Farm Stand Donuts: Club Baked

To me doughnuts are a special treat.  I remember when I was kid and getting super excited on the rare occasions when my dad would go out for doughnuts on a Saturday or Sunday morning.  I love all doughnuts chocolate.  The chocolate cake doughnuts with chocolate frosting and the light airy chocolate twist.  Or the raspberry filled with chocolate icing....So sweet and delicious.

That's why Farm Stand Doughnuts were the perfect choice for my first time hosting a recipe for the new baking group, Club: Baked.  I have never made doughnuts before so I knew this would be a good challenge.  And a challenge it was!

The Farm Stand Doughnuts are a cake style doughnut.  Sadly, attempt number one produced a barely edible doughnut.  I only wished they tasted as good as they looked!  Just goes to show you, you most definitely should not judge a book by it's cover or judge a doughnut by it's frosting! 

Here is what batch one looked like.

The dough ended up being incredibly dry.  The recipe describes the dough as being "sticky".  Not sure where I went wrong...I may have lost track of how many cups of flour were in the bowl.  I should have used my intuition and added more buttermilk, but I doubted myself and forged ahead ending up with dry dense doughnuts.

The toppings were much better than the doughnuts themselves....shockingly, the chocolate was my favorite!  With the fresh blueberry glaze coming in a close second and trailing up the back was the cinnamon sugar. 

I couldn't very well let these doughnuts get the best of me, so I went for attempt number two this past weekend. 

I did things a bit differently this time and had a vastly improved outcome!  This time I halved the recipe.  I was extra extra careful with my flour measurements and I made mini's this go round.  My mini's were a good size, but unfortunately I made the donut hole too small and it pretty much disappeared upon frying.  Along with making a bigger hole, I also should have made my dough a bit thinner as the donuts puff up quite a bit when they are cooked.  I got 20 two inch mini donuts from the half recipe...which was plenty for our two person household. 

One issue I had on round 2 was with frying the doughnuts.  My oil was around 370 degrees and my doughnuts browned very quickly...about a minute on each side.  They were on the verge of burning so I removed them and cut into one....it was still doughy inside.  I lowered the oil temperature to stay between 350 and 360 degrees so I could allow the doughnuts too cook through without over browning.

In terms of toppings, I went with cinnamon sugar, chocolate ganache and a strawberry glaze using homemade strawberry jam, powdered sugar and a splash of cream.  This time I actually liked the chocolate frosting least...but that is probably because I didn't so much bother with measuring the ingredients and the ganache turned out to be too thin.  The cinnamon sugar and strawberry doughnuts were both great, especially with a hot cup of tea.  These are best eaten the day they are made.

I am certain that the third time making these will be the charm!  And after that, I would like to tackle yeast doughnuts.

See how other bakers fared with their farm stand doughnuts here.

Farm Stand Buttermilk Doughnuts Three Ways
from Baked Explorations

Doughnuts:
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 sour cream
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly browned and cooled
Vegetable oil

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper to place your cut donuts on.  Line another baking sheet with at least 2 layers of paper towels to absorb the oil from frying.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon in a large bowl and set aside.  Whisk eggs, buttermilk and sour cream in a medium/small bowl.  Whisk in the completely cooled butter.  Make a well in the dry mixture and pour in the wet mixture.  Using a rubber spatula, slowly pull the flour into the liquid center until a sticky dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and sprinkle lightly with flour.  Pat out the dough until it is about 1/2 inch thick.  Cut out doughnuts using a floured 3 1/2 inch cutter for a large donut and a 1 1/2 round cutter for the doughnut hole.  For a smaller doughnut, use a 2 1/2 cutter for the doughnut and 1 inch for the hole. Cut out doughnuts and holes and place on your prepared parchment lined baking sheet.  Use the scraps to pat another disc of dough and cut out doughnuts.  Repeat until you have used all your dough.  Place your baking sheet in the refrigerator while you wait for your oil to heat up.  You can also make your toppings during this time.

Heat oil in a deep skillet or pan so that oil is about 1 1/2 inch deep.  Slowly heat the oil over medium/high heat until it reaches 365 - 370 degrees on a candy thermometer.  Gently slide each doughnut into the hot oil, making about 3 doughnuts at a time.  When the doughnut has browned on one side (about 2-3 minutes), turn it over with tongs and cook the other side for about another minute, until browned.  Remove donuts from oil using a slotted spoon and place on the paper towel lined baking sheet.  The doughnut holes will cook faster and should be made after the doughnuts.

Assemble doughnuts by dipping in topping of your choice.  See recipes below.

Doughnut toppings - Note each topping recipe is enough for the entire batch of doughnuts so you might want to cut recipe if you use multiple toppings.

Chocolate Dip:
4 ounces high quality dark chocolate (60-70% cocao), coarsely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Sprinkles to decorate (optional)

In a small saucepan heat the cream until just about to boil.  In a medium widemouthed bowl, place chocolate and cover with hot cream.  Let stand for about a minute.  Whisk chocolate and cream until smooth and then whisk in butter.  Keep warm.

Vanilla Glaze:
2 cups confectioners sugar
1/3 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Sprinkles to decorate (optional)

Whisk all ingredients together in a medium widemouthed bowl.

Cinnamon Sugar:
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cinnamon

Stir cinnamon and sugar together in a medium widemouthed bowl.