Tuesday, February 20, 2007

My first doughnuts



Potato Doughnuts
Easy Bread Machine Recipes Copyright 1997

2 C all-purpose flour
1 ½ T mashed potatoes
¼ tsp nutmeg I omitted this - just wasn't in the mood for nutmeg
5/8 C potato water
1 egg
3 T sugar
1 tsp salt
2 T dried milk
2 T butter
1 ½ tsp yeast
vegetable oil for deep frying

Topping: 1 C confectioners’ sugar

1. Load the bread pan of the machine with all the ingredients except the powdered sugar and oil, select the dough setting, and start it. When the beeper sounds, remove the dough to a greased bowl and chill thoroughly for two hours or overnight.
2. Roll out to about a 10x16 inch rectangle and cut doughnut shapes with a doughnut cutter or a biscuit cutter. (If you use the biscuit cutter, just make a hole in the center with your thumb when you move them to the cookie sheet, but be sure there is a large hole, as this aids in cooking the doughnut.) I just cut the dough into strips.
3. Place the doughnuts on a greased cookie sheet. Let them rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until nearly doubled in bulk. If you find that the holes have closed during the process, just take the handle of your spatula and enlarge them.
4. Put oil at least 2 inches deep in a heavy saucepan and heat it to 375 degrees F. Slice each doughnut into the deep fat, using a spatula that has been dipped in hot fat. Do only three or four at a time. Fry the doughnuts until brown.
5. Drain on absorbent paper; then cool in a rack. Toss with confectioners’ sugar.
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It's Fastnacht Day here in central PA. I haven't had a good fastnacht in years since I don't have access to the church sales, just the supermarket variety which were pretty awful the last time I had them. So I decided to try making my own this year.

Not bad for a first attempt. Unfortunately I had to make them last night and they're much better fresh but these were a very light and fluffy doughnut - I was impressed. I should have glazed them though, instead of using the powdered sugar. The sugar kept dissolving into the doughnuts.

The dough was super easy to work with. I let it rest for several hours, not overnight, and that was fine. I took the easy way out and just made pillows since I didn't have a donut cutter and fastnachts are generally more pillow-shaped anyway.

Blast From The Past: Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes from a year ago. I'm not doing the pancake thing this year since I did the doughnuts. There's a limit to how many carbs I can eat in one day.

Question of the Day: How is Fat Tuesday celebrated in your area?

11 comments:

Randi said...

All the churches have shrove tuesday pancake suppers. I'll be making pancakes tonight. In MI, they make paczeks, which I'm sure are the same as your doughnuts. I never heard of either of those traditions when I lived in Cali.

Anonymous said...

I KNEW I shouldn't have checked your blog today! You are very hard on a girl's willpower! LOL

Your doughnuts look sinfully delicious. Even without a hole. I always like to pop the round doughnut hole in my mouth~~no guilt cause how many calories can be in a HOLE? haha

That shape of doughnut would be called a Long John here....and it would be iced with either chocolate or maple glaze. Ohhhhh mannnnnn, I'm making myself hungry!

Today IS Fat Tuesday! :-)

MommyProf said...

WE celebrate with free pancakes at IHOP. I am afraid of deep frying, so you have my respect!

Sarah - The Home Cook said...

The donuts look great. I can imagine knowing how to make your own donuts could be a dangerous thing.

I'm sure people celebrate Fat Tuesday in some way around here but I have no idea what they do.

Anonymous said...

How wow! Those look great!!

sandy said...

These look great!!! By the way I am enjoying your blog and I hope you don't mind that I put a link to here on my blog...if for some reason you do mind, just leave a comment there...

dd/sandy

Brilynn said...

If you still have any leftovers, a bread pudding could be quite interesting...

I haven't mustered up the courage to make donuts yet.

Anonymous said...

Funny that these donuts are called Fastnachts. Fastnacht, or Fasching, are German words for the celebration considered Carneval in many other Catholic countries. Fastnacht is celebrated with mock government, balls, parades where they throw candy at the onlookers, and, of course "Berliners" or "Bollers" -- powdered jelly donuts served at this time of year. And yes, J.F. Kennedy's endearing gaffe "I am a donut" refers to him saying "Ich bin ein Berliner." (I am a donut) rather than "Ich bin Berliner," (I call Berlin home).

vicci said...

Whoa....I just found your blog...I am glad I did! I am going to have to try alot of your recipes...I saw the word "fastnachts" and that was all it took! I'm from Lancaster PA...now live in California....and grew up eating these! I love them...my aunts made them every year at the church!

Anonymous said...

There's soo little flour in this recipe that it's impossible for me to knead the dough. Are the amounts correct?

The Cookbook Junkie said...

I made this over 2 years ago but I don't recall any problem with the flour. I see I said it was supereasy so it must not have troubled me.

This is a bread machine recipe and sometimes I add a little flour or water to a bread machine recipe depending on how the dough looks but I would note if it was a significant amount. This might be a hard dough to knead by hand but I wouldn't have noticed since I used the machine.