Daring Bakers Challenge: Time to Make the Donuts

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was simply put . . . make donuts. Any kind of donuts. Cake. Yeast. Filled. Plain. So . . . here's my recipe for making donuts.

1. Pick a recipe. One from a really famous pastry chef is sure to get you great results. The one from Sherry Yard's "The Secrets of Baking" entitled Brioche Donuts will get you superb results.

2. Procrastinate.

3. Make the dough. Let it rise. Oh wait. Let it rise again.

4. Pat out the dough. Let your six-year-old and two-year-old cut out doughnuts. All that play-doh practice comes in handy.

5. Let them rest and puff up while you heat the oil. Mix a glaze with powdered sugar and milk and vanilla.

6. When the temperature of the oil reaches EXACTLY 360 degrees put in some donuts. Frantically turn down the temperature when all of a sudden the thermometer registers 400 degrees.

7. Fry donuts for a minute on each side. Continue to frantically turn the heat dial from low to medium to medium-high and even off in search of a steady temperature.

8. Remove donuts with tongs and let cool on a wire rack set over a pan.

9. Repeat steps 6 through 8 until all donuts are fried.

10. Dip tops in glaze and sprinkle with decorations. Eat. Enjoy. Eat some more. Enjoy some more. Don't forget to eat those donut holes too.

11. Apologize to husband who comes home and curses you for making donuts while he eats and eats and eats some more.

Really, this was a fun and easy challenge. And delicious, of course. Certainly, though, I'd be happy to let Krispy Kreme make the majority of my donuts in the future. Let them worry about steady temperatures and angry husbands!

Meringue Ghosts

So, I made a dessert this weekend with the enticing name, Double Ginger Pumpkin Flans, which turned out to have great flavor but a kind of pasty texture. Needless to say, I won't give you the recipe here since I don't really recommend it. Perhaps some tweaking in the future and you'll get a glimpse. But what I did do with all the egg whites I had left over IS something to talk about.

Inspired by an idea I'd seen on the Internet I whipped up a batch of meringue. It's very easy to do. I'll give the recipe below. I filled a big pastry bag with the stuff and snipped the end. Then I piped some blobs into a parchment-lined baking sheet. So that they kind of looked like upside-down little ice-cream cones. I slid the pan into the oven at 300 degrees and baked them for an hour. Some of them started to droop in the heat but that didn't detract from the charm. After an hour, I turned off the oven but left them to dry in the oven for another 3 hours. Then I pulled them out, melted a tablespoon of chocolate, and using the blunt end of a skewer blopped some ghost-like eyes onto these cuties.

I served them on top of the Double Ginger Pumpkin Flans and, trust me, these little guys got ALL the oohs and ahs.

Meringue Ghosts

Ingredients:

3 large egg whites, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

pinch of salt

1 cup granulated sugar

Directions:

1. In a bowl whip egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt with a beater or whisk attachment on medium until soft peaks form.

2. Turn beater to medium high and continue to whip egg whites while adding sugar one tablespoon at a time. Continue beating until stiff peaks form and sugar is dissolved. This can take 6 to 7 minutes.

3. Using a pastry bag, pipe ghost shapes onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 300 degree oven for an hour. Turn off oven but do not remove pan. Dry in oven for another 2-3 hours.

4. Melt one tablespoon of chocolate in a tiny bowl in the microwave. This will only take a minute at the most. Do not let your chocolate burn. Check it every 15 seconds or so. Dab onto ghosts to make eyes.

Martha Mondays: Pumpkin Muffins

One of the fabulous things about all the cooking and baking I've done lately is that I'm getting more confident. Granted, I have my share of kitchen mishaps, but usually I can look at a recipe and decide whether it's going to turn out well or poorly. This pumpkin muffin of Martha's did not bode well. With a whopping 3/4 cup of oil in the recipe along with no salt at all this recipe is doomed to make heavy, tasteless muffins. So I tweaked. I tweaked. Yes, and I tweaked some more. And I came up with a new recipe for pumpkin muffins which, in my opinion, are even healthier than Martha's recipe. So here's my version of this week's Martha Monday challenge.

Healthy Pumpkin Muffins

Adapted from Body+Soul

In a medium bowl whisk together 3/4 cup all-purpose flour, 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves.

In a large bowl whisk together 1 cup pumpkin puree, 1/2 cup low-fat Greek -style yogurt, 2 small eggs, 1/4 cup of canola oil, and 1/2 cup dark brown sugar. Add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts. Stir in flour mixture until just combined. Do not stir too much or your muffins will be tough. Divide among 12 wells of a regular muffin tin. Feel free to line them with paper so you have less clean up! Sprinkle each bit of muffin batter with some more chopped walnuts as well as a bit of turbinado sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Note: The original recipe made double the amount and called for three large eggs. I halved the recipe so I call for 2 small eggs. In reality I used 1 and 1/2 large eggs. Use whatever you have on hand. Also, I used pecans in my muffins because that's what I had. These muffins taste best the day they are made so make sure you have an appetite or a few hungry friends.

Tahini Pilaf

I debated whether or not to share this recipe because I'm the only one in my household who likes it. My six-year-old used to like it. My husband is weirded out by the fact that this pilaf isn't a RICE pilaf. And my two-year-old, well, he's the only one who really has a right to be so picky.

But I like it. So I decided to share it with all you more adventurous culinary types. I think this is a great side dish but, if you are a vegetarian, you might just gobble it up as the main course. I like to serve it in a large shallow bowl with the tahini sauce on the side so that people can drizzle their own servings with as much or as little of the sauce as they like. Anyway, here's the recipe!

Tahini Pilaf

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 carrot, peeled and finely diced

1 red or orange pepper, cored, seeded, and finely diced

1/2 cup medium or course bulgar

1 cup chicken broth

salt, to taste

1/2 cup canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1 recipe tahini sauce (recipe follows)

1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley

1. Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Saute carrots and peppers for about 7 minutes. Add garlic. Saute for another 30 seconds.

2. Add bulgar and saute for 2 minutes. Add chicken broth and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil. Cover pan and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Stir in chickpeas and recover. Simmer for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand covered for 10 minutes. Add salt, if necessary. Fluff with a fork.

4. Serve pilaf on a platter or in a bowl. Sprinkle with parsley as a garnish. Serve Tahini Sauce on the side.

Tahini Sauce

Ingredients:

1 clove garlic, grated using a zester

pinch of salt

1 tablespoon lemon juice (or more if you like)

1/4 cup tahini

1/3 cup chicken broth

1. Combine garlic, salt, lemon juice, and tahini in a bowl. Gradually whisk in broth. The sauce should resemble the consistency of heavy cream.

2. Serve with pilaf.