Pastry Cream Sugar Filled Dogged Donuts

by reenrene

When you think donuts, I think holes. Donut holes. Dig it up, dough dough, dig it. Not a consumer of puns? Suck my doughnuts. If you can’t stand the nuts, get out of the oven. There’s a long line of cold people out here, and they’d appreciate their turn in the warm womb, the sweet bowels we present here.

Show me the donuts, and I’ll show you a hungry dog face:

Tim from Oven Number 2 apologizes for the insinuations made in this post. Yes, this blog is about food, and yes, that is my dog. We might be Chinese, but we don’t eat dog. There’s a doughnut drought picture dearth, so we have dogs and no doughnuts. D’oh. Nuts.

Handmixers are to blowdryers as standmixers are to souped up salon  hood hair dryers. I’ve never tried it before, but I imagine that it’s like putting my head into a giant baby’s mouth before it monstrously inhales all the moisture out of my wet hair. Professional HD baby.

Back to donuts. It’s a dough made with cake flour, and stuffed with the pastry cream filling featured in the brioche post (see below). Boring as dough, delicious as nuts. That is, if sugary hot cream suits your taste.

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Ingredients:

• 1 package (2 1/2 teaspoons) active dry yeast or 2/3 ounce (18 grams) fresh cake yeast
• 2/3 cup (160 grams) milk, at room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups (490 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/3 cups (270 grams) sugar
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 3 eggs
• 7 tablespoons (3/4 stick/100 grams) butter, at room temperature, cut into 6 to 8 pieces
• Canola oil, for frying

Vanilla Cream Filling

• 6 tablespoons (90 grams) heavy cream
• Pastry Cream , chilled

Recipe:

In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the yeast and milk. Stir together briefly, then let sit for about 1 minute to dissolve the yeast. Add the flour, 1/3 cup (70 grams) of the sugar, the salt, and the eggs and mix on low speed for about 1 minute, or until the dough comes together. Then, still on low speed, mix for another 2 to 3 minutes to develop the dough further. Now, begin to add the butter, a few pieces at a time, and continue to mix for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough is soft and cohesive.

Remove the dough from the bowl, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or up to 15 hours.

Lightly flour a baking sheet. On a well-floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 12-inch square about 1/2 inch thick. Using a 3 1/2- to 4-inch round biscuit cutter, cut out 9 doughnuts. Arrange them on the prepared baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm spot to proof for 2 to 3 hours, or until they are about doubled in height and feel poufy and pillowy.

When ready to fry, line a tray or baking sheet large enough to hold the doughnuts with paper towels. Pour oil to a depth of about 3 inches into a large, heavy saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until hot. To test the oil, throw in a pinch of flour. If it sizzles on contact, the oil is ready. (It should be 350 degrees if you are using a thermometer.) Working in batches, place the doughnuts in the hot oil, being careful not to crowd them. Fry on the first side for 2 to 3 minutes, or until brown. Then gently flip them and fry for another 2 to 3 minutes, or until brown on the second side. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the doughnuts to the prepared tray and let cool for a few minutes, or until cool enough to handle.

Place the remaining 1 cup (200 grams) sugar in a small bowl. One at a time, toss the warm doughnuts in the sugar to coat evenly. As each doughnut is coated, return it to the tray to cool completely. This will take 30 to 40 minutes.

To make the vanilla cream filling: While the doughnuts are cooking, whip the heavy cream until it holds stiff peaks. Using a rubber spatula, fold it into the pastry cream . You should have about 3 cups.

When doughnuts are completely cooled, poke a hole in the side of each doughnut, spacing it equidistant between the top and bottom. Fit a pastry bag with a small round tip and fill the bag with the filling. Squirt about 1/3 cup filling into each doughnut. Serve immediately.

Lemon-Blueberry Pie

by reenrene

[Tim] From the initial color-glaze of your eyes over this picture, you might think that we baked a beet pie, stained red like a newborn’s umbilical cord. But no, as I said in a comment, we do desserts here at Oven Number 2, and beets… wait, are there beet desserts? I’ve never had one. Holy Pan, there are. Behold, beet pie. Expect it.

[Irene] La, la, la, la, la. Sorry everyone… I haven’t really been present on the blog. Writing is not my forte, and I have been mostly preparing the photos (anddd I was lazy….). Tim has been the one mostly working on the baking; I’ve just been on the sidelines watching and photographing.

[Tim] The reasons for the influx of blueberry blood are two; first, because I had to use frozen grapes because I didn’t have enough fresh ones per the recipe (8 stinking cups of blueberries?!) and they’re hard to dry; second, because I boiled two cups of the shrunken heads and made a blueberry brain mash, a sloppy and sticky revelry to which I added the rest.

[Tim] When you were a kid and found little black and blue berries in the parks and playgrounds, did you ever eat one? Were they poisonous? I never heard of anyone dying from them. They said that you would get diarrhea. Another form of blue gooeyness.

[Tim] I like my pie as I do the shadow of a falcon crest — sweet, red, and soggy as a state-fair goer’s underarm. For crust enthusiasts, you would want to boil down the blueberry juice mix more than I.

[Irene] Reading through Tim’s writing portions, I never know what to write or how to fit in. I guess I just have to create my own mold right?

