Have you guessed what I made for Sunday breakfast yet? Here's a hint:
Warm with a soft pillow-y inside. Sweet vanilla glaze....
Yes, I made donuts! Less than perfect looking doughnuts but you'll have that when you haven't a small round cutter to cut the centers and you have to use a tiny heart cutter. You'll also have some uneven sides going on when you have five children tearing through the house as you frantically hope to locate your new rolling pin. And fail. Instead, you hurriedly pat down the dough and with the large circle cutter push-twist-cut as fast as you can because you just heard a screech from the third floor that wants investigating.....
Ahhh, just remembering made me tired! Despite their less than perfect appearance they still had the airy melt in your mouth quality to them that is so important to doughnuts.
I also tried a little experiment. This type of doughnut is yeast raised which means after the first rise and you cut and shape them you are supposed to let them rise for an hour and them immediately fry them. I didn't want to fry them the night before (I had it in my mind I was going to eat a warm doughnut for breakfast after a week of some horrid health cereal) and I certainly didn't want to wake up 3+ hours before everyone else in order to get them started. What I did was immediately after I cut and shaped them, I placed them on parchment lined paper, misted them with Pam, covered them with plastic wrap and popped them in the fridge for a couple of hours. Right before I went to bed, i took them out and set them on the counter. You might be wondering how they didn't over rise since I went to bed at a reasonable time.
Here's how. The dough was very cold from the fridge. Our furnace is also programmed at a certain time to drop down to 58 degrees for the night. That means this particular combination of temperatures causes the pre-chilled dough to come to room temperature and rise very, very slowly. I got up at 7 am, heated up the oil and they were ready to be popped in. This only works in the winter--it won't work in the warmer months. In the warmer months, I set my alarm, stagger downstairs to remove the pans from the fridge and go back to sleep for an hour or so.
And of course I made doughnut holes hearts.
