Taking Chocolate to a New Level: Disney Style

It's finally that time in Chocolate to make our CANDY STANDS!  The theme we used to pick what kind of candy stand we wanted to make was "Literature."  About 10 different books came to mind, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pinnochio, Jungle Book, and more (mostly Disney books of course).  In the end I came up with the idea of doing "The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh."  I thought it would be perfect to create Pooh Bear's treehouse and add a little bit extra to show Pooh's personality, like having Pooh sneaking in the tree hole for some "hunny." I was really happy with how it came out and proud I made it through without melting in the classroom during this crazy heat! 

Hope you like it!

Fluffy Lemon-Glazed Doughnuts

It's finally my turn to tackle some doughnuts.  I've tried multiple recipes, had some successes, some "maybes," some failures, but in the end I came out with something great.  Every great recipe takes a lot time and practice so I'll admit it's not perfect but it sure had me glued to the kitchen table tasting doughnut after doughnut just to "make sure" it tasted good (such a great excuse).

I got my inspiration from Joanne Chang's recipe in Flour.  Having tested some recipes before this I knew how important it was to love the dough.  The mixing process takes education and experience and the rising process takes patience, a lot of it.  Most doughnut doughs have two rises; the first in the fridge from a couple hours to overnight, and the second in a warm, draft-free spot to double in size.  I knew from experience how important this was because of course I got too eager and fried up the doughnuts before they were ready making my end product dense and leaving me in regret.  Doughnuts take a lot of time and self-restraint, but when you put all of that into the dough you are left with a great end product and a full stomach.  So, I put my twist on Chang's recipe and got to work getting inspiration from the great doughnuts I've tasted.  For the taste of the dough I thought of the subtle sweetness of Peter Pan's yeast-raised doughnuts, and for the glaze the perfectly tart and citrus glazes of Dough.  I still have plenty of doughnut recipes I want to try and experiment with but for now this is one great indulgence.  


Lemon-Glazed Doughnuts

Dough:

• 1 package (2 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast, or 2/3 oz (18 g) fresh yeast
• 2/3 cup (160 g) milk, room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups (440 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• About 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3 eggs
• 7 tablespoons (100 grams) butter, room temperature, cubed
• Canola Oil, for frying
• Vanilla Sugar, Cinnamon Sugar, Superfine Sugar (optional)

Glaze:

• Zest of one lemon
• Juice of two lemons
• Confectioners sugar, sifted

To Prepare the Dough:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment stir together the yeast and warm milk until the yeast had dissolved and bubbles start to form.
2. Add the flour, sugar, and eggs, and mix on low speed for about a minute or until the dough comes together, adding the salt about 15 seconds in.
3. Continue to mix until the dough is fully developed, about 2-3 minutes.  I like to look for a "window," meaning when you grab the dough you can spread it apart with your fingers keeping the dough intact forming a nearly see-through sheet of dough. The dough will be sticky and tacky.
4. Add the butter and continue to mix until the butter is fully combined and the dough is cohesive.
5. Tightly wrap the dough is plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 6 hours and up to 15 hours.  I like to do my dough the night before and get right to work in the morning.

To Roll the Dough:

1. Roll chilled dough on a lightly floured surface to a 12-in. square, 1/2-in. thick.
2. Cut out desired sized doughnuts with a doughnut cutter or a floured glass rim (which is what I used), and a smaller circle cutter for the doughnut hole.  You can play around with the shapes if you'd like, I also made some twists! *scraps can be rerolled once!
3. Arrange the cut doughnuts on a lightly floured baking sheet(s) spaced 2-in. apart, cover in plastic wrap sprayed with pan spray, and let them rise until doubled in size in a warm, draft-free spot, 2-3 hours.  The doughnuts will be puffy and pillowy.

*Use pictures below for reference

Rolled Dough

Cut Doughnuts

Prepare the Glaze/Prep Oil:

1. When the doughnuts are almost at the peak point in rising start to prepare the glaze.
2. Combine the lemon juice and zest in a small bowl.  
3. Place sifted powdered sugar, about a cup, in a separate bowl.  
4. Slowly at the lemon juice mixture to the powdered sugar about a tablespoon at a time using a fork to combine into a paste.  
5. Add more of the lemon juice mixture until your desired thickness is reached.  The glaze is quite tart so I liked to make mine the consistency of a thick soup.
6. Meanwhile, heat the canola oil in a large, heavy saucepan about 3-in. deep to 350 degrees.  To test if you oil is ready you can throw in a pinch of flour and if it sizzles on contact, the oil is ready.

