I sit here in despair and, of course, donut-less.
Below this missive is a recipe I copied from some cooking
mag for something called "Cake Doughnut Mix"
I have, at this time, tried two donut recipes and they
both failed.
THIS recipe, whew, was such a failure I'm not sure I can
describe. Also, I *think* I know what I did wrong which I
would ask kind selves to verify. AND, damn, if possible does
anyone have a recipe for donuts I can make in my deep fryer
that works?
If you note this recipe is for a "mix", the sort of thing
one can make up ahead of time and store. Then the recipe
continues on with instructions on how to make the "mix" into
real donuts by the addition of several ingredients.
Note that the mix part calls for 4.5 cups of all purpose
flour than a cup of this and a cup of that. And understand
that as I was preparing this recipe I was not attempting to
make the mix for storage but was, instead, trying to make
the damn donuts.
So further on the recipe instructs how to turn the "mix"
into donuts. This part says to take 4.5 cups of the donut
"mix" then yada, yada.
What I think I did wrong was to ass-u-me that the entire mix
could immediately be turned around and changed into donuts
by the addition of ingredients as it instructs. But paying
closer attention to the measurement of the ingredients in
the mix part, there is not only 4.5 cups of flour, but a cup
of powdered milk and another cup of sugar, etc. Which
effectively means that the mix part that could be stored
would be MORE than the 4.5 cups called for to complete the
recipe. Myself used the entire mixture instead of doling out
4.5 cups of the "mixture".
Way I figure, the proportions were all wrong. OR another
thing I did was to use, instead of "shortening" I used those
butter-flavored shortening sticks, made by Crisco. I used
the correct amount but did I erroneously figure that those
shortening sticks are not the same thing as shortening like
the recipe calls for?
Anyway, these things fell apart into a pile of fried doughy
crumbs immediately when placed into the deep fryer. I
started with two doughnuts but I got the crumbs. Then I
tried frying only the "holes" but they too fell to crumbs.
Soon I had a pile of fried crumbs that would fill a small
trash bag. I tried to salvage the recipe by adjusting the
eggs which wasn't easy as the dough was already rolled out
and everything. Still more crumbs.
Any help, suggestions, aspersions to my character? More
important, some donut recipes that work?
+++++
Cake Doughnut Mix
4.5 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup nonfat dry milk powder 1
cup sugar 2 tablespoons baking powder
5.5 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon
ground nutmet
6.5 cups shortening. 2 eggs ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon milk 2
teaspoons vanilla extract oil for deep frying
confectioners' sugar to dust finish doughnuts
In a large bowl, combine the flour, milk powder, sugar,
baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nut; cut in shortening
until crumbly. At this point the ingredients can be stored
for later use.
Place 4.5 cups doughnut mix in a large bowl. Combine eggs,
milk and vanilla; stir into doughnut mix just until
moistened. Turn dough onto a floured surface; knead 15-20
times. Pat dough out to ½ in. thickness. Cut with a floured
3-inch doughnut cutter.
In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer, heat oil to 375
deg. Fry a few doughnuts at a time until golden brown, about
1 to 1 and half minutes on each side. Drain on paper towels.
Dust with confectioners' sugar if desired.
Pat Fish/Merryland