Deliciously Dreamy Doughnuts

There are all kinds of people in this world. Some are who love donuts and others ..just are..

I am one of those people who can have Donuts everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. I just love the feeling when my teeth bite into the soft and fluffy deliciousness. We have always been ordering donuts from all places. Some i would like, but others not so much. Places like Dunkin Donuts and Crispy Creme became our usual go to places for these sweet treats.

One fine day, I was craving doughnuts and decided to order from DD. May be the stars weren't shining upon us that day, and our order got cancelled ;-(

Now I am not sure about others, but I am that lady who becomes cranky over food. I love my food, u see. And this was a midnight..ish craving. I hope you understand. left with nothing but Maggi to fill my belly.. i made a decision. No longer was I going to rely on others for my fix.

I was going to learn to make Doughnuts, if I had to. So, I decided to take help from my other Mother (Google) to teach me how to make them. And got so many results, that I felt like uncle scrooge from Duck tales..playing in my wisdom of recipes.

Equipped with my newly gained knowledge of making these beauties, I took upon the task on one fine Saturday. And they turned out beautiful. I skipped the egg mentioned in the original recipe and still the results were very close to any market sold goodies. 
I thank Todd Wilbur for his Top Secret recipes. :-)

So, below is my take on Doughnuts

Ingredients

For Doughnuts

• Milk - 3/4 C (Lukewarm)
• Flour - 2 C
• Butter - 1/4 C
• Sugar - 2 tbsp
• Instant Yeast - 1 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 1/3 ltr (for frying)
• Cinnamon Sugar -  1 tbsp of cinnamon powder in 6 tbsp of castor sugar

Recipe

1. Mix yeast and lukewarm milk in a small bowl and keep aside for few minutes. 
2. Lightly whisk flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.
3. Add softened Butter and mix with the help of a wooden spoon or use your hands.
4. Add milk and yeast mixture to it. And make a soft dough.
5. Roll out the dough for about 1/2 inch thickness and cut Doughnuts. You can use doughnut cutter. I did not have doughnut cutter, so I used a stainless steel glass and a Bottle cap.
6. Sprinkle some dry flour lightly on a plate and put your cut doughnuts on it. Keep some gap between each doughnut as they will rise and should not stick to one another.
7. Cover your cut doughnuts with a muslin cloth and leave in a dark humid place to rise, till they double in size. Mine took about 1 hour. 
8. Heat oil in a wok or deep pan for frying doughnuts. The heat should be medium.
9. Lift each doughnut lightly and put in oil. Fry on both sides till golden.
10. Roll each doughnut in cinnamon sugar. 

You can have them just as it is. Or you may choose to put on chocolate coating, custard filling, Jam, etc.

Banana Walnut Muffins

Are you one of those people who just can’t see the food go to waste basket? I am one of those. I just hate it when food goes to waste. Maybe it comes from being from a typical Indian Family where we will force down another chapatti rather than see it go to waste. Or better, if there are more than one, we will make a snack with them in the next few hours. J

So, when these Bananas were all turning brown gradually, and were not getting the attention a fruit like Banana deserves, I decided to bake them. I was anyways thinking about baking something with the fruit and got a perfect excuse to do the same.

These babies are totally Dairy Free and don’t take many ingredient to come together. So here is my go on the perfect and Gooey Banana Walnut Muffins…

Ingredients

Banana – 2

Oil – 60 gm

Granulated Sugar – 55 gm

Flour – 100 gm

Baking Powder – 1/2 tsp

Baking Soda – 1/2 tsp

Vanilla Essence – 1/2 tsp

Chopped Walnuts – 2 tbsp

Method

• Mash ripe bananas in a bowl.
•  Pre-heat oven at 180 C.
• Grease muffin molds and dust with flour so that the once baked, muffins will not stick to them.
• Sift Flour, Baking Powder & Baking Soda together and keep aside.
• Whisk together oil and sugar till sugar dissolves.
• Add mashed bananas to oil & sugar mixture. Whisk till well incorporated.
• Gradually add the flour mixture 1 tbsp at a time and fold together the batter. Do not whisk at this point since we do not want to overbeat our batter. No lumps should remain in the batter.
• Add half of the chopped walnuts into the batter and mix well,
• Pour the batter in muffin molds. Do not fill the molds till top. Fill only 2/3 of their volume.
• Sprinkle the remaining Walnuts on top of the batter in muffin molds.
• Put the tray having Muffin molds into the oven and bake for 20 mins or till tops turn golden brown.

Notes: 

1. Use ripe bananas since they are very sweet and it is easier to mash them.
2. You can also use butter for this recipe. Just add equal amount of butter instead of oil. 

Do try this simple recipe and post your comments on how it turned out for you.