Good for almost everything pie dough by Dori Greenspan: Click Here

Double-Crusted Blueberry Pie by Dori Greenspan

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pints fresh blueberries
• 1 cup sugar, or little more, to taste, plus more for dusting
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• Coarsely grated zest of 1/2 lemon
• Squirt of fresh lemon juice, or a little more, to taste
• 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs (you can use packaged unseasoned crumbs)
• 1 large egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash
• Sugar, for dusting

Getting Ready:

• Butter 9-inch pie plate
• Work on a well-floured surface (or between wax paper or plastic wrap), roll out one piece of the dough to a thickness of about 1/8 inch.
• Fit the dough into the buttered pie plate and trim the edges to a 1/2-inchc overhang.
• Roll the other piece of dough into a 1/8-inch-thick circle and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
• Cover both the circle and the pie plate with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you preheat the oven and prepare the filling

Getting Ready to Bake:

• Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees F
• Put the berries in a large bowl and gently stir in the sugar, flour, salt, zest and juice
• Let sit for about 5 minutes
• Taste the filling and add more sugar and/or lemon juice, if needed

• Remove the pie shell and top crust from the refrigerator.
• Sprinkle an even layer of the bread crumbs over the bottom of the shell.
• Give the filling a last stir and turn it into the crust.

• Using your fingertips, moisten the rim of the bottom crust with a little cold water. Center the top crust over the filling and gently press the top crust against the bottom.
• Either fold the overhang from the top crust under the bottom crust and crimp the edges attractively or press the top crust against the bottom crust and trim the overhang from both crusts even with the rim of the pie plate.
• If you’ve pressed and trimmed the crust, use the tines of a fork to press the two crusts together securely.
• Using a small sharp knife, cut 4 slits in the top crust and cut a circle out of the center, then lift the plate onto the baking sheet. (If you have time, refrigerate the pie for about 30 minutes. The pie can also be wrapped airtight and frozen for up to 2 months. Glaze and sugar it before you put it in the oven and add at least 15 minutes to the baking time.)

• Brush the top crust with the egg wash, then sprinkle the curst with a little sugar–just to give it sparkle.
• Bake the pie for 30 minutes.
• Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F, and bake the pie for another 30 minutes or so (total baking time is about 1 hour), or until the crust is a beautiful golden brown and the filling is bubbling up through the slits. If the crust seems to be browning too quickly, make a loose foil tent for the pie.
• Transfer the pie to a rack and let it cool–and settle–for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Marbled Pound Cake

by reenrene

[Tim] “Marble is a […] rock.” – that’s from Wikipedia. Rocks are spiky, abrasive, and will make you bleed if you eat them. Everything this pound cake isn’t. Well, not all rocks make your mouth bleed. When I was a kid I swallowed rocks on the playground. Pebbles. Here I am again, eating marbles. Marbled…cake.

[Tim] Big mistakes make good stories. And these good pictures are the result of my big mistake. Shame on you for liking those pictures. Every amateur baker knows that you add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients – you don’t just pour chocolate on top of the already-mixed dough!

I forgot the chocolate, didn’t read the recipe, yadayadayada. okay.

[Irene] The picture above reminded me of a game Tim and I used to play when we were little. When we were little kids, Tim and I would share a room, and one of our favorite games to play was “hot lava” (aside from “house”…. at least I liked playing “house”). We would pretend that the ground was lava, and if we touched it we would die. One of us would always been hanging off the side of the bed slipping onto the ground screaming, and one of us would be hanging on to the other’s feet, (also screaming) trying to drag him/her back onto the bed.

Man, the fun we used to have when we were little. I guess we’ve moved on to better and more sophisticated methods of having fun, like baking… Well there still is the danger of dying while playing baking.

[Tim] How do you marble cake? Why are you looking at me? I don’t know this stuff. Hehehe yes I do, I’m just keeping all my secrets from you. mwahahahha

[Tim] They call it a pound cake because you use a pound of flour, a pound of butter, and a pound of sugar. I didn’t use that much, and I didn’t use those proportions. The cake is a lie.

[Tim] The chasm, the clay cracks, the earthquaky rockness. Was this pound cake as dry? Was it in the oven for too long? Confession: I was plugged in my headphones watching The Office and this baked for 3 minutes too much, so yes, this pound cake tasted like a rock. Appetizing rocks, like rocky road ice cream. Yum.

[Tim] A checkered side and striped cross-section. Haven’t seen that marbling pattern before, so I’ll just go ahead and say that this is the first of its kind. A shiny Pokemon. A unique snowflake. On the other hand, I’ve caught two golden magikarp, and there’s an ongoing debate over whether or not there are duplicate snowflakes. Some people say that all snowflakes will always be different because the water molecules won’t be the same one, but come on now, that’s not a real argument. Other’s have analyzed the statistical possibilities of all the variations snowflakes can undertake, and think that it’s actually unlikely that there are exactly similar snowflakes!

Someone probably did a checkered marble striped cross-section cake before.

 

Marble Pound Cake ( from Dorie Greenspan recipe)

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, room temp.

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs, room temp.

1 tsp. vanilla

4 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped ( 60% cocoa)

 

Preheat oven to 325. Butter a 9′ x 5′ loaf pan or 3 smaller loaf pans for mini loaves.

1. Melt chocolate using the double boiler method, over low simmering water. Set aside.

2. Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

3. Beat the butter and sugar til pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.

4. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time, beating 1 to 2 minutes after each egg is added.

5. Mix in vanilla.

6. With mixer on low speed, add in the flour mixture, mixing only til just incorporated. You can even mix the last of the flour with a rubber spatula to avoid overbeating.

7. Transfer half the batter to another bowl and stir in the melted chocolate to this batter.

8. Spoon the batter into your pan or pans alternately, light and dark. Swirl with a knife.

9. Bake 70 minutes, checking doneness with a knife inserted to come out clean. If cake is becoming too brown on top, loosely tent with some foil.

10. Cool in pan about 30 minutes, then pop out of pan and cool completely on wire rack.