THE SOFTEST DOUGHNUTS EVER!

 

I’ve never been this excited about getting a dish right. Even as I type this post, I want to get up and do a little victory jig.

Skip LOVES doughnuts. He isn’t very fussy and I’ve seen him relish even those that taste and look like stale buns. His favourite are the Krispy Kreme ones.

On his birthday in May, since he couldn’t have a birthday party with his friends, I decided to make it special by making doughnuts at home. I didn’t have yeast so I got the recipe of an eggless doughnut without yeast.

While I kneaded the dough, I visualised the outcome and the priceless look of joy on my son’s face when he would see home cooked doughnuts on his birthday. The dough was very sticky and I wondered if the quantity of milk was mentioned right in the recipe. I kept adding additional flour to make the dough pliable and admired the smooth, round dough I had kneaded. I cut them out into the required shape, fried them, let them cool and dipped them in chocolate. I knew the recipe had gone wrong, the minute I dropped the doughnuts on a steel plate and I heard the loud plonk!

The doughnuts turned out dense and hard (and there were so many).

I had been toiling in the kitchen for hours, baking and frying and kneading and cooking and all I wanted was to make the perfect doughnut for Skip. As I offered one to taste, I teared up and announced these were terrible doughnuts. Exhaustion caught up and I plonked myself on the sofa, landing with a soft plop unlike my tough doughnut.

Sky chewed his share unblinkingly ( I mean this literally) which is always a sign of food not tasting good. Skip ate his and looked at me in surprise, “Whyyy? These doughnuts taste so good”.

In the evening, after Skip cut his birthday cake, he said he would eat just cake and the doughnuts because he needed more space in his tummy for the world’s best doughnuts.

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.

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While Skip may have said so, they clearly weren’t.

For the past two weeks, I have been having cooking fails even with the simplest recipes. So when I decided to make doughnuts (with yeast) I wondered if that was a wise decision.

I got the recipe from Emma’s Goodies.

While I was kneading the sticky dough, I thought of how simple it would have been to just place an order for Krispy Kreme doughnuts on Swiggy. As I was grunting and kneading the dough, R reminded me of the birthday doughnuts.

As I took the fried doughnuts off the pan, I knew they had come out perfect. I patiently waited for the chocolate glaze to cool, clicked pictures and took one to share with Skip and Sky.

These were the softest, fluffiest, tastiest doughnuts ever! These did melt in the mouth. I broke out into a Kodava dance.

I am so excited about this recipe, I have been asking everybody to try it. Please do share the pictures of the doughnuts if you make them and I shall share it on my Facebook and Instagram pages  

 

DOUGHNUTS WITH CHOCOLATE GLAZE (with yeast) (makes 18)

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (maida) – 280 gms (2 cups)

Granulated sugar – 40 gms (3 tbsp)

Salt – ¼ tsp

Grated nutmeg – ¼ tsp (optional)

Warm Milk – 120 ml (1/2 cup) ( you may require 2-3 tbsp extra)

Egg - 1

Melted butter – 40 gms

Dry yeast – 7 gms

Glaze:

Cream – 50 gms

Dark chocolate bar – 50 gms

 

Method:

 

1.     In a bowl, add the flour, sugar, salt and grated nutmeg and mix well.

2.     In a separate bowl, add warm milk, egg, melted butter and yeast. Mix it well.

3.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry. Mix the dough well until no dry ingredients remain. I used a spatula. (The dough will be soft and very sticky) (Add more milk (2-3 tbsp) if you feel the need).

4.     Pour a little oil on the kneading surface, place the dough and knead well for about 10 -15 minutes. You may add a tablespoon more of flour if you are finding the dough difficult to work with (DO NOT ADD MORE). Use a dough scraper (or spatula) to keep scraping off the sticky bits. The dough will be elastic and soft and will keep getting stickier.

5.     Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Cover it with either a plastic wrap or damp muslin cloth and set aside in a warm place for about 1 ½ - 2 hours until the dough has doubled in size.

6.     Flour your work surface. Take the dough and place it on the floured surface. Add a little flour on the dough and press it down with your fingers. Roll it out with a rolling pin to ½ inch thickness and cut out the doughnut shape. ( I used a small bowl and a bottle lid).

7.     Place these doughnuts on a greased surface and let it rise again for about 20 -30 minutes.

8.     Heat oil in a deep bottomed dish. Lift the doughnuts gently and place it in the oil (the oil shouldn’t be too hot) the doughnuts should bubble gently. Do not fry the doughnuts for too long. Fry on both sides for  few minutes and set it aside.

9.     For the glaze: warm the cream. Take it off the flame and add the chocolate bar. Mix it well until it melts.

10. Once the doughnuts have cooled, dip the top into the glaze. Place the doughnuts on a wire rack and let the glaze set.

11. Done.

 

Recipe Notes:

• The dough MUST be sticky. DO NOT be tempted to add more flour. (You may add just one tablespoon more).
•   I do not have a dough scraper so I used a spatula while kneading the dough and it was quite helpful.
•   I did not have nutmeg, so I used cinnamon powder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NO-YEAST PIZZA BASE

Who doesn't love a pizza? All you need is a base, the pizza sauce and some cheese. You can add whatever your heart desires as topping, pineapple too.(yes I love pineapple on my pizza).

The pizza is beautiful in any shape or size. It can be a perfect round, an unshapely oval or a haphazard rectangle. It could be thin or deep dish or thin in the middle and thick around the edges. You don't judge a pizza for its shape! Top it with calorie inducing bucket loads of gooey, stretchy cheese or a handful of rocket leaves. Crusty, cheesy , saucy , bland or fiery, we all love Pizza! 

