I LooooooooooooooOoooooooooooOOooooo…ve doughnuts!

How about you?

My favorites are yeast doughnuts—nothing beats those! But, with a lack of time and/or frequent special occasions, I opt for quick ones, a.k.a drop doughnuts. The kind you can prepare in 15 minutes or so: 5-10 minutes for the batter and 10 minutes for frying all the batches.

Now there’s a new doughnuts cookbook in the stores.

I pretty much swore that I will not buy anymore cookbooks and I won’t be renewing any food magazine subscriptions because my kitchen is exploding with tons and piles, and 2 full bookcases of them. But when Lara’s book came out and an alert was tweeted on Twitter that only 4 copies were left in stock… Well… I was doomed. It’s a doughnuts book. It was hopeless. I was helpless.

And since I browsed the inner pages of my newly purchased book, I’ve been craving for so long to make these dropnuts (All rights reserved ) Finally, the day has come!

I had an hour. I had only one kid around. She was eager (“But only if there’s salt”, she said). I was eager. And we made it!

We were all ecstatic about having doughnuts for dessert last night. Finally.

It took hardly any time to prepare and was a lot of fun to make with the kiddo.

We had leftovers left for breakfast. I warmed them up in the toaster oven and they were like new: soft, fragrant and subtly sweet. (Warm them up until the outside sizzles, just like when frying. The microwave did a nice job, about 20 seconds for 4, but they lost the crispiness of the outer layer.)

Click to see Lara’s beautiful doughnuts + her doughnuts blog.

Click here to buy the book.

Lara’s ricotta drop doughnuts

Slightly adapted with comments.

Makes 32 (8 * 4 batches) using a small cookie scoop

So… My lil’ girl (She’s almost 3 years old!) insisted she will only make doughnuts if there’s salt. Go figure… But it retrospect, she was onto something. However, she forgot about it later on, and the recipe does not have any in it… Which might explain the doughnuts’ “something’s missing” flavor. So, if you make these (+ a note for myself for next time), I suggest adding 1/4 – 1/2 (OK, let’s compromise, 3/8) teaspoon salt to the batter.

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Next time: add 3/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
3 eggs
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Canola/Vegetable oil for frying
For serving, confectioners’ sugar, jams

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the lemon zest, eggs, ricotta and vanilla, and mix just until combined. (Do not over-mix.) The batter can be used immediately or stored up to 1 day covered in the refrigerator.

To fry, heat at about 2 inches of oil in a heavy-bottomed pot until a deep-fat thermometer registers 360 degrees F. Drop tablespoon-size dollops directly into the oil (I used a small cookie scoop, quickly dipped in the hot oil before scooping the dough so the it doesn’t stick), 7-8 doughnuts for each batch (depending on the size/volume of your pot and oil) and fry for 1-2 minutes (the doughnuts will roll and bath themselves in the oil), or until golden brown. Adjust the heat as needed.

Remove with a slotted spoon (I love my big spider—see photo) and drain on layers of paper towel. Repeat the same process with the remaining batter.

Let cool slightly. Sprinkle with confectioners’ sugar and serve with jam and/or chocolate spread/sauce.

YUM.

Tags : cookbook, cookie, Dessert, dougnuts, recipe
Categories : Cookies, Dessert, Recipes