Turkish Delight Doughnuts

The Daring Baker's Oct 10 Challenge: Let's Go Nuts for Doughnuts!

Our October Challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up.  Lori chose to challenge Daring Baker's to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious




1. Turkish Delight Doughnuts with Pistachio Fairy-floss
2. Amarula Cream Doughnut
3. Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut

I'm not sure how to start this particular blog as I have good news and I have sad news and I'd hate for the good news to distract to the sad news.

Let me start by saying that I was quite excited about this particular challenge - this is my first Baker’s Challenge and making doughnuts is not something that ever appeared on my radar! 

Well, as you know, there are three of us ("Ba&Be" & I) in the office that are participating in The Daring Kitchen challenges and let me tell you that doughnut variations, toppings and fillings were discussed at some length - the excitement in the air was building...

While "Ba" was thinking that she'd stick to the more traditional cinnamon sugar doughnut, she was toying with the idea of Coconut Ice... 

"Be" on the other hand was on a roll baby!  He was thinking of little men with all different types of filling spilling out; making them look like injured people!!
So, about four days after the new challenge was announced, I was still contemplating what I could do - I wanted something that was a bit different and looked pretty... I was discussing this with my significant other in bed (who's BTW going to need counselling due to the latest bedtime focus...) when we came up with the idea of a Turkish Delight Glazed Doughnut. 

Man was I excited - it took me ages to fall asleep after that!

I could not wait to get into the office to share my topping idea!
Sunday the 17th Oct finally rolled around - this was the agreed date that we would be making the doughnuts and a sample would be brought into the office on Monday (18th) for judging.

Now this is where the sad news comes in - after completing the preparations, I had just started to fry the doughnuts when there was a furious knock on my front door.  When I went to answer it I found my daughter and her friend in tears and was informed that our beloved (not quite 1 yr old) puppy Oreo had been hit by a car and was killed instantly.

Words cannot begin to describe the shock and sorrow that ripped through me.

If I close my eyes and think of Oreo, I am reminded of what a free spirited little character he was – he broke every rule and knew he was doing it to!  You’d open the back door for him to go outside and he’d take one look at you and hightail it through the house & into one of the children’s bedrooms – pausing momentarily at the top of the stairs to look at you with a face full of mischief – you could just imagine him saying “sucker!” :-)

As with everything though, life goes on – I can look at his photos now and smile fondly, but the lump in my throat is ever near.  We love and miss Oreo dearly.
 

Oreo

Now that I’ve shared my sad news – I’ll back-track a bit and tell you how I went with the challenge.

The morning started out with my other half making waffles for the kids for breakfast – I decided that now would be a good time to start with the dough.

Yeast used & Prepared ingredients just prior to mixing

I prepared all the ingredients and mixed them as per the instructions


Before and After "Proving"

I then had to leave the dough to prove for an hour – I did this by placing the bowl (covered with some cling wrap and a tea towel) in the oven on 100oC.  To be honest, I was a bit nervous about this step – I’ve tried my hand at making bread before and I suck at it! 

However, when I went to take the dough out of the oven, I got a bit of a fright – I thought it was going to rise right out of the bowl!

Now for my something “pretty” – if you recall I was in a Persian store looking for Grape Vine leaves for the Oct Daring Cooks “Dolmades” challenge and I mentioned that I was compelled to purchase the dried roses and sour hibiscus tea – well, I found a use for the roses – I decided to add them to my doughnut dough as they would go well with the Rose Water Turkish Delight Glaze!!!!



Mini Dried Rose Petals

I decided to mix the rose petals into a portion of the dough – just in case my idea was better in theory than in reality ;-)

Once I had all my doughnuts cut out – I popped them back into the oven (at 100oC ) to rise again.



The doughnuts cut out - note the 4 rose petal ones

Now it was during this second rising period that I made the Turkish Delight Glaze.  The basic glaze recipe called for icing sugar, butter and water – I changed this to icing sugar, cream and melted tradional Rose Water Turkish Delight – words fail to describe how amazing this tasted!!!

