friday links

Sorry the friday links have been m.i.a. for a while.
But I have lots to share with you!
Let's get right to it!

onion, bacon and butternut tart from whole foods market recipe box.

freezer friendly: homemade oatmeal pucks.
isn't that the best idea?  from williams kitchen.
pink & white layered sprinkle cake topped with macarons from raspberri cupcakes
homemade tootsie rolls from food52
bala do coco (coconut candy) from sugarcubedblog
thai fish cakes from mongolian kitchen
homemade pimento cheese from kitchen riffs
chocolate flake pudding from a cake bakes in brooklyn (never heard of this, you?)
lime & ginger cookies from cupcake muffin
sparkling red velvet bundt cake from alaska from scratch
smores macarons from bakers royale
smoky irish eggnog from married an irish farmer
gluten free winter grapefruit cake from serious eats
eggnog muffins with streusel topping from very culinary
homemade gravlax from mark's daily apple
almond butter bostock from serious eats
how to make your own sprinkles! from theKitchn
mason jar herb garden from camille styles (I LOVE this)
5 foods to eat for happiness from mind body green
face exercises (do you think this works?) from erupting mind
6 ways to fight SAD from greatist
should you ever be stranded in the wilderness, here are tips for eating for survival from outside mag
DIY hand drawn cappuccino cups from lipstick & a white tee
healthy new years resolutions from outside magazine
adorable backpacks from sherpani sonoma (I want one!)
8 natural foods to eat for pain relief from greatist
setting up a photo studio on the cheap from apartment therapy
staying awake as the days are shorter from apartment therapy
best ways to reduce stress from Dr. Weil
benefits of yoga for veterans from arianna huffington from intent (love this!)
this video made me cry (happy tears) from youtube
how to tell if you're inflamed (chronic inflammation) from marks daily apple
$66.00 kobe beef pizza from Domino's Japan from serious eats
donut foodporn from serious eats
appletini from serious eats
new hot cocoa mixes from Starbucks get taste-tested from serious eats: drinks
gluten free ring dings! from gluten free canteen
buffalo chicken pull apart bread from host the toast
barefoot running shoes made of medieval armor from greatist (hmmm)
8 best physical therapy methods from greatist
interview w/ christina tosi of momofuku from grandbaby cakes

Jessica Segarra of The Novice Chef blog has a new cookbook out called Mini Donuts: 100 Bite-Sized Donut Recipes. 

It's actually quite good.  I was not expecting it to be this creative.  Recipe like: white chocolate red velvet, pineapple upside down, S'mores, brown butter-bourbon.
They were kind enough to share a recipe with us.

Lemon–Poppy Seed Mini Donut

from Mini Donuts: 100 bite-sized donut recipes

print recipe

FOR DONUTS

2⁄3 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons sour cream

11⁄2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted

11⁄2 teaspoons baking powder

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1⁄2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

Zest of 1 large lemon

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

FOR ICING

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 11⁄2 cups powdered sugar

Notes: While it’s not okay at parties, when you’re icing donuts, it is totally acceptable to double dip. If you are a big fan of lemon, circle back around after your first donut dip . . . and dip them again! Just allow a little extra time, about 5 minutes, for the icing to set up after your second dip.

1. If using an electric donut maker, preheat according to manufacturer’s instructions. If using donut pans, preheat oven to 350°F and grease donut pans.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together milk and sour cream. Set aside. In a separate small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl or a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy— about 1 minute. Add egg, lemon zest, and poppy seeds. Beat for 30 seconds, scrapping down the bowl as needed.

4. Then, alternating flour mixture and milk mixture, combine all ingredients until just blended. Transfer batter to a piping bag, or to a Ziploc bag with the tip cut off.

5. If using mini-donut pans: Carefully fill each donut indentation 3⁄4 full. Bake for 7–9 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. Transfer donuts to a cooling rack and cool completely. If using an electric mini-donut maker: Carefully fill each donut indentation 3⁄4 full.

Bake according to manufacturer’s instructions or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. Remove donuts from appliance, transfer to a cooling rack, and let cool completely.

6. Place wax paper under a wire rack to collect any drippings for an easy cleanup. Then, in a small bowl, whisk together lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth.

