Pumpkin Donuts

Woohoo!!!! We've made it to the end of donut week and the last donut recipe I made!

So far this week we have covered blueberry donuts and yeast donuts.

Naturally, I left the best donut for last. Pumpkin donuts!!!

I mean, who can say no to a pumpkin donut?? Especially if it has a spiced glaze on top!!!

I seriously could not get enough of these. They were that delicious.

I have this crazy fondness for pumpkin...as do many people. So it's always shocking to me when I find people who don't care for pumpkin.

But then I think about how I don't like soda or cheesecake and I don't much care for chocolate or apples.

So I guess I can't look at the pumpkin haters with too much confusion right??

Though I would love to go on and on about how amazing pumpkin baked goods are and how I couldn't stop eating these pumpkin donut holes (they seemed like less calories since they were so small and bite sized) but I won't. I think the important thing here is to show you how I made them.

So let's get going.

Ingredients: Flour, vanilla, baking powder, unsalted butter, pumpkin, salt, buttermilk, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, sugar, baking soda, 1 whole egg, 2 egg yolks and canola oil for the frying.

Pour about 3 inches of canola oil into a large pot or dutch oven. Heat to 375 degrees F.

Start by whisking together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves and salt in a large bowl.

Cream together your butter and sugar.

Mix in the whole egg...

The egg yolks...

And the vanilla.

Gradually beat in the buttermilk.

Then add in the pumpkin.

Remove from the mixer and gently fold in the flour mixture in four additions....

Until it is all combined. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 3 hours. (The dough will be 'thin' prior to chilling but will really become 'doughy' once chilled).

After the chill time, place the dough on a well floured surface. Sprinkle flour on the top of the dough and roll it out to about a 1/2 inch thickness.

With a round cookie cutter or biscuit cutter, cut the dough into round shapes. Using a smaller cutter or decorating tip, cut a hole out of the center of the larger circles. Here is a picture from the blueberry donuts:

Once the shapes are cut out, drop the donuts (a few at a time) into the hot oil and cook until golden brown, about 20-60 seconds on each side (depending on heat of the oil).

Place on paper towels to drain and cool.

Once cool, grab your ingredients for the glaze:

You will need powdered sugar, milk, ground nutmeg, ground cinnamon, ground ginger and ground cloves.

Mix all ingredients until the glaze is the desired thickness. Press the donuts into the glaze and roll the donut holes through to completely cover. Then place on a cooling rack to set and dry. Here's a picture from the yeast donuts:

Make sure the cooling rack is set above parchment paper so the dripping glaze won't make a mess on your counter.

Once they are done, just grab a couple donuts, a chai tea and enjoy!

Or...you could just pop a donut hole in your mouth every time you pass by.

Or...if you have a wonderful daughter like I have, she will grab herself a donut hole and be sweet enough to bring you one every time as well.

However you enjoy them...just enjoy them!

Pumpkin Donuts
Retrieved from Epicurious via The Daring Kitchen

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Ingredients:

• 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon buttermilk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree (DON’T use pumpkin pie mix!)
• Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Spice Glaze:

• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

Directions:

1. Whisk together the first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until blended (the mixture will be grainy and not smooth). Beat in egg, then yolks and vanilla. Gradually beat in buttermilk; beat in pumpkin. Using rubber spatula, fold in dry ingredients in 4 additions, blending gently after each addition. Cover with plastic; chill 3 hours.
2. Sprinkle 2 rimmed baking sheets lightly with flour. Press out 1/3 of dough on floured surface to 1/2- to 2/3-inch thickness. Using 2 1/2-inch -diameter round cutter, cut out dough rounds. Arrange on sheets. Repeat with remaining dough in 2 more batches. Gather dough scraps. Press out dough and cut out more dough rounds until all dough is used.
3. Using 1-inch diameter round cutter, cut out center of each dough round to make doughnuts and doughnut holes.
4. Line 2 baking sheets with several layers of paper towels. Pour oil into large deep skillet to depth of 1 1/2 inches. Attach deep-fry thermometer and heat oil to 365°F to 370°F. Fry doughnut holes in 2 batches until golden brown, turning occasionally, about 2 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to paper towels to drain. Fry doughnuts, 3 or 4 at a time, until golden brown, adjusting heat to maintain temperature, about 1 minute per side. Using slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to paper towels to drain. Cool completely.
5. Mix together glaze ingredients (adding milk or powdered sugar until desired consistency.
6. Press tops of donuts into glaze. Place, glaze side up, on a cooling rack to dry and set.
7. Serve and enjoy!

Yeast Donuts

Welcome to day 2 of donut week! Technically I only have 3 recipes to share so it's not really a full week but whatever. It's my site. I do what I want! ;-)

When The Hubble and I were freshly married and moved to New York we decided not to pay for television.

