SEPTEMBER 22, 2012–HOMEMADE GLAZED DOUGHNUTS

There is that day in September when the air changes.  You wake up one morning to a crisp air.  You know.  Fall is here.

And Fall is the time for a last bike ride.

A time to feed the ducks one more time before they fly South.

A time for sweat shirts.

And sneakers (instead of flip flops.)

A time for pumpkins and soup.

A time filled with blazing colors, and. . .

scratchy hay rides.

A time to sit closer and bundle up.

September is the time school is still exciting,

. . .challenges still seem possible.

Maps want to be explored, yellow #2 pencils promise answers, and crayons smell like creativity.

It is a time when school still seems like an exciting journey.

It is also the time for doughnuts.

Doughnuts go with fall like asparagus goes with spring.  Like the vine-ripened tomatoes go with summer, and the comfort of chicken noodle soup goes with winter.

Let’s make Pioneer Woman’s HOMEMADE GLAZED DOUGHNUTS (g. 8).  These doughnuts are yeast doughnuts (not cake doughnuts) and therefore take a little more time.  But they are OH SO WORTH IT!  Start by adding some sugar (1/4 cup) to 1 1/8 cups of warm milk.  Then add yeast (3 teaspoons.)  While that is proofing, Mix 2 large eggs with 1 1/4 sticks of butter.

Put the butter/egg mixture in your Kitchen Aid and gently mix.  The flour mixture is 4 cups of flour and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.

Add the proofed milk/ yeast mixture to the butter/egg mixture.  Now comes the part where you try to combine the flour without making a huge mess.

Good luck.  I can’t seem to add flour without it poofing out everywhere.

Beat the mixture for about 5 – 7 minutes, then put the dough in the refrigerator over night.  The next morning let the dough rise 1 – 2 hours in a lightly oiled bowl.  This means that if you want doughnuts for breakfast, you have to get up really, super, unearthly early.  Or you can have the doughnuts as a mid-morning snack.

Roll the dough out and grap your doughnut cutter.  My mother-in-law gave me her doughnut cutter.  She tried to buy me one, but couldn’t find them for sale anywhere.  Before I had a doughnut cutter, I used two biscuit cutters (also given to me by my MIL.)

I sometimes still use the biscuit cutter to create a larger doughnut, then steal the “hole cutter” out of my doughnut cutter and add holes.

Either way works fine.  I finally found new doughnut cutters in Rural King–a tractor supply store.

   or

The doughnut cutter is $2.99 and the trio of biscuit cutters is $3.99.  Here is the link.

The cut doughnuts really need to rise again.  That is the really hard part–waiting for that second rising.  Deep fry them in shortening that is about 350°.  I tend to get my oil too hot.  I use a candy thermometer, but I can’t ever seem to keep one without breaking it.  We usually have to buy a new candy thermometer every fall–about the time I bake doughnuts.  They are just too fragile for kids who do the dishes and put them away.

We like different glazes–coffee (try a package of Via), lemon, sugar, or even dusted with just powdered sugar.  Remember Fall is short and fleeting, so seize the day, and seize the doughnut.

Because before you know it they will both be gone.

Maybe.

–Rebecca

P.S.  Almost there on the Rebecca cooks Ree Drummond’s cookbook.  Just 3-ish more recipes to go.  Hang with me.  We will get there.  And since you are still reading, I have a Give-Away.  I know it is spring now, but I have a set of coffee cup warmers in plaid.  I meant to give them away in the winter, but well. . .I didn’t get around to it.  So if you would like to be entered in the drawing, just tell us what kind of doughnut you like the best–cream filled, powdered in a box, maple glazed Tim Horton’s, sugar glazed Krispy Kreme???