7. Dip the top of each donut into the icing, transfer to a wire rack, and let set for 5 minutes. Serve immediately; donuts can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days but are best served fresh.

Yields: 24 mini donuts

pumpkin fritters with cinnamon glaze

As I write this post I'm listening to the TV rant on and on about the impending hurricane Sandy.
Is it a hurricane or is it a tropical storm?  Some say it's a hybrid of the two.
The weatherpeople add in too much hype mixed in with some facts.
They bring up the perfect storm of 1991 desperately trying to compare Sandy to the perfect storm.
Not going to happen--two different animals indeed.
They finally switch over to an interview with an old captain from the perfect storm of 1991who gladly shares out advice.  Captain Ray Leonard skipper of the 32-foot vessel Satori that rode out the perfect storm.  Some of you may remember him and his crew were part of the movie The Perfect Storm.
On Oct. 30, 1991, Leonard and two crew members were several days into their voyage when they were caught in the union of the three weather systems that made up the perfect storm. The vessel Satori was about 60 miles south of Martha's Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts.
One of the crew issued a mayday, and were plucked from the Atlantic Ocean by a Coast Guard helicopter. The book portrays Leonard as "sullen and silent."; he didn't participate in the book or the movie, has always insisted that the boat, which later washed ashore intact, was never in any real danger.
The advice Captain Leonard gives is:
"Don't be rash, I would be sure that I had a vehicle that was pretty substantial. I would be sure I had a decent supply of fuel and water -- and Graham crackers."
Why Graham crackers?
"Well, I LIKE Graham crackers. But you COULD have Oreos.  A storm like the one coming -- and like the perfect storm, whatever that was -- people tend to think that, `Someone will come help me. Someone will come take care of me.  In other words, they don't look to be self-sufficient.  But evacuating also carries its hazards.  There's great danger on highways and everywhere else..... landlubbers should get out while they can do so calmly.  Because if this does hit, you're going to lose all those little things you've spent the last 20 years feeling good about.  Living on a boat is one thing during a disaster. But living in a house in a city is a different thing completely."

Sound advice. Love the graham cracker advice as well.
It's important to point out that this retired captain doles out this advice today from his home in Florida;.
as we sit here on the east coast waiting it out....
As of today, here on cape cod, we still aren't sure what to expect with this storm; they say minimal rain and high winds.  I don't worry so much about the rain or loss of power--you get used to that over the years.
For me, it's the high winds that scare the crap out of me.  Winds can do a LOT of damage. Take away houses kind of damage.
We've had a lot of trees removed from our property just for this reason.
But there still are a few left that are fairly close to the house.
I try not to watch too much TV during these times as the hype gets the best of me,  instead I prefer to create new recipes......like pumpkin fritters.





It's really easy to throw together. The only hard part (if you want to call it that) is the deep frying.
You only need about 3-5 inches of canola oil in a deep pot; heat over medium-high heat.


See you don't need a lot of oil to fry in.  Just watch the temperature of the oil. Not too hot.  Do a test fritter first to see if it fries right away (perfect temp) or sinks (oil too cold) or smokes up (oil too hot).


For the glaze, use cinnamon spice like I did or use pumpkin pie spices.

pumpkin fritters with cinnamon glaze

print recipe

fritters

2 cups flour

½ cup white sugar

2 ts baking powder

¾  ts salt

½ - 1 ts pumpkin pie spice

2 large eggs

3/4 cup whole milk

3 TB melted butter, cooled

7.5 ounces of pumpkin puree, plain (+ 2 TB) (so half a 15 ounce normal can plus 2 TB)

glaze

2 – 4 TB whole milk

2 TB butter

¾ cup powdered sugar

a small pinch of salt

¼ - ½ ts cinnamon (or whatever spice you prefer)

Cooking notes: I am not a big fan of pumpkin pie spice—it’s just too strong for me.  So I added a small amount of it to the batter.  You might want to add in more.  Do a taste-test of the batter before frying to see if you like it. 

For scooping out the dough into the fryer I used a medium ice cream scoop.  Or you could use small size too.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix the eggs with milk and pumpkin puree then add in cooled melted butter; mix well.

