Doughnuts!

It's in the air lately -- the word 'doughnuts.' Everywhere. Must be the season. My daughter (in Holland) got some Dunkin' Donuts on a recent trip to Germany. My friend bought Krispy Kremes at TESCO a couple of weeks when we went through there. A fellow GF blogger posted about making doughnuts. So, the D-word has made its way into my subconscious. And therefore, it became time to do something about it. Time to try to make some.

Like all my cooking, it's not about precision, or making something that could pass as a doughnut-shop variety, all perfect and precise. Rather, just something good to eat, and I enjoyed making it. If cooking becomes some crazy act of less enjoyment and actual work, it's not what food is all about (pleasure). So, without further ado, here's what I stirred together and fried up in the name of a doughnut:

In a large bowl, stir 1 egg; 1/2 cup any kind of 'milk' (whatever you use) with 1 Tbsp cider vinegar mixed in (creates the buttermilk effect); 1 Tbsp vegetable oil; 1/2 tsp vanilla; and mix thoroughly (by hand). Add the dry ingredients, stirring again until mixed: 2 cps GF flour mix; 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder; dash salt; 3 tsp baking powder; and 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

Heat oil in for deep-frying and put doughnut batter into oil (you'll have to look up a temperature -- I don't own a thermometer).

Then, this is where get's very hit or miss. I made mostly 'holes' at first (blobs). I got the size right, as I went along, although at first a few were too big, so that when the outside was done, the middle was still gooey (yuck). I finally found the right size. Then I experimented with shapes, taking a big gob of dough, rolling it between my hands (it looked like a hotdog), then making the ends meet and therefore, a crude doughnut shape. Whatever works for you. Have fun with it. It's very sticky dough, by the way.

After they're cooked, drain for about 30 seconds, then put into a bag of sugar and gently shake. (Next time I'd make a glaze, I think -- I used to like chocolate doughnuts with a glaze.)

They really do taste like what I remember doughnuts to be like, although my daughter tells my that my gluten-memories are a bit skewed (I'll tell her something is 'just like the real thing' and she is quite quick to point out that I apparently no longer remember what gluten-foods taste like). Well, I do think these are very good, even if they aren't what she eats.