I've been on a donut kick lately. I don't like storebought donuts very often, unless I'm somewhere where you can buy them warm, just from the fryer. The health police will probably come knocking on my door when I admit this, but I've made two batches in the past two weeks. I'm trying to manage my donut desires without clogging my arteries. Here's how I do that:
(1) Fry them in shortening (or lard, if you eat meat). They absorb a lot less fat that if they were fried in oil. I don't understand the chemistry behind this, but my experience bears it out.
(2) An entire batch of donuts is rather too much for a single person. Share with your neighbors! I have not found a single person who says "no" when I knock on their door with a plate of fresh, warm donuts.
(3) Donuts freeze. Later, I can microwave them and it's almost (but not quite) as good as when they were first made.
I didn't have to work today, so I tackled two big projects - taxes and bagel-making. I won't bore you with a saga about my taxes, except to say that I spent a good chunk of today trying to convince banks and employers that they should send me forms even though it's my late husband's name that is on the forms. But the bagels turned out great! I used the recipe from the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. (Thanks to the cousin who gifted it to me many years ago). When forming the dough balls, my hands instantly remembered how to form perfect, smooth spheres, a skill I perfected while making pizzas when I was working at the restaurant a decade ago. And then I topped them with lots of sesame and poppy seeds. Now I have a dozen, minus the one I ate, sitting in my freezer destined for delicious breakfasts.
