Sorry for the Monday-only post this week! Something was wrong with my photo hosting service, and images were coming up blurry or not at all. I've since switched my free hosting service to a paid one--I should have done it a long time ago, photos load much more quickly and are stored at high resolution! Thanks for your patience :) To make up for it, here's a Saturday post!
Mr. Kim Chee loves donuts. Unfortunately, bakeries here that make fabulous donuts are few and far between (O Krispy Kreme, how I miss you ... ) Some of his favorite donuts are blueberry cake donuts. So I pulled the Good Wife card and made some :)
They're pretty easy to make.
Just a note--before you begin, grab two cookie sheets and pop them in the freezer. Trust me. They'll come in handy.
In a large mixing bowl, measure out some flour and sugar.
Quite a bit of flour and sugar. This recipe makes several dozen giant donut holes--but there's really no way you can reduce this recipe any more than it already is. If you've got a small family, I suggest making friends with your neighbors, or inviting some friends over for breakfast.
Measure and add some salt.
Some baking soda will help the donuts rise a little.
Whisk the dry ingredients together and then set the bowl aside.
Now get a two-cup measuring cup, and pour in some buttermilk.
Crack in an egg.
Measure some sour cream and add that, too.
A little melted butter is next. It helps if your "cold" items have been given enough time to come to room temperature before you add the butter, or it will become firm again. But it's not a huge deal.
Finally, a bit of vanilla is added. I also planned on putting in a little lemon zest, but all my lemons appeared to be MIA. But add some if you've got it--lemon and blueberry is a lovely combination.
Stir the wet ingredients together, taking care to scramble your egg. Then pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients.
Before you get down and dirty, measure some blueberries. I used frozen, which helped my dough stay cool, but fresh are fine if you've got some.
A spoon might work, but I dug in with my (clean) bare hands. Give the blueberries a smoosh, to distribute their blueberry goodness throughout the dough.
I'm frying my donut holes in a mixture of vegetable oil and Crisco. Because Crisco fries like no other.
Heat a couple inches of Crisco and/or oil in a heavy-duty pot.
While the oil is getting hot, you can roll out the donut dough. Turn it out onto a well-floured surface.
Flour a rolling pin well. This dough is pretty sticky.
Roll the dough out to be about 1/2 an inch.
Now, remember those baking sheets I told you to put in the freezer? Take them out. Cover the dough with the cold sheets. That will help the dough firm up and be a bit more manageable when you cut and fry it.
If you don't have enough freezer room, I would recommend putting the dough in the fridge after mixing it, for, say, an hour. Enough to cool it down and reduce the stickiness.
Let the cool pans sit on top of the dough for at least 5 minutes. Then use a glass or a biscuit cutter to cut out round shapes.
They're giant donut holes because this is the smallest cutter I have.
Lay your cut-out dough shapes on the second cold sheet.
Cut out all the donut holes. Put one pan back in the freezer, to keep the dough cold. When you're ready for them, just take them right out and stick them into the oil. You'll notice they're much easier to handle when cold!
Then you can start frying the other pan. The oil should be hot enough to bubble when you add a donut, but not too hot that they burn. I had my stove on medium heat.
The donuts will sink to the bottom of the pan when you add them, and then rise to the top. I added a few at a time, adding more after the first few had drifted to the top. They have a tendency to drift close together and want to stick, so adding only a few at a time will keep you from ending up with one huge stuck-together donut.
While your first batch is frying, you can quickly make the glaze.
It's a powdered sugar glaze, so you'll need some powdered sugar.
A liquid is needed to make it a glaze. You could use milk or cream, but I used buttermilk. It's a great addition.
A little vanilla, just to give it some flavor.
Stir the glaze together and then go check on your donuts.
By now, they should be ready to come out of the oil. Let them drain for a minute or so on some newspaper or paper towels.
Dip each donut into the glaze and make sure all sides are covered.
Let any excess glaze drip off.
Then set the newly-glazed donut on a cooling rack, to let them cool, the glaze to harden, and any additional glaze drip off.
I'm not a huge fan of cake donuts, but I ate three of these right away. The glaze is sweet but not too sweet, the outside is crunchy, and the inside is creamy and cakey. If you're craving a homemade cake donut, I strongly recommend you give these a try!
Recipe: Giant Blueberry Donut Holes
5 c. flour
1 1/4 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/3 c. buttermilk
1/4 c. sour cream
1 egg
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 c. blueberries
Oil, for frying
In a large bowl, whisk flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder together. Set aside.
In a large measuring cup, combine buttermilk, sour cream, egg, butter, and vanilla extract. Stir well.
Pour wet ingredients into dry. Stir briefly. Add blueberries; use a spoon or your hands to crush the blueberries. Stir until combined.
Turn dough onto well-floured surface. Roll to about 1/2 inch thickness. Cover dough with a cold baking sheet while oil preheats.
Heat at least 2 inches of oil over medium heat. When ready, cut donut holes and place on a second cold baking sheet. Cut out all donut holes, placing the second sheet with donut holes into the freezer while you fry.
Fry donuts for 6-8 minutes or until cooked through. Drain on newspaper and/or paper towels. Coat hot donuts in glaze (recipe below) and allow to drain and cool.
Recipe: Glaze
3 1/2 c. powdered sugar
3/4 c. buttermilk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
Combine all ingredients in a bowl; whisk together until smooth.
