Batter Up!
I rarely shop at Wal-Mart anymore, not since I discovered Kroger's awesomeness, but a recent visit to pick up a few odds and ends resulted in a purchase that has changed my cooking life yet again! I stumbled upon a very inexpensive waffle iron, and after debating with myself for 10 minutes (since I'm still unemployed we don't really have the money for me to be buying appliances) I finally settled the matter by asking my 3-year-old what she thought was best. She encouraged the purchase of the waffle iron, and after her persuasive argument in favor of the buying it I had no choice but to see her point of view and we brought the Rival Waffle Iron home. I'm so lucky to be the mother of such a gifted child...
For now I like the following which is a hybrid of Joy and the manufacturers:
In a large mixing bowl whisk together
1 3/4 cup of flour
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 Tbs. sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
In a separate bowl beat together
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 stick of butter melted
Pour the wet mixture into the dry and mix with a wooden spoon until combined. Fill the iron plate 2/3 full and simply wait for the iron to do its job. Then enjoy! I prefer to use real maple syrup, but the options of toppings are endless!
The feeling of accomplishment I got from the waffles prompted me to explore conquering the dreaded tortilla. It seems so simple in its concept, but there are really several different ways you can go wrong when doing handmade flour tortilla. I found that out the hard way when I followed the recipe in "Joy of Cooking" and failed with the batter in the first few minutes. After getting online and reading some different recipes I discovered the water does not need to be added all at once, but gradually until the dough ball forms and you may not need to use all of the water directed. Yet another direction not given me in Joy's recipe, but I can still forgive it since the book is over 1,000 pages.
I didn't photograph the finished product because they were consumed quickly, and were fabulous I might add! I will say I needed to roll them just a touch thinner, but overall they tasted nice. I prepared some taco meat with them, and my husband was very impressed. He was raised in Southern California and has eaten the handmade authentic stuff for years, so to get a thumbs up from him was quite gratifying.
So with waffles and tortilla under my belt I was totally empowered to do something wild. In my world that means tackling something that would mean forever changing the way I think about cooking/baking and give me the power to make something most people only dream about mastering--the donut!
I again turned to "Joy of Cooking" for background guidance on making dough, proper frying oils and temperatures and foolproof methods of overall donut greatness. And I can say with more pride than I have felt in years that I now can make cake and sour cream donuts that are not only edible, but ones that I'm proud to share as gifts to others. It was a grand accomplishment indeed!
While the cake donuts tasted a little better, I prefer the sour cream recipe since you do not have to let the dough rest for hours. There is a great deal of elbow grease that does into preparing the dough for these babies, so I want to get to the finished product as quickly as possible. I did find that the sour cream are best enjoyed within hours of frying or they get pretty dry. It is also best to glaze them or give them a toss in powdered sugar as soon as they cool as this also helps to keep their moisture.
Joy of Cooking Sour Cream Doughnuts
Beat will in a large bowl:
3 eggs
Add slowly, beating constantly
1 1/4 cups sugar
Stir in:
1 cup sour cream
In another bowl sift together
4 cups all-purpose flour
Resift with:
2 tbs baking powder
1 tps baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg or cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until blended (do not over mix or the dough with be tough). Roll out and cut the donuts into the desired size and let rest for 20 minutes to an hour. This allows the dough to dry a bit on the outside and prevents them from absorbing the oil. Heat the oil to 375 degrees and use a utensil to gently lay them in the oil (nobody likes to be splashed with hot oil). Do just a few at a time and cook them until they are uniformly golden brown. I used a long wooden skewer to get them out, and a slotted spoon for the holes. Make sure you have a thick layer of paper towel ready to put them on and gently blot them all over to get the excess oil off. You have worked so hard on making the batter and frying, you don't want to ruin them by letting them sit and absorb the excess oil.
