The Daring Bakers make doughnuts!

As soon as this challenge, chosen by Lori of Butter Me Up, was announced, many of her fellow Canadian members of the Daring Bakers came out of the woodwork and enthusiastically talked doughnuts. My favourite childhood doughnut memory is of pulling out my mother's deep fryer and making a batch of nutmeg scented cake doughnuts after school with my brother. We would roll and cut out a few, then give up and fling blobs of dough into the fryer. They were usually too big and uncooked in the centre, but we didn't care. We just tried to make and eat as many as possible before my parents got home. I'm sure they had nightmares about us burning the house down.

Ode to Tim Horton's: maple brown butter glazed cruller

Many folks also talked about Tim Horton's, and how they miss it when they're away from Canada. Tim Horton's is ubiquitous here, with outlets from coast to coast (but not coast to coast to coast, like the CBC), selling doughnuts, coffee, soup and sandwiches. You can actually plan your journey across Canada and map out all the Timmy's. Weird. Many people look down on Timmy's, but I have been known to have a cruller and a coffee. In fact, I had done just that the day this challenge was announced. My strangest encounter with this Canadian icon was walking down the road in Belfast a few years ago and seeing a giant Tim Horton's ad. Turns out that some gas stations there sell plastic-wrapped doughnuts and frothy 'cappuccino' out of an automated machine, kind of like what you'd see in a hospital waiting room. Well, not in a Canadian hospital, because they all have Timmy's outlets. :)

That irresistible custardy interior!

I really wanted to make crullers, as they are my favourite kind of doughnut, so I made these on Thanksgiving morning. They are made with the same dough used to make cream puffs, and they came together really quickly and easily. They did not hold their ridged shape when fried, but that was my fault, as I didn't let the dough cool enough. I am famously patient in my family, but not that day! I glazed them with a mixture of brown butter, maple syrup and icing sugar, and they were fantastic. I took a plate to my brother and his family, and my 2-year-old nephew ate 2 and started zooming around, yelling 'YUM!' and rubbing his and everyone else's tummies. Then he refused to have a nap. That's what aunts are for, right? Anyway, the cruller recipe was not one of the challenge ones, so I had another date with the deep fryer.

The amazing spherical doughnut!

I invited a couple of friends over for brunch and made the yeast doughnuts from the challenge. Marcellina had made some gorgeous cardamom doughnuts filled with raspberry jam, and I wanted some, but she lives in Australia, so I made my own half recipe and replaced the nutmeg in the recipe with cardamom. For the filling, I used the plum jam I had made for a Daring Cooks' challenge. Rather than inject the jam in the fried doughnuts, I rolled the dough thinly, cut it with a 2½" cutter, filled with a teaspoon of jam, covered with another round of dough, and cut the filled doughnut with a 2" cutter. I then left them to rise while I prepared the rest of the brunch. They didn't rise that much, but when I put them in the oil they puffed right up, becoming this bobbing ball of energy that was impossible to corral and turn over (kind of like my nephew on doughnuts). Anyway, cooking these was a team effort, and lots of fun. We let them cool while we ate brunch, being a bit wary of eating super-hot jam.

I kept taking bites, looking for the perfect shot. I never got it,
but this one looks kind of happy, and I got to eat 2 more doughnuts.

These were good too! They were a touch warm and not too sweet (mostly because I wasn't running the sugar shaker), and not greasy at all. Being an Ottawan, I really really wanted to make Beavertails, but I just didn't get around to it. I'll try to do one come winter, when I can do a full post on it and show you how to make a perfect Killaloe Sunrise. Check out the Daring Kitchen main page to see a slideshow of everyone's doughnuts. 

Blog-checking lines: The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Recipes and full challenge PDF after the jump

Doughnut challenge PDF

French crullers

(from a news article by Noelle Carter, reprinted in The Ottawa Citizen, June 10, 2010)

Total time: about 1 hour

Makes 10 to 12 doughnuts

6 tablespoons butter, cut in pieces

1 cup water

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

seeds from ½ vanilla bean

1¼ cups flour

3 eggs

2 egg whites

oil for frying

1.     In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, water, salt and sugar and bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Remove from heat and quickly stir in flour. Return to low heat and cook, stirring frequently, for about 3 minutes.

2.     Remove the pan from the heat and place in a food processor or stand mixer. If using a food processor, process the dough for 15 seconds to cool slightly and release steam (leave tube open), then add all the eggs and egg whites at once. Immediately continue to process for 30 seconds to combine and form the cruller batter. If using a stand mixer, beat the dough with the paddle attachment until most of the steam has subsided, then add the eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, until each is incorporated and a batter is formed. (You can also do this with a hand mixer, or a sturdy wooden spoon and some elbow grease. Just add eggs/whites 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.)

3.     Remove the batter to a bowl set over an ice bath and continue to stir gently just until the batter cools and thickens (I skipped this step, as it was pretty cool after beating). It should be thick enough to hold its shape when piped.

4.     Wipe your counter with a damp cloth and lay down a large sheet of parchment (the damp counter helps the parchment stick). Grease the parchment.

5.     Place the batter in a large piping bag with a large star tip (the opening should be larger than ½” in diameter. Pipe the batter on the greased parchment into doughnuts measuring 3” (~7.5 cm) in diameter, with a 1” (2.5 cm) hole. You may need to hold the paper in place while you’re piping. Press with the piping tip to close the doughnut and quickly release to ‘cut’ the batter. Don’t worry about imperfections, as these puff up in the oil.

6.     Fill a large pot or deep fryer with oil to at least 3” deep and heat to 350F/180C.

7.     While the oil is heating, cut the paper between the doughnuts, but leave the batter on the paper. When the oil is hot, pick up the squares of parchment with a metal spoon or spatula and place in the hot oil. The doughnuts will immediately release from the paper. Remove it with tongs. Fry for about 6 minutes, turning every 30 seconds or so. They will triple in size and may be a bit misshapen. I cooked about 3 at a time in my pot.

8.     Drain on a rack, then glaze or decorate. I used a maple-brown butter glaze, but didn’t measure. I browned about 3 tablespoons of butter, added about 4 tablespoons of maple syrup, then added icing sugar until the consistency was right, probably about ¾ of a cup.

9.     Delicious warm, but good at room temperature. These DO NOT keep, so eat them the day you make them!