donuts...

We made donuts today in class. I was really excited about this. My very own donuts. From scratch. Warm and fluffy and filled with pastry cream and topped with chocolate. Or so I thought...

My partner and I were assigned to make filled donuts. Great, no cutting of holes in the middle of the donut. It should have been easy enough right? No... because you are basically making a fried pastry, you need to make sure you aren't handling the dough too much. If you knead or work the dough too much, then gluten develops and what you end up with is a lead bomb in your tummy! A greasy, oily, carb-loaded bomb. Not appetizing right?

So what we ended up with was a very sticky, soft dough, that we couldn't flour too much. (Because who wants to eat a floury fried piece of dough?) This is when my lack of patience usually rears it's ugly head. If I was doing this at home, by myself, with no one around, I'd talk myself down. I'd say, "It's all good. So what if the dough just stuck to the rolling pin? And your fingers? What other options do you have? Go figure it you while you wash all that goo off your fingers." But instead when I'm in class working with someone, I freak out a little and usually say something like "This stupid dough." and then huff and then my partner decides to flour the dough generously and press it into a flat layer so she can cut circles out of it while I wash dishes until I'm in a better place. So I'm guessing all my partners probably think I'm a hot head and I wonder if I wouldn't be better off on my own. But I'm usually glad I have a partner because then I realize if I knew everything about all the recipes we make, I wouldn't be in the class.

So overall the donuts were a bit of a disappointment. They were a little too greasy and the room mysteriously smelled like fried fish with the 4 pots of oil bubbling away. I did make a pastry cream in the 15 minutes before class started (by myself - see I can get things done quickly and without fuss when I'm focused), so I filled a few donuts with that and made a chocolate glaze and smothered the top in the glaze and said to myself, "If it was just a little less greasy, I'd say this is way way way better than the Dunkin Donuts' Boston Creme donut." But mine was just slightly warm and a little crunchy on the outside edges, and the chocolate glaze was so much better, so I guess it was good...

And just so you know, the other donuts that were made were raised doughnuts (made with yeast - just like the filled doughnut dough), sour cream doughnuts and chocolate sour cream doughnuts (both made with baking powder).

I'm holding out for brioche tomorrow! Endless possibilities there! I think I've been too afraid to ever try making brioche (although I've collected and researched recipes) because I didn't think I could ever create anything as wonderful as I had while traveling around Europe years ago... I'll let you know how it turns out!