Sometimes small things make you happy. Like having a great lecture when the day began with a headache. Spending an afternoon with a good friend, just talking on the couch. Returning to your bike, 9 hours after leaving it, and discovering that you left your ipod in the basket – and that it’s still there. Watching 3 children eat ice cream and (my) homemade donuts.
And speaking of donuts! These are from “Baked”, my newest cookbook investment (I bought both). On a whim, we added a little vanilla to the dough, instead of nutmeg. I converted to metric scales, and halved the recipe. It yielded 6 donuts and 6 donut holes (for eating while decorating the donuts)
220 g flour
85 g sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
6 tbsp. buttermilk
2 tbsp. sour cream
25 g melted, cooled butter
Oil for frying.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk eggs, buttermilk and sour cream, then add the melted butter. Mix the dry ingredients with the wet, to form a sticky dough.
Dust a work surface with flour, and pat the dough out until 2-3 cm thick. Using a large and a small cirkle cutter (be creative, the size of your cutters will determin the size of your donuts) to cut out donuts and donut holes. Assemble the leftover dough, pat out again and repeat until all dough is used.
Now for frying!
If using a deep-fryer, heat the oil to 180-190 degrees, and fry until golden.
If using a skillet, pan or so, heat the oil until a clean toothpick (or the non sulfurated end of a matchstick) form tiny bubbles when dipped in the oil. Again, fry until golden.
Now, dust with sugar, cinnamon and sugar, glaze or eat au naturel, anything you like!