Monday, November 24, 2008

Masala Coffee Donuts

donuts
Hibernation must be in my body’s future. It has been craving thigh-fattening fare for a couple weeks and I can only acquiesce. As I hear my yogi friends say listen to your body and give it what it craves. Sure their svelte, healthy body’s yearn for green leafy vegetables and seaweed, but mine is yelling, screaming for deep fried sweets. In my defense of my body, it has very rarely asked for sweets in its long life. When the whispering about donuts began in my psyche or soul or wherever, I was sincerely surprised.

This deep-seated interest in donuts that has manifested itself in my soul became evident as I sat in the dentist’s chair. I was sitting in that turny seat full of remorse about the ungodly volume of tea that I consume daily and its mark on my teeth. Guilt gave way to obsession as I started to focus on the donut shop across the way. When I left the parking lot, clean teeth and all, will-power reined supreme as I passed Amy Joy by. But, then another donut shop appeared in my view. What was I to do? Fine as they were, those donuts did not satiate me.

And then this weekend, I decided to make Masala Coffee Donuts. We were having friends over for Indian food and I wanted to create a fantastic dessert. Basically, I have an over-inflated sense of my cooking ability and often make new recipes for company. The results can be hit or miss—particularly with dessert. That evening’s round of donuts was so unsuccessful that I went to sleep focusing on how to improve the recipe. The next morning I attempted again. Yes, I made donuts two days in a row. And, yes, my husband did joke, “time to make the doughnuts?” The second time around I added buttermilk to the dough; I am a huge proponent of buttermilk. I believe they made the difference.

The resulting doughnuts are not the average chocolate frosted, and so I suggest if you serve them you warn your guests. The dough has cracked pepper and honey, and the frosting has coffee, cardamom, pepper, honey and jaggery. Doughnuts “gone native” perhaps.

Recipes:
Masala Coffee Donuts with Espresso Cardamom Cream Filling

(Adapted from Epicurious)
makes more than 24 doughnuts

In the bowl of a stand mixer, allow to sit for ten minutes the following:
2 1/4 teaspoons dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon plus 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup warm whole milk (105°F to 115°F)
1/2 cup plus 2 T buttermilk at room temperature

Add to stand mixer and beat with the hook attachment:
2 eggs slightly beaten
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, cooled to lukewarm
1 T honey

In a separate bowl combine:
4 cups all purpose flour
1 t ground cardamon
1 t freshly crushed black pepper
1/2 t almond extract
1/2 t salt

Add dry mixture to the stand mixer in small batches until it comes together in a sticky dough.

Let rise for 4 hours.

Pat out the dough into a large rectangle. Cut out rounds using cookie cutters(and then cut the whole in the middle with a smaller cookie cutters.) Let rise for 1 hour on a baking sheet.

Fry at 350 until brown.

When the doughnuts are rising make your filling.

When doughnuts are cooling, make glaze.

Cardamom Espresso Pastry Cream

Soak 1 handfull of crushed espresso beans in 2 cups whole milk for 1/2 hour.

In a sauce pan on medium whisk:
1/2 cup sugar
6 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 cups coffee steeped whole milk
5 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt

Add:
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp crushed pepper (optional)

Whisk until thickened. Chill for 4 hrs with tin foil to cover. (They say plastic wrap but it is not easy to recycle or to reuse.)

Coffee, Honey, Blackpepper Glaze

Steep 8 blackpeppercorns and 2 cardamom pods in 1/4 cup coffee for 20 minutes.

Add:
1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt

Whip until smooth and then simmer.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

These sound crazy, and delicious, and fun, and adventurous! Good for you. I was hooked the minute I saw ooey goodness seeping out from the beautifully colord donut!

The CFT said...

Any cardamom coffee with that?

michael, claudia and sierra said...

ok seriously
OH MY GOD
like, if these things could get mailed to me i would so very make you do it. that recipe looks and sounds like heaven.

huge wow.
i want theeeeeeeeeeeem...

and i am not just being all blogger nice

michael, claudia and sierra said...

ok so like hold up
i am confused

the ones with holes get no filling
but you have skipped over this?

am i reading this wrong?
what and where is the jaggery?

glamah16 said...

Oh man ( woman)I have died and gone to heaven. Even after having 3 cavaties filled today I so want one of those doughnuts now.

Peter M said...

LOL @ listen to your bodies....feed it donuts, eh?

The filling definitely ups the ante here...a High Street donut no doubt!

maybelles mom said...

First, thanks for commenting everyone.

CFT: Just posted that coffee with cardamom (sort of.)

Claudia: Clearly need to explain jaggery. Will do so in a post this week. And, the ones with holes were glazed and then sanded in black pepper. (maybe I should add that in the post, eh?)

Nina Timm said...

I have not seen anything more droolworthy in such long time.....I am speechless. Those donuts must have been a delight to eat.
My dad is a coffee bloke too!!!

Sophie said...

I used to be a huge donut addict too :)! Gosh, I really miss donuts; I found a gluten-free recipe but I bet they don't taste as good as these. I love the grown-up gourmet flavors! Buttermilk makes everything better, I agree! Have a great Thanksgiving!