Fold in the dry with the wet ingredients; only mix till just combined. Lumps are exactly what we want here. If you overmix you will have tough chewy fritters—that’s a no no.

Heat about 3-4 inches of canola oil over medium to medium-low heat.

When it gets hot, drop a little drop of batter into the oil. If it sizzles immediately and rises to the top, the oil is ready; if it burns quickly, turn down the heat.

Drop oversized tablespoons of batter (using an ice cream scoop, medium size, helps a lot, if you don’t have an ice cream scoop you can use two spoons to roll out the scoops of batter) into the hot oil. Only do about 3 -4 fritters at a time.

They cook fast about 1-1 ½ minute per side or if you want extra crispy about 2 minutes per side—if that? Make sure to flip them.

Remove and drain on a paper towels or brown paper bags. Let these cool a bit before the glaze.

For the glaze:

Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan on medium heat.  Whisk until smooth and barely bubbly.  This is a thick glaze; so if you want it thinner, just add a bit more milk.  Using a rack with cookie sheet underneath (or parchment paper), place fritters on top and drizzle the glaze over the tops of the fritters.  You could dunk the fritters in the glaze, but for me, that just makes the fritters a bit soggy.  Let them rest on wire rack a bit.

Should make about 12-15 fritters? (all depending on size)

blueberry-cream cheese fritters

My last batch of fritters I received a few emails from people telling me they love and want to make their own donuts at home, but are a little afraid of deep frying. To quote one of the people "the whole frying thing scares me a bit, so I'll pass..." Yikes I thought. I can understand that it scares you a bit, with the heat of the oil, the fear of burning, soggy/greasy donuts, or worse yet a fire. But if you keep a few things in mind, and play them into practice, you will have a better sense of confidence. First, have a good, sturdy, well made pot for deep frying. I've seen some people use cast iron for frying, and while that might be fine for frying chicken, I'm just not comfortable with it for donuts. Donuts, fritters tend to bubble up a bit and should have high walls of a deep stockpot. You need a high sided pot, or thick/high stockpot is what I use. Or if you have a le creuset pot all the better, those are great or conducting the heat uniformly. Second, invest in a thermometer. You'd be amazed at how many times you'll use if for other baking/cooking adventures, like candy, caramels, french fries, chicken, etc... Third, never use high heat for frying; always use medium heat. I've seen so many people start off thinking they need high heat to "get it nice and hot" No no! That's the worst thing you could do. Go medium and slow, and you'll get there. And lastly, no need to fill the pot up with oil. I'd say 3-5 inches of oil is fine for frying donuts/fritters; a bit less for chicken, wings, egg rolls, potatoes, etc... I've seen way too many people put in about 7 inches or more of oil just for frying donuts! You need to do that if you're frying commercially or for a commercial deep fryer.

blueberry-cream cheese fritters
print recipe

2 cups AP (all purpose) flour
½ cup white sugar
2 ¼ ts baking powder
1 ¼ ts salt
1 ts cinnamon
2 large eggs
¾ cup whole milk
1 ts pure vanilla extract
3 TB melted butter, cooled a bit
½ - ¾ cup fresh blueberries

glaze
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 ts salt
1/4 cup half & half (more/less depending on how thick/thin you like glaze; I like mine thick)
4 ounces of cream cheese, room temp

Cook Notes: You are working with hot oil. Never ever walk away from the stove when deep frying. To keep the fritters crunchy, you may want to drizzle the glaze over the fritters instead of dunking. If the fritters get too much glaze they will get soggy. Some blueberries will pop out when frying. To make sure your oil is the perfect temp for frying, use a thermometer. A temp of 360-375 is ideal for donuts/fritters. Always test a small fritter to see if oil is ready. Do not overcrowd pan with fritters, they brings the heat way down and will result in oily fritters.

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In a separate bowl, mix the eggs with milk and vanilla extract, then add in cooled melted butter; mix until just combined—do not overmix!
Fold in the dry with the wet ingredients; only mix till just combined. Lumps are good. If you overmix you will have tough chewy fritters—that’s a no no. Next fold in the blueberries.