Time to Fry:

Raised, Ready
Doughnuts

1. Once the doughnuts have reached their rise.  You can test the rise by gently pressing you finger into the dough, if the imprint slowly disappears, the dough is ready. I like to go by the size of the doughnut (pictured right).
2. Fry the doughnuts in batches of three, frying about 1-2 minutes on both side depending on the size, or until browned (pictured below). * Make sure to check your temperature while frying.  If the temperature is too high it will burn the doughnuts without cooking the inside and if the temperature is too low the doughnuts will soak up the oil making for a dense dough instead of light and fluffy.
3. Place on paper towels to drain and cool.
4. To glaze, allow the doughnuts to cool a bit and while still warm dip the top of the doughnuts in the lemon glaze letting the excess roll off to form a thin coat and let set.
5. For something simpler, you can simply roll warm doughnuts in vanilla sugar, superfine sugar, or cinnamon sugar.  

Frying Doughnuts

Browned, Fried Doughnuts

Hope you enjoy your doughnuts..

Have any questions? Leave a comment or e-mail me!

Donuts to Doughnuts: The Winner is...

Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop 

Alas the doughnut competition has come to an end with Peter Pan beating Dough and Bomboloni with a rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.   Dough coming in an extremely close second was overcome with Peter Pan's light, melt-in-your-mouth dough and traditional flavors. See all three posts for a more detailed review of each:

Bomboloni

Dough

Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop

And stay tuned for my OWN stab at doughnuts coming soon!

DONUTS TO DOUGHNUTS -- Stop #3: Peter Pan's

Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop
727 Manhattan Avenue
Greenpoint, Brooklyn

Finally down to the last contender.  This donut shop came to me as a young, sugar-hungry child in Brooklyn, NY.  As far back as I can remember, Peter Pan's donuts were a staple at every family get-together, birthdays, holidays, and plain old Sunday dinner.  From the first bite of their Sugar-Raised Donut, I was hooked.  Let's face it as a kid anything with sugar on it was going to wind up in your mouth, but there was something about these donuts.  I could eat butter cookies and Italian pastries without force don't get me wrong, but I would always find myself along with my twin sister waiting for the plate of donuts to hit the kitchen table to make sure we grabbed our favorite donuts.  So without question, I had to include one of my favorite childhood memories in the competition.

My sister and I (who would not let me do this competition without her) made our way to Peter Pan's one morning to get our generous box of donuts for a "proper tasting" (well that's how we put it).  We hadn't been inside the bakery in a while and almost forgot how long the line always is especially in the morning.  The bakery offers tons of different donuts from the traditional yeast-raised donuts like Blueberry Jelly, Chocolate Glazed, and Sugar Twist, to cake donuts like Red Velvet, Old-Fashioned, and Whole-Wheat Glazed, all reasonably priced around $1.00.  Aside from the donuts a vast selection of breakfast breads and pastries is also offered consisting of Danishes, Black-and-White Cookies (the best one I've had in my lifetime), and other must-tries such as the Pistachio Muffin (also one of my favorites).  So naturally, the donut shop was packed with fellow dough-hungry fanatics, but we didn't grow the least bit impatient because we knew the wait was going to be worth it.

Tables during the morning rush!

Stepping inside you walk into a retro, old-fashioned donut shop with the bakery selections on one side and high-top table seating on the other.  Already at 9 AM, each table was filled with what looked like the bakery regulars (which includes my grandmother, to whom I thank for the introduction to this bakery).  The girls behind the counter have the same uniform as that from my childhood; a 1960's diner-esque green and pink dress.  I happen to think that they are adorable.  A great quality this donut shop has is that they have not changed throughout the years.  It's a good feeling going back to somewhere you grew up loving and seeing that like your love for their food, they haven't changed.

