Sunday, January 22, 2012

Donuts

One of Annie's Christmas wishes was for donuts. So Sabrina gave her a donut recipe book and a donut cutter. Last week we busted it out and made some baked raised donuts. They were delicious. I thought I would share the recipe since it was fairly simple.

These are best eaten while still hot.

Baked Raised Donuts:
1 egg
1/4 cup super fine sugar
1 cup whole milk, heated to 115 degrees F
1 T active dry yeast
1 t salt
2 t vanilla extract
2 1/2 -3 1/2 cups flour divided plus more for kneading
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into 1 inch cubes


In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the eggs and sugar on medium speed till blended (about a minute). Add the milk yeast salt and vanilla and stir to blend. With the machine on low speed, add 2 cups of flour about 1/2 a cup at a time and beat till the dough is thick and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Switch to the dough hook. With the machine on medium speed add the butter one piece at a time. Beat until no large chunks of butter are left in the bottom of the bowl (3-5 mins). Reduce speed to low and add additional flour until the dough gathers around the hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. It will be soft and moist but not overly sticky.
Turn the dough out onto a flour surface and knead the dough gently till it no longer sticks to your hands. Lightly grease a large mixing bowl. Transfer the dough to the bowl and turn to coat. Cover with a damp tea towel and let rise till doubled in volume (about an hour.)

Punch down the dough and roll to half an in inch thick. Use a doughnut or cookie cutter to cut out 3 inch diameter rounds with 1 inch diameter holes.

Preheat the over to 400 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the donuts at least an inch apart on the baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm spot till nearly doubled (about 20 mins).

Bake till donuts are light golden brown (5-8 mins) being careful not to over bake them. Immediately brush with butter and sugar or glaze (sugar coated was best). Eat while still warm.
 We had this little bowl full of donut holes. They were SOOO good.
 Just moments later see how much emptier the bowl is?
 I barely got a photo of them before they were gone. I coated them in butter and tossed them in a paper bag with some ultra fine sugar. Seriously these were heavenly little bites.
 Here are our donuts baking in the oven.
 Here are the spoils. We made some glazed - though I thought the glaze was a bit too sugary.
And we did some chocolate. But Sabrina, who took the photos, says they were too chocolatey. Is that even possible? I used dark chocolate powder to make the glaze. Probably why she didn't like it. Well they all got eaten in a matter of hours too.

Let me know what you think if you try these. It makes for a fairly easy and very fun family activity to make them together. Maybe a good FHE activity?

Blessings and Anxiety

I have had a sense of foreboding today. I am not sure why. Sometimes I just feel this unsettled anxiety in the pit of my stomach that makes me a bit nauseas and reminds me of the feeling of the floor being pulled out from under me. It is a recognition of the genuinely fragility of so many routine parts of my life.

I sat in a bath as the hot water filled the tub. I thought about my bathroom and looked at it through the eyes of someone like rich and famous. It is a fairly standard bathroom. We have made no upgrades. It isn't the "spa like" luxury you might find in other homes. It pales in comparison to so many other bathrooms I have seen. It is nothing special.

Then I shifted my paradigm. I sat in that oversized tub and felt the hot water creep up around me. How privileged am I? I am sitting in this overly large comfortable tub. I have running water that comes into it with the turn of a lever -- and the water is hot. I wonder what percent of the worlds population has running water. I wonder of those how many have hot water. I wonder of those how many have tubs. Then I wonder how many of those tubs with hot running water are deep enough to cover an adult with water. I guess there are a very small percentage of the world's population who are so lucky.

At the same time, this foreboding feeling underscores how easily any given blessing can be erased from my life. It stirs my stomach and steals my appetite.

Jonathan and I went to the temple tonight. There I was reminded once again of the ultimate failsafe to this anxiety. In all the worst case scenarios my mind can imagine, somethings stay constant and ultimately bring me peace. No matter what happens or what trials I must face, Jesus is still the Christ. He will still be my Savior. My faith in Him and His gospel will still be sure. That is all that really matters. As long as I am good in my relationship with Him, the rest of this life is just an obstacle course designed to provide me opportunities to become more like Him.