Heat about 3-4 inches of canola oil over medium to medium-low heat (it takes time to heat up).
When it gets hot, drop a little drop of batter into the oil to see if oil is ready; if it sizzles immediately and rises to the top, the oil is ready; if it burns quickly, turn down the heat.
Drop oversized tablespoons of batter (using a small to medium size ice cream scoop, or use two spoons to roll out the scoops of batter) into the hot oil. Only do about 3 -4 fritters at a time. If you want flatter fritters, use two chopsticks to spread out the batter immediately after you put into oil. They cook fast about 1 ½ - 2 minutes per side or if you want extra crispy about 2 ½ - 3 minutes per side—if that? Make sure to flip them.
Remove and drain on a paper towels or brown paper bags. Let these cool a bit before the glaze bath.

For the glaze:
In a small saucepan, heat the half and half with the cream cheese over low heat. Stir until all melted. Then transfer to a bowl and whisk in the powdered sugar and slat. Mix well using a whisk. I had lumps in my glaze and just used a whisk (for a while and got rid of them). Then quickly dunk each fritter and let them rest on wire rack with cookie sheet on bottom to catch drippings. Or you can easily just drizzle the glaze over the fritters if you want a lighter glaze and want the fritters to stay crispy. Don’t let the fritters sit too long in the glaze as they will get soggy.
Makes about 12-15 fitters depending on size you make them.

double dip glazed chocolate donut muffins

You know those old fashioned cake-like donuts be it chocolate or vanilla that have that 'almost' crispy, sweet milky like glaze on top? Yeah I love that, and I think I've found the closest glaze recipe to it.
After playing around with various glazes I found one that really works well and most importantly, dries/hardens up just right. You know if you're gonna make a donut, you need a good glaze. It's really all about the glaze for me ? Why go through all that work for a crappy glaze?
If you do make these, please heed my advice and use mini muffin tins or use mini donut tins. The regular size muffins work good, but to be honest there is just too much muffin to glaze ratio; it's just not even enough--even with the double dipping. Too much muffin and the muffins are a tad dry, but I'm certain if I did these again and used a mini muffin tin or mini donut tin, reduce the baking time they would be spot on.

Now isn't that better and easier than all that yeast, waiting for the dough to rise, cutting dough, rise again, deep fry, etc...?
I thought so.

double dip chocolate glazed doughnut muffins
print recipe

Muffins:
1/4 cup + 3 TB unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup dutch cocoa powder
1 ½ ts baking powder
1/4 ts baking soda
1 ts cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
½ ts pure vanilla extract
½ cup whole milk
½ cup buttermilk

Glaze:
4 TB butter; melted
1 cup + 3 TB confectioners’ sugar; sifted
A giant pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 TB hot water

Cook notes:
The next time I make these muffins I highly recommend using mini muffin tins or mini donut pans. I just think there was too much cake and not enough glaze. These would be perfect as donut bites, thus being able to glaze the mini donut all around. Also, keep in mind that these bake very fast. So please check them at the 10 minute mark! And watch the baking times if you do use mini muffin/donut tins.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
IN a bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt; set aside.
In a glass or cup, mix the whole milk with the buttermilk; set aside.
Line 12 muffin cups with muffin liners or spray with nonstick cooking spray.
In the bowl of a stand mixer or by hand, cream the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.
Add in the eggs, vanilla extract, and mix well.
Stir half the flour into the wet/butter mixture, stir, then add half the milk mixture, then add in the remaining flour mixture, stir, and finally the remaining milk mixture.
Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into cups, filling the cups to the “almost” top.
Bake muffins until the tops are slightly springy to the touch, 13-16 minutes; rotating halfway through baking time.
If using mini muffins pans, bake 10-12 minutes; definitely check at the 10 minute mark.
Cool muffins for about 15 minutes before glazing.
For the glaze: in a shallow bowl mix the melted butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla and water; whisk until nice and smooth. Dip the muffin tops in glaze and let cool and harden on wire racks.
For double dipping: reheat glaze in microwave for 20 seconds (or shorter) and re-glaze again.
The glaze takes a couple hours to harden up—worth the wait though!
Should make: 12-14 regular muffins or 24 mini

apple fritters

Extra crunchy apple fritters mind you. Just have to have my apple fritters done extra crunchy. It's that crunch mixed with that sweet sugary glaze--the perfect bite. A bite that gets the saliva, in the back of your mouth running full time because it knows whats coming and it is so ready! That first bite of warm, crisp, apple fritter covered in a sugary sweet almost hardened glaze? Oh yeah baby. So happening. These--are way better than any fair fritters.

