Vanilla Bean Cake Doughnuts

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You know what's hard to make? Doughnuts. Seriously, I have so much more respect for the contestants on Donut Showdown now that I've tried it at home. And they're under time constraints! Dough is sticky, flour goes everywhere, oil is HOT, and finding the perfect glaze consistency takes practice. It all takes practice. Is it worth it in the end? You bet. My life was filled with homemade fried dough for several days, and that's all a girl could want.

I've been thinking. I really want my life to look like that scene in Marie Antoinette where all the women do is sit around playing cards, drinking champagne out of coupe glasses, gorging themselves on the most beautiful, fresh-fresh-fresh pastries and candies you've ever seen. And they're doing all this while wearing three pounds' worth of silk, tulle, and ruffles. Oh, and mile-high hair. I've always been a fan of big hair. Ask my beautician. And when I would say "Let them eat cake," no one would be upset with me because I would then immediately follow it up with actual cake. I'd be the most beloved queen in all the land.

Truth be told, it'll be quite some time before I'm Versailles-level good at making doughnuts and other beautifully complicated pastries. I will say though, that for only my second time frying dough in the kitchen, things didn't turn out badly at all. There could've been a little less rolling and re-rolling involved in the dough-cutting stage.. Oh, and I'm still working on my fear of hot oil, but baby steps. Rome wasn't built in a day (and while we're on the topic of Rome, neither is good pizza).

One of my favorite things to get at my local bakery is a classic cake doughnut. More than anything else, I adore a good cake doughnut. Especially when it's Fall and tastes like pumpkins and apple cider and cinnamon sugar. In the summer, I prefer my doughnuts covered in rainbow nonpareils and vanilla glaze. Throw in the comforting speckling of fresh vanilla bean seeds, and you've got me. To be able to make my favorite treat in the comfort of my own home, curlers in hair, 40s Big Band blaring in the background, is such a splendid concept.

Now, I like you, so I won't lie to you and say that it's particularly easy, or that it isn't time-consuming. But I mean, It's REALLY worth it. Your reward is DOUGHNUTS at the end! That's my incentive for everything, but in this scenario, doughnuts is the actual GUARENTEE. Yes, I do have a few new tiny burn marks from absent-mindedly plopping doughnut holes into 350 degree oil, but I just ran one hand under some very cold water, and popped two slightly-cooled doughnut holes in my mouth with the other. I felt exponentially better after that.

Bottom line: make your own doughnuts. Tell me how it goes.

Why don't you try this Vanilla Bean Cake Doughnut recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Apt.2B Baking Co!

 

Fun-Sized Vanilla Sugar Doughnuts

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vanilla dougnuts3 Two weeks ago we escaped to the land of country music, southern hospitality, and...the NRA Convention. But we didn't find out about that last one until we read in the paper that there would be 70,000+ extra bodies in the city at the same time as we were. That's right, we were in Nashville. And I never thought I would enjoy 80 degree weather so much.  I was basking in the warmth of a Southern sun, sweating from the humidity, sneezing because of blasted allergies that never give me peace, and loving every second of it. It's shocking what a torturous winter will do to a person who typically detests hot, humid weather. Truly amazing.

We went down to spend Easter with The Grands and of course, while I was there, I had to see my Nashvillian bestie, Hailey. This go-round, after collecting some supplies from Trader Joe's, we decided to venture into the kitchen and make something sweet: vanilla sugar doughnuts.

vanilla dougnut2

MAN, do I love doughnuts. Not many other things can lift my spirits if I'm having a bad morning like a well-made doughnut. I love them so much that I even splurged once on a special Nordic doughnut pan that can't be used for anything else (I hardly ever buy new bakeware unless it can be used multiple ways). But as much as I love doughnuts of all kinds, up until last week, I'd only made loads and loads of baked ones. Frying doughnuts was an entirely different adventure, and I'm glad Hails was by my side to experience it.

There were so many things I had to learn about doughnut-making. For instance, the name of the game is "patience." We needed a LOT of it. Doughnut dough is very special, and needs much rest in order to become beautiful, and also achieve its full potential. It's like a little baby that must always be warm, cool, and covered. It took forever. We were constantly peeking under the dish towel, then going "IS IT RISING? IT IS. IT IS RISING BECAUSE IT WAS AN INCH SHORTER BEFORE." But a good baker must have patience if said baker wants doughnuts. So we waited. And waited. And peeked under dish towels. And waited.

FINALLY, after literal hours, it was time to ever-so-gently roll out our dough, cut it, and then send circles of it swimming into the 350 degree F oil. I'm glad that Hailey and I both had our reservations about that super hot oil; that way, when I screamed each time in preparation for splash-back, I had someone to scream with me. She's a good friend.

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In the end, we walked away from Hailey's beautiful kitchen with two bags' worth  of fun-sized vanilla sugar doughnuts, and plans to bake something new, ambitious, and exciting the next time I'm in town.  In the meantime, I'm going into recipe-testing mode to come up with some real winners for you.

 

P.S. Not only is Hailey beautiful and talented, she's also a wonderful potter! Check out her etsy page, Clay Off 8th! Word on the street is she's got a housewares line in the works!!