Doughnuts! Cinnamon glazed, Dark chocolate, White chocolate

Its hard to come by good, fresh doughnuts in India unless you are breakfasting in a 5-star hotel or rushing to the nearest CCD joint. There are so many bakeries that shape bread into dougnut look alikes, glaze the top with sugar and call in a doughnut! Then there are others like Doughnut Bakers. I had high hopes when i packed one each of some 8 varieties of doughnuts only to find them tasting mainly of really bad, overused oil.

Anyway, I am not a doughnut junkie but I do like one, once in a while. And its exciting to think of the possibilities you can cover your doughnut with! I adore the cute round shapes too . I have made doughnuts in the past with average results. But this time they turned out really well. The dough rose beautifully. The doughnuts fluffed up dutifully. I was so happy just looking at them! :-)
BEATS STORE BROUGHT ONES HANDS DOWN!! My husband agrees :-)


I think what I did right this time was keeping the dough slightly sticky. Not as much as a bread dough. Maybe sticky ain't the right word. More like a loose, really soft dough.

You will need 2 cups of flour

2/5th cup sugar (granulated)

2-3 tbsp warm water

1.5 tbsp butter

a pinch of salt

1/2 cup hot milk

a pinch of nutmeg

1 tsp of active yeast

1/2 tsp of baking soda

Mix the milk, water, sugar, butter and salt well.

Mix the nutmeg powder, flour, baking soda.

In some warm water (not more than 50 degrees hot) add the yeast and leave for 15 mins, till it all bubbly and frothing.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour a part of the milk mixture and the whole yeast. Gently fold in a rounded motion. Keep kneading, adding the milk mixture gradually, as required till the flour feels slightly sticky. Keep working the flour for a few more minutes till its reaches a soft consistency.

Leave the dough to rest and prove for an hour. I covered the dough with cloth and put it in a slightly warmed oven. At this point, I always send a prayer to heaven. You never know of the dough will rise as much as it should. The dough should rise to twice its size.

This is a picture of my beautifully proven dough! Was so proud! :-)

Roll out the dough atleast 1/2 inch thick. I used a big bowl to cut the outer egde and a small bottle cap for the inner edge.

Heat vegetable oil. Carefully place the doughnuts in it. I fried the small roundels that were left behind after removing the big circles to get small hole-less dougnuts. And using my little finger poked holes in some of them to get miniature doughnuts!

Fry till they are fluffed up and golden brown.!

Glazing:

Cinnamon Glaze: Dissolve 3/4rth cup sugar in 2 tbsp milk, along with 2 tsp of cinnamon. Dip warm doughnuts in the glaze. Set aside to cool.

Dark Chocolate covered Doughnuts: Melt Chocolate, dip doughnut in chocolate, let cool (if you have the patience), eat doughnut dipped in chocolate. Yummm... As you can probably spot in the picture below, I couldn't even wait for the entire chocolate to melt. There are some chocolate pices still left. How can that be a bad thing right? Yummm

White choco Glaze: Melt White chocolate, Dip doughnut. dark chocolate beats white chocolate any day. It was worth a try. Not bad. White choco lovers like my mom, would like this.

You can store them for a week or two (or more??) in airtight containers in a refrigerator. Warm in oven before eating.

Emmental Cheese

Also known as Swiss cheese, this cheese takes its name from Emmental valley, where it originated in 1923. It is considered Switzerland's oldest and most prestigious cheese. And we know its Jerry Mouse's favorite cheese. How many times has he ducked in and hidden in one of its numerous holes when Tom chases him...



This cheese melts easily and is great for sauces or just to be had with some fruits and wine. Chop some dried apricots, fresh or dries figs, fresh berries and serve with small slices of the cheese.

Simply grate over mini pizzas and grill till the cheese melts.

Melt emmental, gruyere, parmesan in white wine with garlic for delicious cheese fondue. Serve with pieces of bread and fruits. And appetizer's done.


I added emmental and parmesan along with a little garlic, pepper, salt and butter to hot mashed potatoes. The heat of the recently boiled potatoes melted the cheese. It was delicious.

Another divine recipe goes as follows:
Toast 2 slices of bread. Apply some mustard sauce on one slice.
Lay slices of good bacon on one slice. Vegetarians may use thinly sliced button mushrooms (don't add mustard for veggie version)
Grate emmental cheese on top.
Place the 2nd slice over the cheese.
Drizzle Be`chamel sauce on top.

To make be`chamel sauce melt 2 tbsp butter in a pan. Add 2 tbsp flour and whisk for 2 min. Take off heat. Heat 1 cup of milk along with a bay leaf, 3-4 cloves, half an onion, pinch of nutmeg, pepper and salt.
Remove onion, cloves and bayleaf and add the milk mixture to the flour-butter mixture. Whisk and heat till sauce thickens. Add emmental cheese and mix.

Pour over the sandwich and bake for 5 mins. Heavenly.

Extra Rich Caramel Custard

Heat a cup and a half of full cream milk till warm. Add half a cup of condensed milk to it. Taste if more sweetening is needed. Add more condensed milk if needed to sweeten more. Beat 3 eggs with a tsp of vanilla. Don't overbeat. Take warm milk and rapidly mix the egg mixture with the milk mixture. I find adding a tbsp of store brought custard powder to this add to the taste.

Heat 3/4 cup of sugar and a few drops of water till sugar dissolves. Swirl around the pan to ensure even heating. Once the sugar caramelises to a golden color take off heat and pour in the baking dish you will be making custard in. Swirl to cover the entire surface of the pan. Once the caramel sets pour the custard mixture in the baking dish.

Bake in a Bain Marie- Fill a larger dish with water till the level reaches half way up the baking dish. Cover the baking dish with foil. Bake for 45 minutes at 180 degrees or till done.

Variations you can have by adding one of these to the custard mixture:
lemon zest
Ginger powder
Coffee
Cinnamon
All Spice and dark rum
orange zest

Fresh Sweet Cherry Crumble

Bright red, plump, juicy and sweet cherries are such a beautiful sight! Just wash them and serve as afters for a dinner party and you have an elegent finish. Leave stalks on of course- Looks are almost as important as taste soemtimes!

Pitting and halving cherries can be a little time taking task. run a knife around the seed, Hold one side of the cherry and twist gently. That half should come off quite easily. Simply pull the seed out of the other half in which it is embedded. Add 2 tbsps castor sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon powder and a drop of vanilla to a cup of cherries and leave covered for 15 minutes. Meanwhile prepare the crumble topping. A rather simple task.

For a cup and a half of cherries, simply mix together 3/4 cup of flour, half cup castor sugar, a drop of vanilla, 1 tsp cinnamon powder and 50 gms unsalted butter. Use firm cubes of butter. Rub between fingers till the mixture resembles bread crumbs or moist sand.

Spread the marinated cherries on the bottom of a greased baking dish. Sprinkle the crumble topping to cover the cherries. A few cherries peeking out are totally OK. Gently press down the crumble topping. Don't try too hard.

Bake for 30 minutes at 180 degrees. Enjoy warm with some whipped cream or icecream on the side.