I also decided to make a Liquor Glace – using the same basic glaze recipe, I swapped the butter for cream and the water for the Amarula Cream Liquor – ahhh, heaven!

 And now the frying begins!  I used a relatively large saucepan, frying three doughnuts at a time. 



Frying 3 at a time

 
It was unfortunately at this point in time that I heard about dear Oreo and stopped making the remaining doughnuts, however as you can see they were a beautiful golden brown colour and had risen quite nicely.
 

I didn’t bother to dress the doughnuts because none of us were interested in eating them, but I did take some into work on the Monday morning together with the glaze.


1. Turkish Delight Doughnut
2. Amarula Cream Doughnut
3. Cinnamon Sugar Doughnut

So my good news is that everyone loved the Turkish Delight Doughnuts the most and I won the Doughnut challenge – I have to say that apart from the tragedy of losing Oreo, I enjoyed rising to Lori’s Doughnut challenge.FYI – during the week, I took out the frozen doughnuts and am pleased to advise that once they had defrosted, they rose again and fried up beautifully!   

  

Lori’s Recipe Source:
The yeast doughnut is from Alton Brown:http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/yeast-doughnuts-recipe/in...
The cake doughnut is a Nancy Silverton recipe:http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2007/06/cook-the-book-oldfashioned-bu...
The raspberry jam bomboloni recipe is a Kate Neumann recipe:http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/raspberry-jam-bomboloni
The pumpkin doughnuts are from Bon Appétit: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pumpkin-Doughnuts-with-Powd...

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.

Posting Date: October 27, 2010

Yeast Doughnuts:
Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Rising time - 1.5 hours total
Cooking time - 12 minutes
Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size
Ingredients
1 ½ cup Milk  (360 ml)
1/3  cup Butter (80 ml / 70 gm)
2 Packets Active Dry Yeast  (14 gm)
1/3 cup Warm Water (80 ml) -  35°C to 41°C
2 Large Eggs, beaten
¼ cup White Granulated Sugar (60 ml / 55 gm)
1.5 tsp Salt
1 tsp Nutmeg, grated (5 ml / 6 gm) omitted
4 2/3 cup All Purpose Flour (1,120 ml / 650 gm)  + extra for dusting surface
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:
Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.
Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.



  

Fig Syrup

Whilst flying by the seat of my pantz in the Fig & Pistachio Dolmade challenge, I decided that I needed to make a syrup or something similar to accompany it with (to be honest, my motives were more along the line of having an extra insurance policy to counter the saltiness of the grape vine leaves...)

Anyway... I started by adding sugar and water - then I remembered that I had frozen some fresh figs last week, so out they came and in they went.


Sugar, Water and Figs

I then decided to add some honey and a smidgen of lemon juice to balance the flavours (or so I was hoping).  Once I was happy with the flavour, I poured the syrup through a sieve.



Pushing it through the sieve

And now for the Piece de résistance...



Fig Syrup

Now, this syrup can be drizzled over almost anything - as I say, I made it with the Fig & Pistachio Dolmades in mind, however I have to say that I also used it the other morning when I made crepes for breakfast ;-)

Fig & Pistachio Dolmades

The Daring Cooks Oct 10 Challenge: WE ARE ON A ROLL!

Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food

So following on from my previous blog re Chicken & Pistachio Dolmades, I thought that I'd separate the Savoury Dolmades from the Sweet Dolmades.

This particular recipe is one that I made up on the fly because I was determined to try making a sweet version of this time honoured tradition - if there's rules to be broken, I'll usually be the one doing it ;-)



My Sweet Version of the traditional Dolmade!



 I started by basing the whole idea off a rice pudding wrapped in the grape vine leaves.  I basically soaked the rice for around 30 minutes in some milk with a cinnamon stick - I then decided that maybe I should nuke it in the microwave to soften the rice a bit more and absorb some of the liquid.

