little nutmeg doughnuts

Are these not the cutest little doughnuts in the world? Scented with a wee bit of rum and fresh nutmeg, they are the cutest little breakfast doughnuts I've made in years.

I used to love doughnuts, swinging by our local Dunkin' Donuts sneakily as I drove back from food shopping and school drop offs and buying one Boston Creme doughnut to savor in the car. Somewhere along the line I stopped buying them, as I snipped the carbs from my daily diet. But when I recently came across a ripped out recipe from a magazine in my files, ( no doubt from a waiting room at my doctor's office), I steamed ahead with no regard whatsoever. Carbs, hurumpf. I make these little one inch doughnuts with a shower of confectioner's sugar or a bath of cinnamon sugar - both tasty and delicious. These would be perfect for a Christmas or New Year's brunch, or a little Christmas party, or simply to celebrate the weekend.

To make about 2 dozen tiny doughnuts:

1 T. unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 extra large egg

2 cups King Arthur all-purpose flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1 1/2 t. cinnamon

1/8 t. nutmeg

pinch kosher salt

1/4 t. rum

1/4 cup milk plus 2 T. ( any kind of milk)

In mixer bowl, beat sugar and butter til crumbly. Add egg and mix. Add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt and rum, and mix well. Add milk and mix again, then cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for an hour or so at room temperature.

Turn dough onto heavily floured board or counter and cut out tiny circles - I used a pastry tube and a 1 1/2 inch cookie cutter to cut out doughnuts. Flour cutters well as you use.

Bring canola oil to medium heat in a saucepan or skillet.

Fry doughnuts, a few at a time, until golden brown on both sides.

Drain on brown paper or paper towels.

Sprinkle doughnuts with cinnamon sugar or confectioner's sugar and serve with a saucy smile:)

A year ago on she's in the kitchen:

goat cheese and rosemary knot appetizers

carrot and orange soup to ward away a cold

lemon candy cane cookies

Have a beautiful day!

Halloween Doughnuts

Every time I make these doughnuts I think of my late mother-in-law, who I adored. This is her mother's recipe - who knows how far back the origins really are.

Why Halloween, you ask? I've always like the idea of traditions, and when she first gave me the recipe, it was close to Halloween. I was a young chef in Cambridge, before children, and I wanted to make an old fashioned treat for the trick or treaters, instead of the standard Mounds or Snickers bars. Great hit! I made doughnuts until 10 pm, as word of mouth spread ("there's a lady making real doughnuts on Upland Road"), when I shut off the outside light, firmly.

This is a nice cake doughnut, not too sweet, and I make them tiny - mainly because I don't have a fryer, using a heavy bottomed pot full of vegetable oil instead. I use a large shot glass to stamp out the circles, then a large pastry tip to cut out the center hole.

You will need:

a fryer or a heavy bottomed saucepan 3/4 filled with vegetable oil

a colander

brown paper bags or paper towels for sugaring

2 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 t. mace

4 T. melted unsalted butter

1 cup buttermilk

4-5 cups King Arthur flour ( or more, for rolling)

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

Cinnamon sugar or confectioners sugar for shaking on finished doughnuts

Mix the ingredients together. The dough is fairly sticky. Sprinkle flour on the counter surface and scoop out a handful of dough. Gently roll out, using more flour as needed if it's too sticky.

Using a shotglass, stamp out small circles of dough. Dip a plain circle pastry tip into flour and stamp out the center hole. Continue to roll dough and cut out doughnuts until dough is used up.

Heat oil to hot, then turn down. If you have the oil too hot, not only will your doughnuts burn, but it's a fire hazard, so be careful.

Drop doughnuts in hot oil - they should float to the surface quickly. Turn doughnuts when lightly browned and let cook a little more. Using a slotted spoon, scoop doughnuts into the colander to drain. Set the doughnuts on a brown paper bag and sprinkle with sugar.

Upper photo featured in TasteSpotting

tasty little doughnuts

You've probably had these in any number of places - at carnivals, as beignets in the South, and fried dough in the North, on chilly days with hot chocolate, and alongside a cherry Sno-cone at one of the summer fairs. I've even had them at a Feast of Saint Anthony street festival in New York City, presented to me hot and sugary, in a brown paper cone.

You will need:

2 cups King Arthur flour

2 T. sugar

1 packet dry yeast

3/4 c. warm water

zest from one lemon

2 T. unsalted butter, room temperature

pinch of salt

canola oil for frying

extra sugar for rolling finished doughnuts

In mixer bowl, place warm water and yeast and allow to soften for five minutes.

Add the flour and sugar, lemon zest, butter, and salt, and mix until it forms a ball.

Knead by hand until smooth, then place in an oiled bowl and put in a warm place until doubled.

Knead dough and roll out on counter. Using a small circle cutter ( I used a large pastry tip),

cut out small circles of dough and place on baking sheet. Place in barely warm oven for about a half an hour. ( make sure you've turned the heat off!)

Heat oil and drop several balls of dough into the oil, turning quickly with a slotted

spoon. When gently brown, remove and drain on paper towels. Roll doughnuts in sugar and serve at once.