Do me a favor? Make these next weekend. Trust me everyone in the house will come to the table for these. They are not too hard to make; the only hard part (if you want to call it hard) was the the deep frying. But all you have to do is test a small batch first and see if the dough is ready. Then all you have to do is just set up camp at the fryer and watch them. Do not walk away from the fryer as these cook up fast; depending on the size. I got this recipe from pioneer woman. , only made a few adjustments and made mine fritters a bit bigger. I used pink lady apples as they are sweeter with more tart--I really wanted to taste an apple-ly like taste to the fritters knowing I was going to make them extra crunchy. But feel free to use whatever apples you like.













apple fritters
adapted from pioneer woman
print recipe

fritters
2 cups AP flour
½ cup white sugar
2-1/4 ts baking powder
1-1/4 ts salt
2 ts cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 cup whole milk
2 ts vanilla extract
3 TB melted butter, cooled
2 regular size pink lady apples, peeled, rough chop (use any apple you like)

glaze
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/4 ts salt
1/4 cup PLUS 3 TB half & half (or more depending on how thick or thin you like glaze; I like mine thick)

In large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In a separate bowl, mix the eggs with milk and vanilla extract, then add in cooled melted butter; mix well.
Fold in the dry with the wet ingredients; only mix till just combined. Lumps are fine. If you overmix you will have tough chewy fritters—that’s a no no. Next fold in the chopped apples.
Heat about 3-4 inches of canola oil over medium to medium-low heat.
When it gets hot, drop a little drop of batter into the oil. If it sizzles immediately and rises to the top, the oil is ready; if it burns quickly, turn down the heat.
Drop oversized tablespoons of batter (using an ice cream scoop, medium size, helps a lot, if you don’t have an ice cream scoop you can use two spoons to roll out the scoops of batter) into the hot oil. Only do about 3 -4 fritters at a time. They cook fast about 1-1 ½ minute per side or if you want extra crispy about 2 minutes per side—if that? Make sure to flip them.
Remove and drain on a paper towels or brown paper bags. Let these cool a bit before the glaze bath.

For the glaze:
Mix all the glaze ingredients together in a medium sized bowl. Mix well. Then quickly dunk each fritter and let them rest on wire rack with cookie sheet on bottom to catch drippings.
Don’t let the fritters sit too long in the glaze as they will get soggy.

cookbook giveaway (it has doughnuts in there!)

My love for homemade doughnuts runs deep and long. There are so many ways to make them and so many ways to dress them up.

If you're not into making them I guess you could go to one of those trendy new fashionable doughnut places that seem to be popping up everywhere in the major cities. My favorites, and the ones that have been around for a while are Doughnut Plant in NYC and Top Pot in Seattle, WA.

Since I don't live anywhere near Seattle I was thrilled over the moon that Top Pot finally came out with their first cookbook. <---there is also a cute little video of the cookbook too.

Amazing. I mean really amazing. If you love kicked up doughnuts (or is it donuts?) then you have to buy this one. Some of the doughnuts are: raised doughnuts, cake doughnuts, maple bars, blackberry fritters, ducle de leche doughnuts, pumpkin old-fashioned doughnut, all kinds of glazes and the best ways to make them. The list of recipes of doughnuts is long; go to amazon and see for yourself. Way too many recipes to list here.

So with a fabulous cookbook as this I just had to get an extra one to give away. Just leave me a comment here and what is your favorite doughnut to eat or bake, make sure you're a fan of Vanilla Sugar Blog on Facebook, and thats it. I'll do the drawing on October 6, 2011.
*Anonymous comments do not count.
*Please have a valid name and email.
*If you enter more than once you will be voted off the island!
*One comment only!

If you are a doughnut lover as I am, then you'll just love this book. They help you make better donuts and make better glazes; excellent step by step instructions.
This is a great way to show off your doughnut making skills to your friends and family. Oh yeah baby.
If you want to buy one now (don't blame you) at a discounted price then check this out:

spice cake donuts w/ chocolate hard shell

When I saw that the NYT did an article about Thomas Keller's chocolate shell ice cream topping. I knew instantly I had to use it on a donut. This magic shell coating is really intended for ice cream. But who am I to resist a little kitchen culinary experiment?