Whilst nuking the rice, I scrounged around my baking cupboard and found some dried figs. Perfect!  I'd add some of the figs to jazz it up a bit, so in went the chopped figs, then I added some of the chopped Pistachios and oh!, I have some cream in the fridge, so lets add a bit of that too - baby, I was on a roll!

Now, bear in mind that I was preparing the Chicken & Pistachio Dolmades at the same time, whilst also cooking a roast chicken for the family for dinner - I had a feeling that the children would not take too kindly to their mother serving them Dolmades for dinner... so needless to say, I was in full production mode and didn't take as many photos of these ones as I should have.


Fig & Pistachio Rice Pudding



 Once I was happy that the consistency wasn't too thick or too runny, I was ready to rock & roll.  Once again, I laid out all my leaves and trimmed off the stems - then I added a teaspoon of the rice filling to each leaf



The Fig & Pistachio Filling

Before I started to roll the sweet dolmades, I decided to take out a little extra insurance by adding a little sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

The Roll Technique used

 Now, in my haste, I forgot to take a photo, but the next step was to line an ovenproof dish with torn leaves before carefully placing each dolmade in.  I then covered the dolmades with milk and added the cinnamon stick.  This was then baked in the oven for around 50 minutes (again, following the advise via google to allow the liquid to cook dry...)

Straight out the oven

Whilst this was baking, I made a Fig Syrup and I am now ready to plate up!


Fig & Pistachio Dolmades with Cream and Fig Syrup



 Fig and Pistachio Dolmades with Cream & Fig Syrup ^ã

Note – the measurements provided  are approximate  as this recipe was create by Louise Raper whilst flying by the seat of her pants in an attempt to raise the bar in the October 2010 Daring Cooks Challenge: Dolmades  – feel free to use more or less as desired J

P.S – This recipe has copyright and whilst you may use it freely, all acknowledgements to originator of this recipe will need to be noted ;-) 

Ingredients

 1:    Rice (+- 2 cups)

Milk (enough to cover the rice)

6-7 Soft Dried Figs – Chopped fine

1 Cinnamon Stick

3 tsp Brown Sugar

1 Egg

2:    ½ Cup Cream

5ml Vanilla Essence

10 ml Cinnamon Sugar

Ground Pistachio Nuts (Toasted)

Milk (just enough to make the mixture slightly damp)

3:     Grape Vines leaves (if preserved then let them soak for approx 24 hours to remove the salty taste)

Method:

1.       Mix the ingredients from (1) and set aside for approx 30 minutes.

2.       Place the Rice mixture in the microwave on Medium heat for 1 minute

3.       Stir the rice and repeat for another minute.
    This will result in the rice mixture being slightly dry and a bit gluggy

4.       Mix ingredients from (2) into the rice mixture (1) – adding the milk LAST - just enough  to
          make the rice pliable

5.       Place a teaspoon full of the fig rice mixture onto the grape leaf

6.       Sprinkle with Cinnamon Sugar [for luck] before rolling the dolmades - resembling a cigar

7.       Once all the rice mixture is used up, place the dolmades closely together  in an oven proof
          casserole dish

8.       Pour enough milk to cover the Dolmades

9.       Place a plate upside down over the Dolmades to hold them in place

10.     Put the Casserole Lid on and Bake on 180^oC for approx 45 minutes

Once the Fig & Pistachio Dolmades are cooked, serve with Cream & Fig Syrup

Chicken & Pistachio Dolmades

The Daring Cooks Oct 10 Challenge: WE ARE ON A ROLL!

Our October 2010 hostess, Lori of Lori’s Lipsmacking Goodness, has challenged The Daring Cooks to stuff grape leaves. Lori chose a recipe from Aromas of Aleppo and a recipe from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food

This is my first Daring Kitchen Challenge and although I completed the challenge within the time frame, I've only now just got a spare moment to figure out how to blog it! 

Having never even tasted Dolmades, this was going to be a challenge for me indeed.



After a fair amount of research I finally decided to make two different types - one savoury and one sweet (this is where the Daring bit came in for me!)