I mean, we had a television...we just didn't purchase service for it.

We would watch movies (loved the discovery of Netflix!) and television shows on DVD (we were always at least a season behind everyone else).

Fast forward several years and a kidlet later...I quit my job to be a stay at home mommy and we moved closer to The Hubble's work (to a very small town known as Philadelphia...NY!).

We decided that since I would have nothing better to do than sit around a house with a newborn all day we would go ahead and finally pay for television service.

That is when I first became obsessed with The Food Network. You know if you are reading this you love that channel too.

I used to DVR the shows that I loved and would sit and watch with my computer handy so I could quickly search for any recipes I liked on the site and save them to my recipe box. That way I wouldn't forget about them.

While watching my beloved Food Network channel I discovered my love for Alton Brown. He's like a scientific cook/baker. Who wouldn't love that??? And he has attitude! I loved it!!

So I couldn't miss the opportunity to make Alton Brown's yeast donuts right?!?! Right!

So that is what I have for you today. Alton Brown's yeast donuts made from my kitchen.

You ready?? Good.

Grab your ingredients: Sugar, all purpose flour, milk, vegetable shortening, salt, ground nutmeg, active dry yeast, eggs and canola oil (for frying).

Pour about 3 inches of canola oil into a large pot or dutch oven and heat to 375 degrees F.

Place your milk in a small saucepan and set it on the stove on medium heat to start warming.

Pour some warm water in a small bowl and add the yeast to it. Set that aside for about 5 minutes to become frothy.

Now check on the milk. When it's warm enough, pour it over the vegetable shortening.

The milk should be warm enough to melt the shortening.

Back to the yeast. Is it frothy?? If yes, awesome! If not, toss and start again.

If your yeast is frothy, pour it into a large mixing bowl. When the milk and shortening mixture is lukewarm, add it to the yeast in the bowl. Then add the eggs, sugar, nutmeg and half of the flour to the bowl. Using the paddle attachment, slowly mix the ingredients. When combined raise the speed to medium to mix well.

Add the rest of the flour and do the same slow to medium mixing.

Once everything is mixed well, put the dough hook on and "knead" until the dough is smooth and starts pulling away from the bowl, about 3-4 minutes. (By the way, I really like this picture for some reason. That is all.)

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise for an hour or until double the size.

Here's my funny story. I put the dough in a tupperware bowl that was a really good size larger than the bowl. I was cleaning out the fridge while my dough was rising. As I was shoulders deep in the fridge I heard this loud POP sound that scared the bejeesus out of me. I looked out the windows and could not find the source of this noise.

As I was doing the dishes from the fridge I looked over at the bowl and thought how stupid I was for not closing the lid of the bowl. How could I have forgotten that essential part!!! About 10 minutes later I was scared witless when the loud POP happened again. Only this time I realized that the yeast dough had created so much pressure that the lid popped off the bowl!

I am even more silly for not getting any more pictures of my process. But these were too good not to share!

Once the dough is fully risen and angry apparently, scrape it onto a well floured surface. Flour the top of the dough and roll it out to a half an inch thick. Then using a cookie or biscuit cutter cut out circles of dough. Use a decorating tip or smaller cutter to cut holes in the middle of the dough. Here's a picture I took when doing the blueberry donuts:

Once the donuts are cut out place them on a well floured parchment lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes. Then cook them in the oil until golden brown, about 30-60 seconds on each side depending on heat of oil.

Place them on paper towels to dry and cool.

Grab some powdered sugar and heavy cream. Combine to make a glaze of your desired consistency.

Press the tops of the donuts into the glaze and roll the donut holes through the glaze. Then place on a cooling rack (set over waxed paper) and let set and dry.

Serve with a cup of coffee and enjoy!

Yeast Donuts
Retrieved from Alton Brown via The Daring Kitchen

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Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable shortening (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
• 4 1/2 teaspoons (2 packages) active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup warm water (95°F to 105°F)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 4 2/3 cups all purpose flour plus extra for dusting surface
• Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream

Directions:

1. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
2. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
4. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
5. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
6. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes. If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
7. Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
8. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
9. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
10. Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 375 °F.
11. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown.
12. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.
13. Mix together powdered sugar and heavy cream (adding cream until desired consistency). Press tops of donuts into glaze. Place, glaze side up, on a cooling rack to dry and set.
14. Serve and enjoy!

Daring Bakers October 2010: Donuts

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.


I know I'm a bit late this month...but it's better late than never right???


When I first read this month's challenge I immediately got excited. 


I've been wanting to make donuts and those lovely donut muffins I've been seeing around for a while now. This just gave me the excuse to make them! 


Naturally, as will most of the other challenges, I wanted to make several different types of donuts. I didn't get to make as many kinds as I wanted, but I did make a few. So...welcome to donut week! 


I made 3 kinds of donuts and will be featuring each one throughout the week. 


