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Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Mmmmmm-Donuts

Originally posted 2/22/11

Good morning all…..Looong, long weekend here.  And not really long in a good way.  We have had tons of snow.  And my “tons” I mean up to my husband’s waist…and he is 6’2”.  School was cancelled on Friday, so we had a 4 day weekend.  And that 4 day weekend was a long 4 days of no television.  Not because I think TV is a tool of the devil or anything strange like that.  I firmly believe that some TV for the kiddos is a good thing….but the truth is, we have been without TV for 6 days.  6 days people!  The snow is covering our satellite, and we haven’t figured out how to fix this problem.  So 6 days, trapped in the house with no TV.  We have read a lot of books, played a lot of video games, and watched a whole lotta movies on the computer.  I am waaaay over this no TV thing.
On the bright side, I got to spend a lot of time in the kitchen.  My kids and husband got some really good food over the last few days.  Monday morning, we slept in….and the kids woke up to hot, yummy donuts.  When I was little, I used to love to spend the night at my friend Lindsey’s house because her mom would always make us donuts out of canned biscuits in the morning.  Since then, I have always called this kind of donut…”Sandy Rock donuts.”  When you deep fry canned buttermilk biscuits, it really does taste just like a donut.  This is, by far, the easiest and quickest way to make homemade donuts.   I had, on hand, a 4 pack of canned biscuits, oil, and a long pastry tip so,…..I decided to make “filled” donuts.  I searched my pantry and fridge, and found chocolate, mascarpone cheese and Gourmet Rooster County Fair Peach Spread.  Yes, we had A LOT of donuts…..I will show you how I made the donuts, the fillings, and how I filled them.
Like I said, I used canned, buttermilk biscuits.  I did not use the extra-large kind, but you can…..I am not the boss of you;)  Some people like to punch a hole in the biscuits to make them look like regular donuts.  Since we are filling these donuts…..not the best idea.
I heated up vegetable oil in a large, deep pot.  You can use any light, unflavored oil….vegetable, corn, canola, even peanut.  I heated the oil to about 350 degrees.  The oil will start to ripple when it is hot.  I deep fried the biscuits, about 6 at a time.  If you crowd the pot, the oil will drop in temperature and the biscuits will absorb too much oil.  These are a quick fry.  They will brown after about a minute.  Then, you flip them and brown the other side.  You really need to make sure that your oil isn’t too hot because you don’t want the outside to brown before the inside can cook……
While the donuts ( I call them donuts now that they are all fried up;) are cooling on a paper towel lined tray, I filled 1 shallow dish with powdered sugar, and one with cinnamon sugar.  Once the donuts had cooled enough that I could touch them without my fingers falling off, I rolled them in either dish.  Not both though, that would be a bit much…..Now they are ready to be filled!  Although, they are fantastic just like this.  I know you might doubt me, and thinking that these might not taste like donuts…..I promise…they do.
For my first filling, and my personal favorite, I made chocolate ganache.  Ganache is really just chocolate and cream.  It can be used hot as a syrup type topping, or cooled as a frosting, filling or even used for truffles.  I like it room temperature for this.  If it is too cool, it will too hard to get through a pastry tip.  So easy….I heated the cream to a light boil, and poured it over the chopped chocolate.  I whisked it until smooth, and there ya have it…..ganache.  I let mine cool in the fridge and it pretty quickly thickened up.  You don’t want it too thick though because then it will be too hard to pipe in the donuts.
For my second filling, I mixed together mascarpone cheese (room temperature), 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar and vanilla extract.  You could also use cream cheese, if you prefer to not be so fancy-schmancy…..
For my third and final filling, I used Gourmet Rooster County Fair Peach Spread.  Easy….open jar and use.  Other good choices would be pudding, whipped cream, lemon curd….the choices are pretty endless.
I am sure you are wondering how I filled these bad boys.  I used a really long pastry tip that is meant for filling.  These are readily available at Wal-Mart, Target, Michael’s, etc.  I have a fancy piping tool, but a food storage bag with a tip works just as well.
To fill, you stick the tip into the donut and fill.  Really…could not be easier.  You do have to be careful not to overfill, this will cause donut explosions.  I am pretty sure that "Donut Explosion" will be the name of my band if I ever start one.  The filling goes quickly….it really is an easy process.

These donuts end up tasting just like a filled donut you would get at a good donut shop.  Remember how much you loved donuts when you were a kid?  Or when you were a cop?;)  Donuts are such a crowd pleaser, and they are something that shouldn’t be intimidating to make at home. 
Hopefully next time I talk to you I will have TV again…otherwise things might get ugly.

 

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