Doughnuts!

Who doesn't love doughnuts? They are warm and chewy and sweet and just so tasty! Dessert, breakfast, midnight snack, late night early morning snack...well they're just about good anytime of day really and especially when paired with coffee or tea. I really think doughnuts were created specifically so you had something to go with your coffee so people didn't complain that coffee is not a proper breakfast. Coffee and a doughnut...TADA! Breakfast! Loving to bake and always willing to push myself to the next level, I recently decided to make my own doughnuts after reading about them in The Pioneer Woman's cookbook. The first time...oh dear. Big disaster. Horrible gummy, doughy icky things that were a very deep shade of tan. They didn't taste horrible really, but they weren't those light, fluffy, heavenly tasties you get at the shops. So I did what I always do. I bought books! Books and books and more books (My poor husband, we already have five bookcases full and that's just hardbacks, and the kitchen shelf is overflowing!) I did that with cheese making too but that's another blog altogether!

Basically there are two kinds of doughnuts. Yeast and cake, and both are fried. Yeast doughnuts are the feathery-light kind you usually get at the doughnut shop or in your bakery at the local supermarket. Cake doughnuts are a bit denser but no less tasty! I've made yeast doughnuts several times since my failed attempt and they came out delish. I even made some filled ones but those were a bit of a failed experiment and we won't talk about that....But I recently saw some doughnut pans in the cooking section, also known as HEAVEN at the local Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Well, I was thinking to myself, how convenient and so much easier to clean up! Not to mention a bit healthier since they're not being fried. But these pans are for cake doughnuts, something I had not yet tried. So flipping through my tasty books, I found a Chai cake doughnut recipe. And anyone who has ever had my famous Chai Latte cake will tell you, anything Chai...is awesome. Spicy, sweet and that warmth that just transports you to the spice markets that Marco Polo must have explored all those many centuries ago. A true vacation for the taste buds. 

So today I began my culinary adventure into chai cake doughnuts and trying out a new yeast doughnut recipe. (Truth be told my doughnut cutter came in from Amazon and I wanted to play with my new toy!) I have to admit, the cake recipe was a bit tricky, as you make it basic (I used the recipe that came with the pans) and then add in your chai tea and spices. It comes out kind of goopy and not runny like cake batter so you get to try out some interesting spoon skills when loading up the pans!

 And then into the oven they go! I have to say, it smells really nice in my kitchen right now. All those sweet spices wafting around. Mmmmmmm....but while they bake and get themselves all yummy, I get to play with my new yeast dough recipe. After whipping it up before making the cake doughnuts, I had to let the dough rest for a bit, or proof. Then rolling it out, and using the fancy new cutter, I cut my doughnuts and holes (One step! Love this thing) and transfer them onto floured baking sheets. While doing this I hear the beep of the oven, telling me the chai doughnuts are done. So I shut the oven off to cool so I can make it into a proofing box for the doughnuts I just cut. This is done by putting about eight cups of boiling water into a 9x13 inch pan at the bottom of the oven. This will let them rise and get all fluffy!

Once they rise, its time to fry. I have a dutch oven on the stove, filled with peanut oil to at least two inches deep. Using a deep fry thermometer, heat the oil to 360 degrees. In batches of twos and threes the doughnuts get to float around for a minute and then get flipped for another minute and then set to drain on cooling wracks. Then its the fun part, glazing. Glazes are typically made from powdered sugar and milk. Though since I made chai doughnuts, I'm going to use some chai tea and powdered sugar to glaze these babies. And oh my is that tasty! Creamy and spiced with those flavors reminiscent almost of the holiday season, when a nice warm cup of chai just let you go aaaaaaaah...and relax. For the yeast doughnuts, I'm going to tread into the realm of...CHOCOLATE! Every one's favorite confection. And its pretty simple too, with powdered sugar, dutched cocoa and a touch of vanilla and milk. You really don't need a lot of liquid to make a glaze. And here we have our finished products!

Now don't those just look tasty!? Mmm and they are. Very. And sticky. Like...I'm going to need a wet wipe for the keyboard...whoops! Now none of these recipes are my own, I did do a little tweaking though. The yeast recipe is from Hand-Forged Doughnuts by Mark and Michael Klebock with Jess Thomson. My cake recipe was a combination of the Wilton cake doughnut recipe with glazes and additions from Doughnuts by Lara Ferroni. I hope you all enjoyed my trip through doughnut land! You should never be afraid of trying to make something fresh and tasty on your own. Most of the time it comes out so much better than you would buy at the store! So take a chance! Get covered in glaze and flour and have fun!

Brightest Blessings!