cinnamon & sunsets

baked donuts with cinnamon sugar and iced cinnamon rolls

Baked Donuts from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook

2 package dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup shortening (I used butter)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tsp (freshly grated is best) nutmeg
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar mixed w/1 tsp cinnamon

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water in a small bowl and let it dissolve for 5 minutes. Put the milk and shortening in a saucepan and heat until the shortening is melted. Cool to lukewarm. Pour the yeast mixture into a large mixing bowl and add the milk mix. Stir in the 1/4 cup sugar, salt, nutmeg, eggs and 2 cups flour. Beat briskly until well blended. Add the remaining 2 1/2 cups flour and beat until smooth. Cover the bowl and let double in bulk, about 1 hour. Dust a board generously with flour and turn the dough mass onto it. This dough is soft and needs enough flour on the board to prevent sticking, but is easy to handle. Pat the dough into a round about 1/2 inch thick. Use a 3 inch doughnut cutter and cut out the doughnuts, placing them (and the doughnut holes) on greased baking sheets, 1 inch apart. These don't spread much; they rise. Preheat oven to 450F. Let the doughnuts rest and rise for 20 minutes uncovered. Bake about 10 minutes or a little longer, until they have a touch of golden brown. Remove from the oven. Have ready the melted butter and a brush. On a sheet of wax paper, spread the cinnamon sugar. Brush each doughnut and doughnut hole with butter and roll in the cinnamon sugar. Serve hot.

I halved the recipe for a dozen perfect donuts and I didn't have a donut cutter so I shaped them into 12 blobs and put them in a well greased muffin tin. Really watch them because they cook quickly and you don't want to over bake. I dropped them into a bowl of melted butter, dip, spin and then into another bowl of cinnamon sugar - they were a huge hit ! the texture inside is perfect and very much like a deep fried yeast donut. I'm scheming a savoury version - fresh corn, green onion & nippy cheddar perhaps - reducing the sugar to a tbsp. and forgoing the cinnamon sugar for a dusting of cornmeal with finely chopped parsley ??

If you come to visit me I can always guarantee you a great cup of coffee or a perfect pot of tea, stimulating conversation and some really good things to eat. What I can't seem to guarantee (try as I might or at least it feels like I'm trying in that ever so half hearted housecleaning way of mine and hey ! where did those invisible mute valets get to ?) is ... a tidy house. Sigh.

The building supply home reno centre was closed. Sad face. Unlike the rest of the big shops which were open & busy ... so on to a Plan B. situation. A great day and visit was had regardless with lots of coffee and chat and cinnamon things at my kitchen table and then shopping for groceries and kitten accoutrement's a drive away in the nearby big town. Then back again to this little village for a walk along the harbour with Miss J and Miss D and more coffee, chat & cinnamon things.

'Tis Monday again ... need I say more.


the view from my office window one evening this past week