Looks Like A Donut

Hostess Lori of "Butter Me Up" gave us not one, but four donut recipes to use for this month's Daring Bakers' challenge. And she let us play with any flavors we wanted. With so much freedom you'd think that I could've completed the challenge as asked. But I did not.



Yes, I made donuts. But instead of deep frying my donuts, I baked my donuts. My baked donuts looked like donuts, but they didn't really taste like donuts. I mean, they tasted good, but they were not donuts. I really don't think you can call it a donut unless it's been fried. And for my baked donuts I didn't even use one of the four DB recipes provided. I used a recipe from the back of the baked donut pan that I bought. I'm a bad Daring Baker.

fully baked but super pale on top

But I had an excuse. I just got back from a 10-day trip to the United Kingdom and I didn’t want to deal with deep frying anything in a vat of hot oil. I just wanted to eat a huge flavorful carne asada burrito at my favorite taqueria. I just wanted to go to the farmers' market and get some much needed vegetables and fruit. I just wanted to cuddle with my cat and get over the jet-lag. I just wanted to watch the SF Giants make it to the World Series. :) That's my story and I'm sticking to it.



Blog-checking lines: The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

To see the recipes provided by Lori for the challenge, just click here.

BAKED DONUTS
(adapted from the recipe that came with the Wilton donut pan)
(makes 12 donuts)

2 cups cake flour, sifted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
5 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray Wilton donut pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In large mixing bowl, sift together cake flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs and butter and beat until just combined. Fill each donut cup of the Wilton donut pan approximately 2/3 full.

Bake 7–9 minutes or until the top of the donuts spring back when touched. Let cool in pan for 4–5 minutes before removing. Finish donuts with glaze. Donuts are best served fresh.

Maple Glaze

1 cup powdered sugar
3 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In small bowl, stir together sugar, maple syrup and vanilla extract until sugar is completely dissolved. If glaze is too thick, mix in a few drops of water until the consistency is to your liking. Use immediately to glaze donuts.

Apples and Plums

Apples

The local apple season typically begins with the floral and crisp Gravenstein apples showing up at the farmers' market around mid-August. Four weeks later the Gravensteins are all gone, but that's when the season really kicks into high gear. Every Saturday at the Ferry Building farmers' market during apple season, I can find no less than 25 different varieties of just harvested apples. Most are heirloom varieties. Every characteristic you would want in an apple can be found: tart, sweet, floral, spicy, herbaceous, winy, tropical, good for baking, cooking and eating out of hand.

Last weekend I picked up all kinds: Spitzenburg, Bramley Seedling, Cinnamon Spice, Connell red, Mutsu, Hawaiian, Winesap, Kino's Orange Red, Idared. I wish I could've brought home more, but my husband and I can only eat so many apples in a week.



My original intention was to make some applesauce with my bounty, but the apples were all too fresh and delicious to not grab and eat. So I didn't have any left to make my applesauce, but that didn't stop me from making this applesauce quick bread. Whether you use store bought applesauce (like I did this time) or make your own batch of homemade goodness (like I had originally intended), this quick bread, like the name implies, is so simple and easy to make.

Plums

It's a little strange to be writing about plums and apples in the same post since plums are typically a late summer fruit and apples are definitely an autumnal treat. I am quite sad that the summer stone fruit season is over, but I am very happy that autumn and the apple season is here.

When I was at the farmers' market a couple weeks ago, I found some tiny blue damson plums. Damson plums are normally used for making jam but I decided to use them in a "tart/cookie". For my "crust" I used the sugar cookie dough that I had leftover from the last Daring Bakers' challenge since the sugar cookie dough that we used was pretty much a pate sablee (sweet tart dough).

I cut my rolled cookie dough into 3-inch rounds and fanned out slices of the damson plums. I sprinkled them with some turbinado sugar and then baked them at 350 until the edges were lightly golden brown. It was a lovely way to use up the rest of the cookie dough and to celebrate the last of the summer plums.