamon and sugar for a bolder cinnamon flavor in the bread.

 

Bake well and prosper!