Donut with passionfruit glaze by Stacey Viera
Dish of the Week: Homemade donuts
“Donuts… is there anything they can’t do?” But D.C. is a tough city to find good donuts in without a lengthy wait. You could try to make the journey to Laurel Tavern Donuts. But that’s a hike.
I’ve been jealous of the Portland and San Francisco donut joints that serve funky flavors like lemon sichuan and tangfastic with Tang powder. But since discovering a vintage donut baker in my parents’ basement – basically a donut-shaped Foreman grill – I’ve made my own donuts with flavors like banana cinnamon with peanut butter frosting, bacon vanilla with maple glaze, and chocolate chip with passionfruit glaze.
Fortunately, if you get a donut pan or use a muffin tin, making unique donuts at home takes a surprisingly short amount of time. These aren’t as airy as fried yeast donuts, but with a fair bit of leavening from baking powder these are less dense than regular cake donuts. Not to mention there’s a lot of room to play with flavors
Homemade Vanilla Donuts – recipe adapted from For the Love of Cooking
1 egg
1/2 c milk
1/4 c cooking oil
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 c sifted flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c sugar plus 1 tbsp. sugar
1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a six-donut pan.
2. Beat egg, milk oil, and vanilla extract together in one bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, sift the dry ingredients together.
3. While mixing, pour the liquid ingredients in to the dry.
4. Pour or pipe the batter in to the pan, taking care not to fill over the line.
5. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until the dough is set and springy.
6. Allow 1-2 minutes to cool.
7. Dip in to choice of glaze, use a mesh strainer to sprinkle powdered sugar on top, or shake in a bag filled with cinnamon sugar.
Variations:
For banana cinnamon donuts: Mash 2 ripe bananas, and add them and a 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon in to the batter and stir.
For bacon donuts: Fry up six strips of bacon. Cut in to approximately 1/4 inch squares to integrate in to the batter, and add extra 1/2 tsp. salt to batter.
Peanut butter glaze: Combine 2 tbsp. of peanut butter, 1/4 c. powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp. of salt and 4 teaspoons of water in a saucepan. Turn the heat as low as possible, stirring to ensure all ingredients are well combined.
Passionfruit glaze: Combine 1/4 c. powdered sugar, and 4 tsp. of passionfruit concentrate (such as Da Fruta).
Maple glaze: Combine 1/4 c. powdered sugar, and 4 tsp. of maple syrup.
Small Bites
Just one
New restaurant Unum is set to open this month in the old Mendocino Grille space in Georgetown. The menu will be helmed by chef-owner Phillip Blane, formerly of Equinox. Apps and entrees seems reasonably priced for Georgetown at $8-12 and $14-24, respectively. And even more reasonable for dishes with complex-sounding flavor profiles, such as Indian-spiced lamb shank with cauliflower, raisins, cashews and cilantro-mint chutney or grilled quail with sautéed greens, pistachio nuts and date sauce.
Clever fox
Mad Fox Brewery is hosting a Robert Burns beer dinner on January 25 at 6:30 p.m. The $65 tickets (inclusive of tax and tip!) gets you a five-course Scottish-influenced meal with beer pairings. And naturally one of the courses will feature that beloved Robert Burns’ dish, haggis.
If you can’t make the dinner, they will be hosting a Barleywine Festival on February from 11 a.m. – midnight. There will be over 20 barleywines available from Mad Fox and other brewers, and will be served in 4 ounce pours, priced individually.
The Liberation
Christoph Green and Brendan Canty are attempting to film a documentary on the progress of a class of students undergoing 14 weeks of culinary training at DC Central Kitchen. So they’ve kickstarted the project with the hope of raising $40,000. They’re at nearly 50 percent of their goal at the moment. Donors can receive gifts such as DVDs of the completed documentary, CDs of the soundtrack, and executive producer credits.