Chicken and Pistachio Dolmades with Mint Yoghurt



 Fig and Pistachio Dolmades with Fig Syrup and Cream 





Now that I've decided on my fillings, the next challenge was to find the grape vine leaves - this turned out to be quite an adventure because there were so many new and interesting things in the Persian store that I ended up leaving with more than just the Leaves and Ajvar (capsicum paste) - I could not ignore the beautiful pink dried mini roses and the sour Hibiscus Tea which was, you guessed it, PINK! I was delighted :D

Ok, so the stakes were high, "Ba" was making Vegetarian Dolmades and Veal Dolmades and "Be" was making Lamb Dolmades - the "judges" were getting excited and the tension was building... who's Dolmades were going to win??

Saturday afternoon and I started to soak the preserved Vine Leaves - I needed to wash out as much of the saltiness as possible if I was going to attempt a sweet version.

Sunday morning and I've got to get cracking if I'm ever going to get both types done in time for the judging on Monday.  I decided to complete the savoury ones first because I had a recipe to follow and thought that I needed as much help as I could possibly get, so first up is the Chicken and Pistachio Dolmades with Mint Yoghurt - recipe compliments of SBS.

Now that my leaves had been soaking overnight, I decided to sort and group them into tiny, small, medium, large and damaged groups.  (oh, did I mention that I can be quite anal...)  

Sorting the Leaves



Next step was to prepare all of the ingredients required then mix them all together:





preparing the required ingredients



The prepared Chicken filling







And now the fun begins...

Preparing the Leaves

The thought of making one at a time what just too much for me, so I went "production line" style

 

 



Placing the Chicken filling in each of the leaves

 Once all the leaves had been laid out, face down, I cut off each of the stems and was FINALLY ready to begin.





 Now we're on a roll!


Step by Step

 I managed to stay sane and finally got them all rolled and into the pot.  I decided to try making them in the oven rather than on the stove, so once they were all layed to rest on a bed of damaged leaves, I drowned them in chicken stock and popped them in the oven.



Ready for the oven!



Google informed me to leave them in the oven until all the liquid had been dried up, however I found this made them a little dry - next time, I'll take them out sooner.

Straight out the oven



Serve with a Minted Yoghurt dressing and finely chopped pistachio.


Chicken & Pistachio Dolmades with Mint Yoghurt



So who won I hear you ask?? Well, Be’s leaves kept breaking ,so he wasn’t able to bring his in – ZERO points for Be, however Ba was given some leaves from a friend of a friend as well as a time honoured vegetarian dolmades recipe (grudge!) and she won with flying colours!

HaHa – well done Ba! (If truth be told, they were actually very moist and delicious)

 

Chicken & Pistachio Dolmade Recipe

Filling

• 2 ½ cups long grain rice
• 250g chicken mince
• ½ red onion, finely diced
• 2 tbspn mint, finely chopped
• 2 tbspn continental parsley, finely chopped
• ½ cup ground pistachios
• 1 tspn Turkish capsicum paste ( (biber salca - available from Turkish stores. Substitute ajvar - Macedonian capsicum paste)
• 3 spring onions, finely diced
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tbspns lemon juice
• 1 cup tomato concasse
• Vine leaves – either fresh and blanched or preserved (remember to rinse)
• Sliced tomato
• One sliced lemon
• Two cloves of garlic, sliced
• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

 Method
Mix together all the ingredients for the filling, making sure the mix is not too wet and not too dry. Place a small quantity in the centre of a vine leaf, starting at the stem end, and roll into a small, fat cigar, tucking in the side edges as you roll.

Line a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan with tomato slices, any torn vine leaves, the sliced lemon and the garlic. Pack the vine leaf parcels into the pan, fitting them together snugly but allowing a little room for them to expand.

Place a large plate over the top and fill the pan with water to the rim of the saucepan. Simmer for about 30 minutes.

** Variations to this recipe - I lined the saucepan with torn vine leaves only and I used Chicken Stock instead of water.

Credits:
Dolmades - http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/298/Chicken-and-pistachio-dolmades
Yoghurt - http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/7/Minted_yoghurt/search/true