After waiting a bit, we put in our order for a small box of our favorites mixing it up to get a proper taste of everything they had to offer.  We had no complaints about the service, it was quick and painless.  We decided on the Sugar-Raised Donut, French Crueller (my sister's favorite), Whole Wheat Glazed, and although we never sprang for them as kids a Whipped-Cream topped yeast-raised doughnut.  The smell of the doughnuts made us nearly run to the car to get home quicker.  Then, along with our usual apple with breakfast, we sat to savor our doughnuts and relived our childhood, with more of a sophisticated palate of course.

The donuts were fresh as the shelves are regularly filled throughout the day and let off an intoxicating scent of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cream.  We started with the never disappointing Sugar-Raised (pictured left).  The texture of the fried dough was perfectly light and airy, one of the most gentle donuts I've ever bit into.  However, I think what sets these yeast-raised donuts apart from others is the taste of the dough.  Looking at the dough you can see the little specks of spice and flavor, to me what tastes like a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon and possibly a bit of lemon zest.  The combination of the texture and taste of the dough which is vaguely sweet with the crunch of the sugar on the outside makes for an absolutely satisfying bite, and a quick one at that; it should take at least three minutes give or take to finish this donut and I did it in less than 60 seconds.  You wouldn't blame me.

Interior of French Crueller

Moving on to the French Crueller I let my sister have the first bite as I could see it in her face she couldn't wait much longer as I took it out of the box.  The French Crueller  is made with Pate a Choux which I had experience with making in pastry class; an eggy dough which has great height when baked or fried.  The donut is fried then simply topped with a sugar glaze.  This donut makes for more of a "bite" as the exterior of the dough is thicker and although wonderfully airy inside, it is wetter and denser in consistency (refer to picture right).  This dough as well had a "nutmegy" taste but much less noticeable than the other.  I think what makes this donut so likable is the texture of the Pate a Choux dough with the delicate sugar glaze.  The dough is the least bit sweet making it impossible to overload on sugar but also making it impossible not to want another one as it jump-starts your sugar craving.  Although delicious, it can seem a bit collapsed at times and taste like it has been sitting for a while, and still has not surpassed the Sugar-Raised for me.

Whole-Wheat Glazed

The Whole-Wheat Glazed (pictured left) came out of the box next and tasted better than I remembered. It happens to be my Aunt Jenny's favorite and I would always see her slowly eating it with her coffee after dinner.  OKAY, first of all I don't know how she could eat it so slow, and second of all I applaud her for making such a good choice.  I can imagine people choose this donut because they think it's the healthier choice, and yes that went through my mind as well, but let's face it a donut is a donut and it's going to get fried so my picking was solely based on taste.  The dough is what attracts me to this doughnut the most.  As a cake doughnut of course it does not have that fluffy quality the yeast-raised has and is much more like a coffee cake but it packs so much flavor.  With this donut you get a bigger kick of cinnamon and nutmeg but you also get kind of a gentle "burnt" flavor from the exterior of the donut which makes for a great combination.  The sugar glaze on top adds a perfect balance to the donut making it one of my new favorites.

The last lonely donut in the box was the Whipped Cream*.  We left it for last because I'm not going to lie it kinda of intimidated us a bit.  It is a much more obnoxious donut than the rest as it is topped with a generous mound of fluffy cream.  Although this has always been my mom's absolute favorite, we were always afraid it would be too sweet and would tell her she was crazy as she would sit down to enjoy her donut and roll her eyes at the two of us.  Nevertheless, we decided "Hey, why not?" and went for it.  Bracing ourselves for the first bite we were pleasantly surprised that the cream was not overpoweringly sweet at all.  It was actually very tasty.  It is a thicker whipped cream verging on the consistency of a frosting, but is very delicately sweetened so you don't get half-way through the donut and get sick of it.  Yes, it is a lot of cream and maybe too much for my liking as I am more attracted to the simplicity in the donut, but it proved me wrong and is still one worth trying if you are a cream-lover.  I give my mom credit for this one, but shh! let's keep that between us.

As we finished our tasting we were overly stuffed but completely satisfied.  Although we loved the donuts for bringing us back to our childhood, we judged the taste of the doughnuts solely on the present.  Going into the tasting I told myself that these donuts were going to be hard to beat and after I was proven correctly bringing my rating of Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop to:

4.5 out of 5 STARS, and a command to go try it!


*I apologize for lack of pic for the Whipped Cream donut, we finished it off before we could stop for a picture!  But don't worry let your imagination run with it, it will only be better in person =)