Recipe of the Day: Doughnuts!

I just realized that I haven’t post anything in an exact 1 month! The last post is about my visit to Island Creamery. High school really drained me out of energy and time to create a new post  for this blog. Friends problems, maintaining your grades, another life dramas (believe me, high school is full with drama), totally life draining!

Okay, now back to business. I made this doughnuts like weeks ago (I got some holidays while the 12th grader are having their try outs and national exams). I use the recipe from Jamie Oliver’s early cookbook, Cook With Jamie. The recipe turns out well enough, and surprisingly it is delicious. But my advice, finished them up (read: eat!) minutes after you fried them. Because they are not good when they turned cold. I must say, this is a pretty easy recipe if you want to try making your first doughnuts. Oh, I didn’t used the Old English spiced sugar like the recipe, instead I used powdered sugar to coat them.

Doughnuts with Old English spiced sugar

adapted from Cook With Jamie, makes about 25

1 x 7 grams sachet dried yeast

70 grams caster sugar

500 grams plain flour

315 ml whole milk, warmed until tepid

zest of 2 lemons and 1 orange ( I didn’t used them)

80 grams unsalted butter, softened and cubed

1 litre vegetable oil (for frying)

flavoured sugar

100 grams caster sugar

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange

1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways and seeds removed

Put the yeast in a bowl with a tablespoon of the caster sugar, and a tablespoon of theflour and mix with the warm milk. Place in a warm place for about 15 minutes until the mixture becomes frothy. Next put the rest of the sugar and flour, lemon and orange zest, and butter in a bowl. Add the yeast mixture and use a spoon to start bringing it all together. Then get started to knead them with your clean hands and mix then form them into a ball. If it got to sticky, you can add a little flour to loose them. Knead them for about 5 minutes then pop it into a bowl and cover with a clean damp cloth. Leave them to rest for an hour or untilthey doubled in size.

If you want to make the flavoured sugar, mix the sugar, spices, zest and vanilla seeds together in a bowl.

When the dough has doubled in size, punch them (this is so cool) to knock out some air so it can rise again later. This way your doughnuts will be light and fluffy. On a floured surface, roll the dough out until it’s an even 1 cm thickness. Use a little cutter or a small glass (approx. 5 cm diameter) to cut out about 25 little circles. Put them in a tray so they can rise again. Cover with your damp cloth and allow to rise for about 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, get your frying pan (or a deep sauce pan) and the vegetable oil heated up. Before you pop them into the hot oil, make sure you make a little hole in the centre of each doughnuts (you can use a chopstick). Fry your dough in batches. After 2 minutes, when they are golden brown, carefully remove them and place them on some kitchen paper to drain. While they’re still hot, cover them with your flavoured sugar or use some powdered sugar, like mine! Bon Appetit!

Have a beautiful Sunday everybody! (altough it’s almost midnight)