Friday 16 August 2013

Mini baked doughnuts and fun stuff

In my defense, I never planned to make doughnuts.  I was quite taken with a toffee apple cinnamon scroll on the opposite page of the magazine.  I blame Sylvia and E. Sylvia begged me to make the mini baked jam doughnuts.  She has inherited E's love of doughnuts.  I associate doughnuts with fun occasions so I have included some photos of fun things we have been up to lately.

This is a winter recipe.  It was perfect for a wet day with the heater on to dry the washing hanging around the house.  A day for playdough and reading stories and digging out my old toys.

The dough was lovely and soft.  Enriched by eggs.  Fragrant with citrus zest - mandarin in our batch because we didn't have any oranges.  It rose just fine in the bowl but I was a bit unsure of how much it rose on the second rise when cut into round doughnuts.  They looked worryingly misshapen.  Once in the oven, however, they puffed up into gorgeous round balls with golden tops.


Once out of the oven, Sylvia helped me to dip the hot doughnuts in melted butter and sugar.  Then the messy bit began.  There are no photos because my hands were a sticky mess that weren't going near my camera.  First I tried just using jam but it was a pain to sieve it and then it wouldn't pipe through my rubber icing pen.  I tried a ziplock bag with a corner cut off.  It couldn't push the jam inside the doughnuts.  Finally I gave up and just piped dots of jam on top.

By the time we had finished, it was time for dessert.  These doughnuts were not ideal at a small child's bedtime.  But it would have been too cruel not to taste them.  We were all very impressed.  Maybe there was a bit too much sugar but the texture of the doughnuts was fantastic.  I have often avoided making doughnuts because I hate deep frying.  This has convinced me that deep frying is not essential to make a delicious doughnut.

The day after we made the doughnuts, we went to Sylvia's best friend's birthday party.  I loved the party game the kids played where doughnuts were hung from the hills hoist washing line  Each child had to choose a doughnut to eat without their hands.  It was hilarious to watch.

Dolly also loves a party.  Sylvia has a rainbow fairy dress that numbers among her collection of 'party dresses'.  After making dolly a dress recently, I extended myself and made her a party dress.  (Stretchy sequined ribbon sewn to make the bodice, netting wisps sewn onto a glossy skirt which was then sewn onto the bodice with elastic.)  Not a bad effort given my lack of sewing experience.

Some of the leftover netting was very useful in making some peg doll ballerinas.  I found the second Katie Morag storybook in an op shop recently.  Sylvia noticed that she had some peg doll ballerinas and wanted to make some herself.  I found a tutorial that showed us how to make a dress out of a circle of cloth with a hole to put over the peg doll's head, a rubber band to secure it at the waist and a ribbon for the bodice.  Simple enough for Sylvia to help me.  She wanted glitter too.  It went everywhere.

Sylvia loved the peg ballerinas.  Great for show and tell.  But her main interest over the last week has been minding the kindergarten wombat.  (Yes it is a toy.)  Here is Fluffy inspecting my niece Quin's piano accordion on a trip to Geelong on the weekend.  Fluffy was meant to go back to kinder today but Sylvia has been poorly so we stayed at home.

On the same trip to Geelong, we went to Eastern Beach to admire the bollards (below), play at the park and meet my mum for hot chocolate.  It was such a glorious winter day that I was loathe to leave. 

When I baked the doughnuts, 20 seemed a lot for the three of us.  So I put half in the freezer after the second rise (just before baking them).  A couple of weekends ago I promised E and Sylvia that we would have pizza and doughnuts for dinner.  It took a few hours for the doughnuts to come back to room temperature from the freezer.  That was the hardest bit.  No actually piping was the hardest.

This time I chose to pipe in nutella because it was easier than sieving jam.  Fortunately Sylvia was so happy playing dress ups and card games with E that she didn't want to help.  This time I used my icing gun.  It was much better but so much nutella got left behind.  I preferred the jam filling to the nutella but both were good.

I am sending the doughnuts to Susan for YeastSpotting and the clothes peg ballerinas to Maggy of Red Ted Art blog for the Kids Get Crafty linky party.

Previously on Green Gourmet Giraffe:
One year ago: In my kitchen and craft August 2012
Two years ago: Melbourne to Orange Roadtrip - a long long way
Three years ago: Florentines, salads and what's in a name
Four years ago: Chocolate Caramel Slice
Five years ago: Lemony Dressing for a Quinoa Salad
Six years ago: Rumbledethumps: death to the red hag!

Mini baked jam (or nutella) doughnuts
From Australian BBC Good Food magazine (also here)
Makes about 20
  • 3/4 cup milk (I used soy)
  • 1/3 cup raw sugar
  • 2 tsp dried yeast
  • 2 and 2/3 cups unbleached flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 tsp finely grated orange zest (I used mandarin)
  • *2 medium eggs, lightly beaten
  • 75g unsalted butter, melted (I used margarine)
  • 4-5 tbsp strawberry jam (or nutella)
Sugar coating:
  • 25g unsalted butter, melted (I used margarine)
  • 6 tbsp caster sugar (not regular sugar)
Mix lukewarm milk, 1 tsp sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl.  Leave for 5 minutes to start foaming slightly.  Add remaining sugar, flour, salt and orange zest.  Mix eggs and melted butter (I melt mine in the microwave so it is not that hot but should be cooled slightly if melted on the stove).  Stir to make a soft dough.

