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