For a great little ditty and tutorial on using it for ice cream go see my friend Irvin at eat the love . Oh what fun it would be to use this on a fresh, warm, crispy donut? Right? But sadly they do not harden as fast as they do for ice cream. I'm sure it has to do with the coldness of the ice cream makes the chocolate shell harden. But if you let them set up in the fridge they do harden and taste AMAZING!
I mean who doesn't love a deep fried crispy donut with a hard chocolate shell? These were good--really good. If you don't want the hard shell, the plain donuts are good as is or with a good dusting of cinnamon-sugar or a good old fashioned glaze. Mmmm donuts! But who doesn't want a chocolate bath? Come on now.

spice cake donuts with chocolate hard shell
print recipe

2 TB shortening
2 TB unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup white sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 cup heavy cream
2 ts high quality vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 oversized ts nutmeg
1 oversized ts cinnamon
1 ts salt

In a small bowl or glass mix the heavy cream, vanilla and eggs until well beaten.
In a medium bowl mix the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt. I went ahead and sifted it too.
Cream the butter, shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the cream/egg mixture and mix till well combined. Next add in the flour mixture and mix until just combined—don’t overmix! Transfer this to board and cover with plastic wrap. Let it refrigerate for at least 3 hours (or overnight).
When ready to make the donuts, unwrap and place on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a rectangle or square with at least 1/2-inch thickness.
Using a 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter cut out the donuts. If the cutter gets stuck in dough just dip it in flour before each cut. Place the doughnuts and holes on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
Fill large/tall heavy bottomed pan with about 1/3 full of vegetable oil. Heat oil over medium heat until it reaches 375° degrees.
Line a baking sheet with paper towels and set aside.
Remember to fry in small batches—don’t overcrowd the pan or the oil temperature drops way down and the donuts will start to absorb the oil. Fry the doughnuts (and holes), turning once until they are golden brown (about 2-3 minutes each side).
Once the donuts are done place them on the paper towels to absorb some oil and cool down.

Cook Notes:
When you are ready to dip the donuts in the chocolate use this recipe (below). Keep in mind once the hard shell is on the donuts it does not harden immediately like it does for ice cream. So you will need to let the donuts harden in the fridge to set up. And only use bittersweet chocolate as it states in the recipe. I was tempted to use milk chocolate and it was way too sweet.
The donut recipe above I halved and had more than enough chocolate dipping sauce below. If you do want to make the full batch recipe of donuts you might need to double the chocolate dipping sauce ingredients. If you don’t want coat the donuts in chocolate feel free to coat them in a cinnamon-sugar mix when they are fresh out of the deep fryer. 2 TB of cinnamon for every ½ cup of white sugar.
PLEASE make sure to spray you rack with non stick spray to prevent the dipped donuts from sticking to the rack once they are hardened.

chocolate hard shell for donuts (can be used for ice cream topping)
adapted from Thomas Keller

7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 TB virgin coconut oil

Melt the chocolate in a small metal bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Stir in the coconut oil and heat until dissolved, about 1 minute.
Keep the liquid lukewarm until ready to pour over the ice cream.
Chocolate will harden into a shell within a few seconds when spooned over ice cream.
Yield: 3/4 cup

To assemble:
If you hate getting your hands covered in chocolate then wear a plastic/rubber glove. Dip the donuts right in the chocolate. Turn over and coat the other side. Place on a rack that has been sprayed with non stick spray. The donuts will harden and stick to the rack if not sprayed. Let them sit a bit before putting in fridge to set up. You have to place them in the fridge to set up all the way—they don’t do it on their own.
If you want sprinkles, coconut, nuts, etc.. on your donuts, make sure to put them on when the chocolate is still wet.

chocolate donuts w/ ganache and pistachios

There's really no point in writing a lengthy post...no one's going to read it--the photos are way too distracting. The photo gods were with me on the day I made these incredibly delicious donuts. Enjoy. We did. I HIGHLY recommended making them (duh). I lend inspiration for these from the infamous doughnut plant in nyc; a place where I should be working and creating (check out the pb & jelly donuts: good sweet charlotte!).