I found it challenging to get the number of donuts the recipe said it yielded. Joy says the cake dough would yield 18 and the sour cream 36. Of course I was using biscuit cutters, so I found it easier to make donut holes, and I could produce more. I also do not have a thermometer for the oil and had to use a meat thermometer to check the temperature. If the oil gets too hot you run the risk of cooking the outside too fast, and leaving the center very doughy. I ran into this in a couple of batches, and will eventually invest in a thermometer for frying that will help me adjust the temperature as needed. Regardless of these little missteps, I feel like a rock star because my first attempt was so successful. And I think any time you try something and it turns out edible then it is indeed a success!!
The waffle, tortilla and donut triumphs are important to me because I feel like a need a win every now and then to keep me going. I want to be a great cook, and when I work really hard at trying to make something and it fails I tend to take it very personally. It is pretty much a reflection on how I feel about anything I do in life. When I lost my job my confidence was terribly battered. I gave five years of my life to someone else while neglecting my family and watching someone else benefit from my work. I felt betrayed, broken and so hurt that I could be discarded so easily. Cooking has become a therapy of sorts. It has become a test of my skills, knowledge and abilities and no can claim credit for it or take it away from me.
So some will look at a waffle, a tortilla and a donut and think "food." I look at them and think "freedom."
I again turned to "Joy of Cooking" for background guidance on making dough, proper frying oils and temperatures and foolproof methods of overall donut greatness. And I can say with more pride than I have felt in years that I now can make cake and sour cream donuts that are not only edible, but ones that I'm proud to share as gifts to others. It was a grand accomplishment indeed!
While the cake donuts tasted a little better, I prefer the sour cream recipe since you do not have to let the dough rest for hours. There is a great deal of elbow grease that does into preparing the dough for these babies, so I want to get to the finished product as quickly as possible. I did find that the sour cream are best enjoyed within hours of frying or they get pretty dry. It is also best to glaze them or give them a toss in powdered sugar as soon as they cool as this also helps to keep their moisture.
Joy of Cooking Sour Cream Doughnuts
Beat will in a large bowl:
3 eggs
Add slowly, beating constantly
1 1/4 cups sugar
Stir in:
1 cup sour cream
In another bowl sift together
4 cups all-purpose flour
Resift with:
2 tbs baking powder
1 tps baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg or cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Add the dry ingredients into the wet and mix until blended (do not over mix or the dough with be tough). Roll out and cut the donuts into the desired size and let rest for 20 minutes to an hour. This allows the dough to dry a bit on the outside and prevents them from absorbing the oil. Heat the oil to 375 degrees and use a utensil to gently lay them in the oil (nobody likes to be splashed with hot oil). Do just a few at a time and cook them until they are uniformly golden brown. I used a long wooden skewer to get them out, and a slotted spoon for the holes. Make sure you have a thick layer of paper towel ready to put them on and gently blot them all over to get the excess oil off. You have worked so hard on making the batter and frying, you don't want to ruin them by letting them sit and absorb the excess oil.
I found it challenging to get the number of donuts the recipe said it yielded. Joy says the cake dough would yield 18 and the sour cream 36. Of course I was using biscuit cutters, so I found it easier to make donut holes, and I could produce more. I also do not have a thermometer for the oil and had to use a meat thermometer to check the temperature. If the oil gets too hot you run the risk of cooking the outside too fast, and leaving the center very doughy. I ran into this in a couple of batches, and will eventually invest in a thermometer for frying that will help me adjust the temperature as needed. Regardless of these little missteps, I feel like a rock star because my first attempt was so successful. And I think any time you try something and it turns out edible then it is indeed a success!!
The waffle, tortilla and donut triumphs are important to me because I feel like a need a win every now and then to keep me going. I want to be a great cook, and when I work really hard at trying to make something and it fails I tend to take it very personally. It is pretty much a reflection on how I feel about anything I do in life. When I lost my job my confidence was terribly battered. I gave five years of my life to someone else while neglecting my family and watching someone else benefit from my work. I felt betrayed, broken and so hurt that I could be discarded so easily. Cooking has become a therapy of sorts. It has become a test of my skills, knowledge and abilities and no can claim credit for it or take it away from me.
So some will look at a waffle, a tortilla and a donut and think "food." I look at them and think "freedom."
Comments
Post a Comment