Wildfires were burning all around us, it was hot and smoky
in Kamloops for
too long and not even central air could filter out all the smoke that seeped
into the house. I did the rain dance, but nothing worked. Finally, finally a
storm was brewing. Temperatures dipped and I stood on the porch inhaling the fresh
air as the rain began to pour. It turned into a major storm with flash floods
all around town. Yesterday was so cold we had to switch the thermostat from air
to heat. The air smelt magnificent.
I put the kettle on and I made a platter of doughnut holes.
The heat should return in a few days, but for the time being doughnut holes
were perfect. These require no rising time and yet they are light and airy. But
the best part is they were on the platter before I could have gone to Tim’s for
a pack of timbits.
You scoop the dough into the hot oil, it plops down in a
sausage shape, but then it grows into round balls. The funniest thing is to
watch the balls flip over as they swell. I used a smallish heavy pot for frying
to cut down on oil. There should be at least 2 inches of oil in the pot. I
started with 2 cups of extra light olive oil and in the end 1-2/3 cup remained.
The trick is to heat up the oil on medium heat and maintain the same
temperature throughout the frying. When the little tentacles began to brown,
the doughnut holes are cooked through.
QUICK DOUGHNUT HOLES
1/2 cup + 1/3 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 pinch of nutmeg
1/3 cup sour cream [I used 14%]
1 egg
1 Tbsp sugar
1/8 cup milk [I used 1 %]
2 cups of extra light olive oil for frying
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and the nutmeg.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine the sour cream, egg, sugar and the milk.
- Stir the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until a soft dough forms.
- Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile heat the oil on medium heat. Do not heat it up quickly and then turn it down. The temperature has to be even and steady.
- Using a regular dinner spoon, scoop up half a Tablespoon of dough and push the dough into the oil with a finger.
- Repeat until 10 to12 dough balls are in the oil. As the dough swells, it will flip over on its own.
- Using a slotted spoon, keep turning the dough balls in the oil until it begins to get a little colour. When the tentacles have a nice golden brown colour, quickly transfer the doughnut holes to a paper lined platter.
- When all the doughnut holes are fried, transfer them to a clean bowl and sprinkle the top with your choice of glaze or icing sugar or grated chocolate and toss.
- I used a vanilla glaze:
- Stir together 1 cup icing sugar, 1 Tbsp honey and 1 to 2 Tbsp of milk.