chocolate donuts w/ ganache & salty pistachios
print recipe

1 ½ cups cake flour
½ cup dutch process cocoa
¾ cup sugar
2 ts baking powder
1 ts sea salt
¾ cup buttermilk, room temp
2 eggs
2 TB butter, melted
1 ts vanilla
(I added about ½ cup of chopped semi-sweet chocolate)

Preheat oven to 425. Spray donut pan lightly w/ non stick spray.
In a small bowl beat the eggs and vanilla.
In a large bowl mix the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Then add in the buttermilk, stir a bit, then add in the melted butter, and finally add egg mixture. Mix till just combined; no need to overmix. Fill each donut mold about 2/3 full (I overfilled, who cares, it was fine). Bake about 7 – 10 minutes. Remove from pan and place on cooling rack. It’s best to place parchment paper underneath cooling racks to make it easier to drizzle the donuts with Ganache. Recipe from dawn finicane of vanillakitchen.blogspot.com

Milk chocolate ganache w/ salty pistachios.

1 cup of high quality milk chocolate chips
2 –3 TB heavy cream

½ to ¾ cup of roasted & salted pistachios, roughly chopped
(if you don’t like pistachios then use whatever chopped nut or sprinkles you desire)

When donuts are cooled time to make the ganache. Melt the chocolate chips with the heavy cream, keep stirring till you get a nice glossy and consistency. Pour chocolate over donuts and/or dip donuts in chocolate—whichever is easiest for you. Top with chopped pistachios. Let chocolate harden/set before devouring. Should make 12 - 15

lox and glazed donut

Oh yes. Serious food cravings here. Stay with me, don't click away! I know this is odd, but you have to try this. This is the ultimate in salty and sweet. I know a lot of you are devoted foodies, and devoted foodies are open to new things. Right? Good.
And some of you may have already had this combo before and know exactly what I'm talking about.
Seriously good. Make sure you get the good kind of lox, ok? Oh and those krispy kreme donuts? Yeah, those are just PERFECT for this, especially when they are still warm.
I'm telling you....you have to try this.

sugar donut muffins

I loved photographing these. So simple, so basic, the sunlight was finally out on Saturday and was just the perfect light. Plus the sugar was so pretty on the tops of the muffins. It felt good to have some sun today--we haven't had much of it lately. This Saturday night we are expecting yet another snowstorm. It's the second week of January and we've already had seven snowstorms so far this winter! We met our quota for snow, we're done, ok? No more. I hope winter doesn't keep this snow-storm pace, by March I'll be screaming for warm tropical weather. Summer: it felt like just yesterday I was sitting outside on the back deck at night listening to the resounding crickets and frogs croak away as if they were having their own who-can-croak-the-loudest contest. The warm air of summer nighttime surrounding me and my cold, sweaty glass of wine....

How were the muffins you ask? Well, you're asking the wrong person as I thought they were ok; a little plain tasting. Don't get me wrong, they came out just fine. You all know I like things kicked up a notch. So, if I were to make these again (and I will) I want to put a vanilla custard in the middle for a little extra something. Or even a jelly center would be perfect. The muffin has a wonderful mild, tasting vanilla base, but I just wanted to add something to it. My husband LOVED them, but see he loves plain old anything, so...if you're like him then you'll just love these. I have to admit these are the perfect base muffins for experimenting add on or add in's.

sugar donut muffins
print recipe

1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking power
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ cup plus 1 TB vegetable oil
¾ cup plus 2 TB buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For topping:
4 TB butter, melted
½ cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color. Add in all the vegetable oil, all the buttermilk, vanilla extract and mix well.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; add this to the wet mixture.
Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
While muffins are baking, melt butter in one bowl and in another bowl pour in the ½ cup sugar. When muffins are done, take muffin one by one and dip top of muffin into melted butter then dip into sugar. If, you’re feeling even more creative you can dip all sides of the muffin. I also used cinnamon on half of the muffins. After I was done doing 6 muffins with the plain sugar I added some cinnamon to the remaining sugar and dipped accordingly. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.