Wednesday, October 27, 2010

OCTOBER DARING BAKERS CHALLENGE:

Let's Go Nuts for Doughnuts




The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge the Daring Bakers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious -recipes here
Wow - this was really good fun. I made the first recipe by Alton Brown and made doughnuts with and without a hole. The dough really rose up as you can see and I took the advice of another experienced Daring Baker and added very little extra flour throughout the rolling and resting process. The dough is certainly silky !



I made sure the oil for deep frying (Alfa One Rice Bran ) was heated to the correct temperature and the doughnuts cooked so quickly - could only manage one in the pan at a time. Some Daring Bakers were concerned about frying and greasiness, I can honestly say that this recipe cooked in Rice Bran Oil is not in the least fatty or greasy - the crust is very thin and light.

I coated the ring doughnuts with cinamon sugar (1/2 cup caster sugar + 1 Tbs cinnamon).


The whole (round) doughnuts were injected with strawberry jam (preserve) and dusted with icing sugar (confectioner's, powdered).

This challenge was great ( thanks Lori)- it's really interesting making something at home that you have only ever tasted the commercial version of. I've been thinking about that a lot lately - of course most things were home baked before they were ever commercially produced but so often your first experiences of a product is the mass produced variety - I'm thinking especially about icecream - how delicious home-made is and doesn't have all those emulsifiers and additives - guess the same goes for doughnuts.
Look for other Daring Bakers' efforts here !




























14 comments:

  1. Hi fellow apron lover :) Your doughnuts look delicious. I should have taken a picture of one cut in half like you did. You mention homemade ice cream and I can only begin to imagine how amazing it must be. I've been tempted to buy an ice cream maker but that would just get me into major trouble!

    Thanks for commenting on mine :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great tip about using Rice Bran oil, will keep it in mind when I get the courage to deep fry. Love the jam injected doughnuts.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Your dough looks so lovely and buttery in that fisrt pic. And so lovely and light once cooked. What a great job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice job on the challenge - the interior of your doughnuts look so wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  5. the interior shot is superb....love your doughnuts. Glad to meet a fellow daring baker.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Heather, your doughnuts are fabulous! I specially liked the one filled with jam.... yummmm Great job on the challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Those donuts look so fluffy and gorgeous! I'm getting very hungry! hehehe Great job on this challenge!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Heather your doughnuts are so light and airy and I bet were delicious I just love the Alton Brown recipe and it will be my doughnut recipe. I love the photos also. Yours Audax in Sydney Australia.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Yours turned out so well! I want to eat them! Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yum Heather! These look so good!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wish I could take a bite out of the jam filled one!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mmmm, they look fantastic! I wish I would have tried some filled ones. I'll bet those strawberry jam filled ones were delish.

    ReplyDelete