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.  Knead for 5 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.  It is slightly sticky but should come away from your hands rather than stick to them in lumps of dough.  Return to mixing bowl (I just scrap it out but you can clean it out and oil it) and cover with a tea towel.  Leave to rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Punch down dough and knead for a minute or two.  Roll out to 1cm thick and cut into 5cm diameter circles (my dough seemed slightly thicker than 1cm and my scone cutter was 4.5cm diameter).  Place on 2 lined oven trays about 5cm apart because they will rise.  Cover with clingwrap and set aside to rise for about 40 minutes or until doubled.  (I wasn't sure if mine were doubled but they were risen enough I thought.)  While they rise, preheat oven to 180 C.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes (I did 12 minutes) until golden brown on top.  While the doughnuts are baking, prepare the sugar and melted butter in small bowls.

When the doughnuts come out of the oven, brush with butter and toss in flour.  Now poke holes in the doughnuts.  The recipe said to use a skewer but I found that this gave very small holes so I used a chopstick instead.  I found it easier to make holes on top rather than in the side so they were easier to handle while piping.  Use jam without bits or sieve jam or just use nutella.  I found the icing gun the best way to pipe the jam in but would love to try a squeezy bottle.

Best eaten fresh and warm but still quite nice if eaten a few hours later.

*Update September 2013: I have posted a vegan baked doughnut recipe if that is more your sort of thing.

On the Stereo:
Don't Try This at Home: Billy Bragg

25 comments:

  1. You've just brought back a host of childhood memories of parties and playing that doughnut game! I think we used the jammy type though and threaded them through with a needle...even more messy! They look a lot of fun to make too.

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    1. Thanks Emma - I never played the doughnut game - makes me think I had a deprived childhood :-( I wouldn't fancy having a group of young kids with jammy doughnuts all over them (wait that happens even if they use their hands)

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  2. Oh man, those kids have it easy! We used to play that doughtnut game with apples. So hard to get a grip on them with your teeth!

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    1. Thanks Hannah - I think I would struggle enough with doughnuts - apples is tough!

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  3. The doughnuts look amazing I imagined them with some icing and sprinkles. perhaps you could do a ring instead of a ball cut into strips and form a ring?

    I may try these the texture looks similar to Balfours which are my most favourite Doughnut from my childhood. So much so that whenever I visit Adelaide (a couple of weekends back) I indulge in a Balfours meat pie, doughnut and a farmers union iced coffee. Oh the memories!

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    1. Thanks Helen - my favourite doughnut is the vic market jam doughnuts in Melbourne - which is probably why I prefer jam doughnuts to iced doughnuts - have plans to try more doughnuts in a ring so stay tuned....

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  4. I'm going to try these. They look wonderful.

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    1. Thanks Jac - have been looking into vegan doughnut recipes too which graham might like

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  5. I love reading about what you all get up to. And the donuts look marvellous - I avoid frying too.

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    1. Thanks Cakelaw - honestly I never deepfry so I don't think I would even know how to go about it

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    1. Thanks Lisa - they are cute but I really wish I could pipe jam :-)

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  7. I had no idea you could bake donuts. These look really pretty and far nicer than deep frying. I also liked the insights into your winter activities and outings, and that picture of fluffy the wombat!

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    1. Thanks Kari - I have seen baked doughnut recipes about but never thought they would be this good - and luckily fluffy was not about when we were making the doughnuts but he is a cutie

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  8. They look fabulous little doughnuts. Being baked you can eat more than one without feeling guilty too!

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    1. Thanks Katie - I don't think the sugar and butter coating is conducive to eating too many but surely they are still healthier than fried

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  9. I love that these are baked! With the nutella filling they truly are the perfect treat!

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    1. Thanks Joanne - one of my favourite bakeries here does bombolini with chocolate filling and a hint of citrus in the dough - they inspired the nutella filling

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  10. I really want to give these a go now Johanna! I don't like deep frying so the idea that it's so tasty but doesn't require a deep fryer is immensely appealing! :D

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    1. Thanks Lorraine - deep frying is still a mystery to me - why people do it and how they do it - so good to find I can make doughnuts by baking - hope you have a go

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  11. Your doughnuts look so cute! I also tend to avoid deep-frying for the mess, but it sounds like these caused a bit of that regardless. :-P

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    1. Thanks Cindy - I felt a bit the same way about the mess we made being as much as deep frying til I read someone talking about deep frying recently and the vat of oil and the oil spills and I thought euwh!

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  12. Wonderful that these doughnuts are baked and not fried. Look forward to making them with the kids

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