Sunday, June 28, 2009

Friday, June 26, 2009

Baked Donuts with Fun Icing and some Fried Donuts with Berries









I like donuts and I would buy them every day, but you can't really live on donuts, so you only make them every once in while.
And to feel less guilty about eating them, you can try baking instead of frying.
Here is the recipe:
for 25-30 donuts do the full recipe, for less, plan accordingly
1 and 1/3 cups warm milk or water
2 TBSP butter at room temperature
2 eggs
2/3 cup sugar
7 gr yeast
2-4 TBSP milk powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch nutmeg, nut more
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
5 cups all purpose flour

Directions:
Mix the wet ingredients in one bowl and the dry ones in another, then add the dry mixture to the wet one and knead until you get a soft and smooth ball.
Knead for at least 10 minutes.
If using a bread machine, pick the dough cycle.
Put in a greased bowl and let rise for 1 h, then flour or grease your work surface and spread the dough (using a rolling pin) until it is 1/2 inch or 1/3 inch tall/thick.
Use a donut cutter or improvise and let the donuts rise for 30 more minutes or up to 1 h.
Fry until golden colored or bake at 375 for 12 minutes.
They may look white, but when you will check, the bottoms will be light brown.
Let cool a bit until you can handle them and dip in your choice of icing and lay on a plate to let the icing set.Now the icing can be made in many different ways.
I just improvised really.
The white icing began with 2 cups of powder sugar to which i added maybe 3 teaspoons milk.
After icing I drizzled chocolate on top.
The brown icing is made of 1 and 1/2 cup powder sugar, 1 teaspoon butter and 1/3 cup cocoa, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1 TBSP regular sugar. I think I also added 1/2 oz melted chocolate to it.
The light brown icing is made of 1 cup powder sugar with 3 teaspoons cappuccino powder and 3 teaspoons coffee.
Just begin with these quantities and work on it from there adjusting the consistency with milk or powder sugar.
They taste soooooooooooo good.


The last picture shows the donuts I fried and all the above show the donuts I baked.


Bacon Hash Browns with Cheese

I used 2 medium potatoes which you can either grate or pass through a food processor like I did and fry them in a non stick skillet with 2 TBSP oil and some salt and pepper until they are a bit crisp, cooked but not burned.
The cheese is the slice individually wrapped you use for hamburgers.
The bacon has been microwaved for approx. 3 minutes wrapped in a paper towel to absorb the drippings.
Amazing how much stuff comes out of such a little slice of bacon !
If you like it really crisp just increase the cooking time.


Soooooooooo good !