Monday, August 19, 2013

home made donuts

Towards the end of Ramadhan, my aunt hosted a berbuka puasa. Obviously I can't be going empty handed, right? A cake came to mind and I did bake a custard sponge cake which was very easy to follow and required very little ingredients. But unfortunately, I misread the oven temperature. It reads 90 degrees celcius but I mistakenly set the oven to 190 degrees celcius instead. So the top of my cake was burnt and the cake ended up 'bantat' because I kept opening and closing the oven door to check. The cake went straight to the dustbin. So sad. 
That didn't stop me. I opened my scrap book and searched for a recipe of something that I can make, something which I have all the ingredients in my kitchen. i stumbled upon a donut recipe which I kept years ago so I decided to give it a try. I have a packet of instant dry yeast in my kitchen along with other ingredients. I then started working on the dough. Working with yeast can be tricky because you want a fluffy donut and not a stiff and dense donut. AS i mixed the ingredients, I kept chanting, please make this work or else I'll have to resort to buying some kuih along the way.

After the dough was ready, I covered it with a cling wrap and waited patiently for it to rise. This will make or break the donuts. You know what they say about a wait kettle never boils? Same goes to a donut dough. 30 minutes feels like forever! I let it sit on the kitchen counter and kept myself busy. When I checked again, I was so thrilled to see that the dough has doubled the size, which is exactly what I wanted. Phew. So step 1 was a success. Step 2 was making the donuts, which proves to be very tricky because the dough keeps sticking to my hands. I thought that it doesn't 'jadi' because the recipe says it should be a clean dough and it shouldn't stick. I then put some flour on my hands before I shape them. My fear is that the donut will become hard. I've no picture of the shaped donuts because my hands were sticky. 

Transferring the shaped donuts into the frying pan is yet another tricky task. It stuck on my fingers again.Who would have thought that the donuts actually rise and spread even while frying? Luckily I didn't shape them into really big donuts or I'll end up with giant donuts. I find it easier to use a tong to pick up the donuts than using a ladle.
I ended up with quite a lot of donuts. I covered some of the donuts in caster sugar while some were covered in a mixture of caster sugar and cinnamon powder. When I pressed the donuts, they feel fluffy. I can't taste them because I was fasting so I just tawakal. I even gave a few pieces to the security guards at our condo (the one in the blue container). I hope they liked it.
As for my donuts, it was a hit at my aunt's house. Everybody loved it! They said it sure looks and tastes homemade all right. ;) I only get to taste half of it but I was so happy that it worked out well and everybody was happy. Yeay! Irene too loves donuts so I will make it again one day, Insyaallah.

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