a donut fail is the saddest fail.

I was going to take a picture of the dough I made from Donuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to make at Home but I wound up so impressed by how far OFF from any sort of dough (gluten free or otherwise) that I resisted recording it for eternity. If I was being forced to comment on it, I would have to say the only thing it was good for was sticking to my hands and not coming off until I busted out the dish scrubber.

I'm not sure exactly where I messed up (could have been in all the liquids I was mixing? the humidity here in town?) but the sticky round blobs that wound up in the frying oil did come out fairly tasty-- at least the small pieces that I cooked all the way through... most of them, well... they weren't cooked in the middle.

It was sort of a production to make them... lots of waiting (which requires patience that I lack when donuts are involved) for yeast to do its magic, reserving of this, 110 degrees that, blahdeblooh. And now, I have nothing to show for it. I can tell you this much... if you aren't patient, this recipe might make you a little frustrated.


I'm going to try again and give a full recap. Maybe if I document the process I'll be less likely to mess it up. Hmm.

DONUT ALERT! DONUT ALERT!

It has just come to my attention that there are some new cookbooks out there... and one is devoted exclusively to my first food love-- donuts*. As I've mentioned before, the loss of donuts in my life is akin to some people's feelings about the loss of Sassy magazine (when Jane Pratt was still the editor)-- a mix of longing, regret, and misguided optimism that maybe, maybe, it would be resurrected.

The book is called Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home

I just did a quick preview on Amazon (love that feature) and it sounds like you pick your dough type and then select glazes and potentially donut flavors-- albeit I imagine there is some tinkering that will need to happen to adjust to gluten free. I just ordered a copy
and a donut cutterand I'm going to test these babies out this weekend.

To say I'm excited is an understatement. I'm quickly approaching a frenzied manic state-- I'm already thinking about maple glazes... sprinkles, bear claws, eating too much, and then the inevitable stomachache. YES!

* is it donuts or doughnuts? Am I like Homer Simpson that I spell it donut? Please advise.

kinnikinnick gluten free donuts

Talk about t-a-s-t-y: kinnikinnick's gluten free sugar and cinnamon bagels are addictive. I just gobbled a couple of them the other night...

Overall, the texture on these is excellent-- it's got a slight chew to it (it is more a cake donut than anything else!), a great light sugar cake taste, and a healthy dusting of sugar and cinnamon. These do come frozen, so you can leave them out to bring them to room temperature, but if you're hungry and impatient (like me), you can zap them in the microwave for a couple of seconds to get it heated up a little bit. Mind you, if you care about these sort of things, I tend to prefer toasting/microwaving these a little more while they're on on the frozen end since the ice tends to steam out the insides of the donut and only adds to the deliciousness.

I got these at Lassen's in Goleta for about 6 dollars in the frozen section (for 6 small donuts). A little spendy, but a great treat if you can pace yourself. A little research revealed you can also find a wider variety these online directly from Kinnikinnick (in tasty looking maple frosting, chocolate dipped, and vanilla glazed ... danger, danger).