Hurricane Sandy Faux Donuts ~ FAUXNUTS!

OMG! It’s a hurricane.

The water is coming! The wind is coming!

We need provisions! (as if this were a provisionless home!) I went to the market on Saturday, like I always do. I went with the same list I always go with … bananas, skim milk, chocolate milk, cold cuts, bread, veggies, pretzels …

People were shopping as though the end of the world were coming. As I approached the check out a woman looked at me and said “FOOD! You need FOOD! What are YOU going to do without food!?” I looked at her and said, “First, I have a freezer full of food. Second, you do realize, that they WILL deliver food again?” She looked at me as though I were completely daft.

In hindsight, I’m glad I shopped the way I did. My neighborhood was part of the lucky few areas that kept its lights, was whomped by wind, but not a LOT of damage, a tree here and there, but came through reasonably unscathed.

AND THEN THE BOREDOM STRIKES … yes, we are safe, but we can’t leave Brooklyn (a horror almost too much to bear), can’t get to work (yes, even I am itching to go to work!), can’t buy gas, certainly can’t give up a parking space! Stores are closed all over. Traffic is EVERYWHERE. How much time can you spend with loved ones before someone has to … well, someone must DIE …

The solution make donuts to tame the beasts and alleviate the boredom of the chief cook and bottle washer.

And here comes Pinterest again! While trolling through Pinterest one day I came across these lovely donuts pinned by a blogger over at Little Bit Funky. Seriously simple. All the donut without all the hassle. A new experiment to keep me occupied for a while.

Well, the donuts are one, two, three easy to make … but I had to cut the holes, decide to make the donut holes too, get my camera, set everything up, take pictures, sit and go through them, write this blog post, add the photos and press the publish button. OH, and I ate them as well!!

These easy peasy donuts gave me unending amounts of pleasure.

• Canned biscuits ~ I used Pillsbury Buttermilk Grands. Anything BUT flakey ones.
• 4 T melted butter in a shallow bowl
• Sugar & Cinnamon in a another shallow bowl (this amount really goes by taste)
• Vegetable or Canola oil to fill a pan up about 1/2 inch or so.

Heat oil over a medium flame.

While it is heating up, cut holes in the donuts with a cookie cutter or some other circular object. I used a Wilton medium sized flower fondant cutout.

Once cut, gently put into hot oil. When one side is golden brown, flip.

When the second side is golden, remove from oil and let drain on paper towel lined plate.

When the donuts have cooled enough to handle, dip one side in the melted butter, let the excess drip off, dip in cinnamon and sugar mixture, getting it nice and coated.  Repeat for the other side.

Thank goodness there are a number of kids on my block! These HAD TO GET OUT of the house before I ate every last one!

OH!! And I fried the faux-nut holes too! Piped some jelly inside and rolled them in powdered sugar. YUMMMMMM!

Bagels

 

Some of you may remember that last summer my friend Lizzy from that Skinny Chick Can Bake and I did a joint baked beans cook along – different recipes, same dish. We had so much fun doing this together we decided to try it again. The baked beans were my idea, so it was Lizzy’s turn to pick. Much to my chagrin, she chose bagels!

I have been dying to try my hand at bagels. Long story – when I was a kid (not just a kid at heart), and we had our house in Westport, the one annoying thing about the town was that every single solitary store (except perhaps Mr. Grubb’s – another story) closed at 6:00. One night my mom had a yen for bagels and none to be found. She pulled out her Joy of Coooking and got going. She didn’t finish until late, children falling asleep with tongues hanging out waiting for bagels, but they were great! Needless to say, gone in minutes!

When Lizzy said bagels, I figured I would follow in Mom’s footsteps – whoa, tooooo many steps! Off I went in search of a simple bagel recipe! As I stood gaping at my ever growing collection of cookbooks, I saw The Brooklyn Cookbook. What could be more Brooklyn than bagels? There must be a recipe for bagels there!

Gloomy, miserable rainy. Can’t go out. After the car fiasco on the Verrazano Bridge, I wasn’t driving ANYWHERE in the rain! (yet another story!) May as well make bagels. I can already hear Ernie sighing and saying “Walk to the corner. Buy them!”