I love Pizza so much that some of my friends call me Pijja.  I like my pizza best with a thin crust, lots of cheese and an overload of toppings. (Ohhhh, Pepperoni, I miss you so much).

We were all craving for a pizza so I got busy searching for a recipe that didn't require yeast. I have to be honest, I haven't even made an attempt to look for yeast. I hear it's been flying off the shelves but I have an aversion to yeast ever since I failed at making pretty looking buns with it years ago. (keep an eye out on our blog, we'll be posting the recipe of a no-yeast bread soon) 

 

I knead when I want! 

I haven't kneaded dough since ages and found the whole process quite therapeutic. Skip too had fun punching, pounding and stretching the dough. I wasn't sure how large the base would be and that explains the extra toppings on the base. 

I had just enough pizza sauce for this pizza. The next time I bake pizza , I will make the sauce at home and post the recipe. 

As I took the baked Pizza out of the oven , I looked at it fondly. It smelled gorgeous. For the first time in my life, I didn't have the heart to slice and gobble up that pizza. I walked around the house carrying the tray lovingly in my arms, admiring what I had created. Skip tagged along with a big smile on his face. The pictures do no justice to what the pizza really looked like. 

More importantly, it tasted lovely. Do bookmark this recipe. It's a fool proof recipe that requires no yeast which means no proofing, no waiting patiently for the dough to rise. 

NO-YEAST PIZZA BASE (makes a 14*10 inch pizza) -serves 3

Ingredients: 

All-purpose flour (maida) - 2 cups 

Curd - ½ cup 

Baking powder - 1tsp

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1tsp

Salt - 1 tsp 

Oil - 1 tbsp 

Water - enough to make a dough 

Method 

1.Preheat oven at 200 degree Celsius.

2.Mix all ingredients other than water and oil. 

3. Add water, a few tablespoons at a time and knead into a dough.

4.Add oil and knead the dough( for about 10 mins) until it's firm and smooth. 

5. Set aside, covered in a moist cloth. 

6.Prepare the toppings. I have used paneer sauteed in a curd sauce, sauteed mushrooms, raw onion, capsicum and fenugreek and mustard leaves. 

7.After letting the dough rest for a while, knead it again for 5 mins. 

8.Roll the dough flat and transfer to the baking tray.  Poke holes with a fork. Spread the pizza sauce. Sprinkle the cheese. Add the toppings. 

9.Bake for 10-15 mins till the base browns. 

10.Done

Recipe notes: 

• Most recipes on the net used only baking powder and not soda. You can do the same, just proportionately increase the quantity of the baking powder. 

• I sprinkled semolina (rawa) on the baking dish and then rolled out the dough on it. It makes the base crunchy. 

• I rolled the dough directly on the baking dish. It was easier to flatten it with my hands than with the rolling pin. I also added a little oil on the tray as the dough was sticking to it when I was flattening it.  

• I would recommend a thin base. A thick base may taste chewy. 

• Goes without saying that Mozarella and Cheddar work best with pizzas. I didn't have either. I grated two cubes of Amul Cheese and shredded a Nandini cheese slice.

Have you all been craving for some dish that you currently don't have access to? Drop a comment and we will collectively drool and if we happen to have the ingredients for that dish, we will share the recipe with you. 

Skip currently enjoys watching Amul advertisements on TV and can often be heard singing "Anjali Banjali delicious Amul".

EGG PEEL-OFF MASK

Bob and I love testing DIYs and Hacks. We’ve had some passes and some fails and we are here to share our experiences and also review/test any requests that you may have.  

Bob and I love face masks and are always on the lookout for new homemade mask DIYs and we decided to try one that was all the rage some time back on YouTube.

This one had me literally end up with egg on my face. (Thankfully, not figuratively).

Though I eat eggs, the thought of using it on my face or hair, made me gag, until someone told me to discard the yolk as that was the smelly bit. I decided to try out the Egg Peel Off Mask.

If you can’t stand the smell of raw eggs, you could add a dash of vanilla to the egg and then add some butter, sugar and flour and bake it at 180C and eat it. Or you could add a little cinnamon or orange juice to the egg white and that should mask the smell.

INGREDIENTS:

Egg white (beaten) – 1

Brush to apply the egg white

Tissue paper – 6-7 sheets

METHOD

1.      Brush egg white on your face and stick the tissue paper on your face.

2.      Dab another layer of egg white gently (else the paper will peel) and stick another layer of paper on the face.

3.      Let it dry (30-40 minutes).

4.      Peel off the mask.

What I like:

It’s a homemade mask. So it’s SLS free, paraben free, SLES free, etc..... :D

Non-messy way of applying egg on your face.

Egg whites are good for your face – they shrink pores, tighten skin, control oil production, help in preventing acne, smooth fine lines.

This mask doesn’t hurt unlike most peel-offs.

Face looks glowy once you peel off the mask.

It’s fun!

What I don’t like: Since it doesn’t cling on to the face firmly, it doesn’t pull out the blackheads or fine hair.

Will I try it again ? Yep, I have some extra egg white remaining and prefer using it this way than mixing it with other ingredients and putting that slimy concoction on my face.

Will I recommend? Yes!

If all of this is too much of a chore for you, you can try a store bought peel off mask. We have posted a review of the MondSub Charcaol Peel Off Mask.

If you want to try out a homemade peel off mask but don’t want to use an egg on your face, we shall shortly put up the recipe for the Milk-Gelatine peel off mask.

Please do a patch test, if you are allergic to eggs.

Look what I found in my garden today ?

Could you spot Sylvester ?

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