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.