The first kind of donut I made was blueberry donuts. Whenever I go to Dunkin Donuts I love to get their blueberry cake donut. So I wanted to try to recreate that. 


I used the old-fashioned buttermilk cake donut recipe that was provided for us and I added blueberries to it. It was very interesting to work with but they turned out really yummy.


I usually try to find some reason/event to complete my Daring challenges for and this time it was The Hubble's  Career Course graduation that inspired my donut making. 


Let me tell you...all those Army dudes definitely devoured these donuts.


Let me show you how to make these yummy blueberry donuts. If you would like to see how the other Daring Bakers did completing their donuts, check out the blog roll. 


Thanks for the awesome challenge Lori!


Okay. Here we go.

Ingredients for the donuts: all purpose flour, active dry yeast, baking powder, baking soda, granulated sugar, kosher salt, buttermilk, vanilla extract, ground nutmeg, sour cream, eggs (1 whole, 2 yolks) and blueberries (fresh or frozen).


Before we get started you will want to grab a pot or a dutch oven. Fill it with about 3 inches of Canola oil and heat it to 375 degrees F.

Place the sour cream into a stainless steel mixing bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of boiling water. Heat until the sour cream is warm.

Into a large mixing bowl, sift together the salt, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg.

Make a large well in the center of the sifted dry ingredients and dump the yeast in the center of the well. My well was SO not big enough. You should probably make yours rather large. You will see what I mean in a minute.

Now pour the warm sour cream into the well on top of the yeast.

Into the well, also add the buttermilk, vanilla, whole egg and two egg yolks. Do you see my problem here?? 


At this point, use one hand to gradually pull the dry ingredients in from the sides of the bowl. Keep mixing until it is well incorporated.

Once the ingredients are all mixing together, gently fold in the blueberries.

Sprinkle a good amount of flour onto your work surface. Don't be afraid of the flour. This dough is sticky. Scrape the dough onto the well foured surface. Flour the top of the dough and press or roll the dough out to about a 1/2 inch thickness. Using a cookie or biscuit cutter, cut out a large circle. Then use a decorating tip or a smaller cookie/biscuit cutter to make a hole in the center of the circle.


Working quickly, place the round shapes into the hot oil. Cook about until brown, this could take anywhere between 20-45 seconds on each side depending on the heat of your oil. You can also toss in the donut holes and cook those as well. 


Dry them on a paper towel then allow them to cool.

Once the donuts are dry and cool, grab your powdered sugar and heavy cream. Mix the 2 ingredients together in a shallow bowl to make a glaze. Dip the tops of each donut into the glaze then place (glaze side up) on a cooling rack to dry (make sure you have parchment or wax paper under the cooling rack to catch the dripping glaze). Roll the donut holes through the glaze. Allow to set and dry.

Serve and enjoy!


Blueberry Buttermilk Cake Donuts
Adapted from The Daring Kitchen via Nancy Silverton


Printer Friendly Version


Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 3 1/4 cup all purpose flour plus extra for dusting surface
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher (flaked) salt (If using table salt, only use ½ teaspoon)
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract 
• 2 cups powdered sugar 
• 4 tablespoons heavy cream (or more if needed to make desired consistency glaze)

Directions:

1. In a small stainless-steel bowl set over a pot of gently simmering water, heat the sour cream until just warm.
2. Heat the oil to 375°F.
3. Over a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg; make a large well in the center. Place the yeast in the well; pour the sour cream over it. Allow it to soften (if using packed fresh yeast), about 1 minute.
4. Pour the buttermilk, whole egg, egg yolks, and vanilla extract into the well. Using one hand, gradually draw in the dry ingredients. The mixture should be fairly smooth before you draw in more flour. Mix until it is completely incorporated. The dough will be very sticky. Gently fold in blueberries. Wash and dry your hands and dust them with flour.
5. Sift an even layer of flour onto a work surface. Don’t be afraid to use a lot of flour. You don’t want the doughnuts sticking to your counter. Scrape dough out of bowl onto the surface; sift another layer of flour over dough. Working quickly, pat dough into an even 1/2-inch thickness. Dip cutter in flour and, cutting as closely together as possible, cut out the doughnuts and holes. Place holes and doughnuts on a floured surface. Working quickly, gather scraps of dough together, pat into 1/2-inch (12.5 mm) thickness, and cut out remaining doughnuts and holes.
6. Drop three to four doughnuts at a time into the hot oil. Once they turn golden brown, turn them and cook the other side. Cooking times may vary; anywhere between 20-45 seconds per side.
7. Once cooked, place on a baking sheet covered with paper towels to drain.
8. Mix together powdered sugar and heavy cream (adding cream until desired consistency). Press tops of donuts into glaze. Place, glaze side up, on a cooling rack to dry and set.
9. Serve and enjoy!