 This bagel recipe was simple and fool (ME being the fool!) proof.

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1/3 C warm water
• 1 t salt
• 4 C all purpose flour
• 2 T sugar
• 1 C milk
• 1 egg, beaten with a little water, for glaze
• coarse salt, or poppy seeds, or sesame seeds

Sprinkle yeast over the warm water, stir, and let dissolve.

Put the salt, flour, and 4 teaspoons of the sugar into the bowl of a food processor equipped with the dough blade. Pulse the mixture several times to mix it well. This aerates the ingredients.

Combine the yeast mixture and milk in a measuring cup. WIth the motor running, pour the mixture through the feed tube. Knead until the mixture balls together and is no longer sticky, about 60 seconds.

Lightly flour a large plastic bag, place the dough inside, squeeze out the air, and close the end of the bag. Let the dough rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Punch it down.

NOTE: At this point the dough can be refrigerated for up to 4 days. Bring it to room temperature before proceeding.

Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Pull off pieces of dough to form 12 2 inch balls. Poke a finger through the ball, making a hole the size of a golf ball. With your fingers, shape the bagel evenly.

Put the bagels on a cookie sheet, cover with oiled plastic wrap, and let them rise until puffy, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring 4 quarts of water to the boil in a wide pot. Ad the remaining 2 teaspoons of sugar. Poach the bagels, 3 or 4 at a time, for 30 seconds. Turn them over and poach for 30 seconds more.

Remove with a slotted spoon, let them drip briefly on a towel held under the spoon and place them 1 inch apart on a baking sheet.

Brush each with a little of the egg glaze.

Leave them plain or sprinkle with coarse salt, poppy seeds or sesame seeds, or a combo of all three.

Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.

Let cool on racks – if you can bear to wait!

THINGS TO REMEMBER FOR NEXT TIME!:

1. Use whole milk. I only had skim and the dough didn’t come together well. I added a bit more, but from the processor running for far more than 60 seconds, the dough was a little tough.
2. Bake on parchment paper. When you egg wash them, if the egg wash trickles down onto the baking sheet, the bagels stick and that’s no bueno.

This was simple to pull together and the end result was fabulous, even given the over worked dough. This method is not an overly long process. These are not really big bagels, but not as small as mini-bagels.

And my favorite breakfast on a delicious bagel I MADE MYSELF!

Top Hats

I am very late to the Pioneer Woman bandwagon. Not sure why. I love her recipes and style of cooking. Might have to do with my general aversion to blogs for such a long time. I still find it amazing when I look at my stats each day that people actually stop by here and read my blog!

Anywho … I was gently lulled into my affection for the Pioneer Woman.  Watching her one morning on the Food Network she made Egg in a Hole. This recipe opened the flood gates of memories for me. My Aunt used to make this for me when I was little. She called them Top Hats. It has always been one of my absolute favorite breakfasts. So comforting.

Thank you Ree for reminding me of this childhood favorite.  This was included in The Pioneer Woman Cooks – don’t have it? Get it! There are some great recipes in here!

Breakfast doesn’t get easier than this. Whether you call this Egg in a Hole or Top Hats or Bird’s Nests, make them! They will quickly become a favorite of your family!

• 1 slice of your favorite kind of bread
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 egg
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• dash of tabasco (optional)

With a biscuit cutter or the rim of a glass, cut a hole in the center of the slice of bread. This disk forms the “hat” part.

 

Heat a skillet over medium heat and melt in the butter. When the butter is melted, place the piece of bread and the hat in the skillet. As the bread and hat begin to turn golden brown, crack the egg into the center of the hole. Salt, pepper, a dash of tabasco, if using.

 

Cook until the egg sets a bit on the bottom, about a minute.  After the minute, flip it over with a spatula and salt and pepper the other side.

Move the whole piece of toast and the hat around the skillet, soaking up all of the butter. Let cook until the yolk still feels soft.

YUM! And don’t let anyone steal your hat! That’s the best part!