Hey guys, it’s Ro, welcome to another Nerdy Nummies!
National Donut day is a little over a week away, it is the
first Friday of every June, so the date is always changing.
But this year it’s on the third, 10 days away. I like to celebrate
this food holiday by making a themed geeky donut every year. Last year we made
Lord of the Rings themed donuts, and this year we’re gonna be making
portal donuts! And, in the past, we have made homemade baked donuts,
where you bake them in the oven like a cake or a cupcake.
But this year, we are gonna be doing, for the first time ever, traditional
donuts, fried donuts, I’m so excited. And, if you don’t have a deep fryer
at home, that’s OK, I don’t have one either. We’re just gonna be using a
big pot and a candy thermometer. So let’s get started!
We are gonna be making both regular donuts, and filled donuts today.
The things you will need, will be: 2-1/2 cups of all purpose flour,
3/4 cup milk, 1 packet of active dry yeast, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 2 eggs,
we’re just gonna be using the yolks. 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter,
1/2 of a vanilla bean, 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract, 1/4 teaspoon of salt,
and, 3 circle cookie cutters, we have a small, medium and large.
Then for the filling you’re gonna need a jar of jam, I chose strawberry
because it’s my favorite! But you can choose whatever kind you’d like.
1/4 cup of corn starch, and 3 tablespoons of water, easy-peasy!
And then for the glaze you’ll need, 6 cups of powdered sugar, and some warm
water. And then last but not least, we have some vegetable oil for frying.
Now let’s put it all together!
The first thing that we’re gonna do is combine our yeast, sugar and warm
milk, remember, you want your milk warm, but not hot, optimal temperature,
100 degrees, and you should be able to stick your finger in, and it’s warm
to the touch. Needs to be warm because it interacts with the yeast,
gives it a little happy home. Here you go!
Add all you sugar. Then I’m just gonna take a spoon, and stir it all together.
Now I’m gonna let it sit for about 10 minutes, until it becomes foamy.
Now we’re gonna pour our yeast mixture into our large bowl.
Oooooooh!
Along with our butter, 2 eggs, remember, we’re just using the yolks.
Using the jiggle method, just jiggling the yolk back and forth, getting rid
of the excess egg white around it.
Now we’re gonna add our vanilla bean, over here on a little cutting mat I’ve
got our vanilla bean cut in half, and we did a slice down the middle.
And with a sharp cutting knife we’re gonna scrape out our vanilla beans.
Vanilla beans are very small, there all of our little beans!
We’re just gonna put ‘em in the bowl. Now take your spatula, we’re gonna
give these a quick mix together. Next we’re gonna add a third of our flour,
I’m just gonna eyeball it.
Yeah that’s a third!
And our salt. Salty!
Then we’re gonna mix together until it becomes pasty.
It’s really important that you wait and don’t add the salt until right now,
because the salt will kill the yeast if you add it before.
Alright, that’s what it should look like, and now we’re gonna add the next
third of flour, and mix it up again. It’s gonna start to get thicker, and
that’s what we want!
We got that flour mixed in, and now it’s time to add the last bit of flour,
our last third. And we’re gonna mix it up for as long as we can, with the
spatula, but when it becomes too thick we’re gonna use our hands.
I’m just gonna work the dough together until it’s nice and smooth!
I’m got all of the dough together and now I am moving it to the counter to be
a little bit easier to work with. I’ve sprinkled some flour on the surface so it
doesn’t stick, now I’m just gonna keep working it.
Our dough is ready, and now we’re gonna grease our bowl.
I’ve got a little bit of spray, just gonna spray it all around.
Place your dough inside, then we’re gonna cover it with a little bit
of plastic wrap. I’m gonna set this off to the side, until it doubles in size.
Usually it takes about an hour, but it could be less.
Aw! The little yeast grew up so fast!
Our dough is ready, I’m gonna set it off to the side.
Over here I’ve got some flour, I’m gonna sprinkle it down on the surface,
so that it won’t stick. Take the plastic off, flip your bowl upside down,
right in front of you, boop! Just like that!
Now lightly press it down, very light. Add a little bit more flour.
We’re ready to give it a quick roll with our rolling pin, we’re gonna be rolling
it about an inch thick.
Once your dough is rolled out, we’re gonna cut out our donuts and
place them onto our baking sheet. Over here I’ve got a baking sheet lined
with a piece of parchment paper, so that they won’t stick. I’m also gonna take
a little pinch of flour, and sprinkle it onto the parchment paper.
Now we’re gonna cut ‘em out with the largest cookie cutter, I’m gonna cut
out three. Then take the smallest cookie cutter, we’re gonna cut our little
donut hole. Get him outta there!
I’m gonna fry these too! They’re gonna be my little snacks, they can come!
Transfer my regular donuts over to the tray, and now I’m gonna take the medium
circle cookie cutter, cut out a couple of these,
these are gonna be our filled donuts.
After you’ve got your donuts on the baking tray we’re gonna cover ‘em with a
little towel, little kitchen towel.
Here we go, it’s like tucking them into bed, goodnight donuts!
And we’re gonna let them sit for 20 minutes, for them to proof!
Proofing is just the final rise in their shapes.
Ha-ha!
They’ve risen to their final form, and now we’re gonna take our donuts,
a little baking brush, and our oil over to the stove.
Pour oil into a large pot until it is 2/3 full. Turn heat to medium low,
until it reaches 350 degrees on your candy thermometer.
Brush off any excess flour off the bottom of the donut, then place gently
into the hot oil. Let the donuts brown on one side then flip them over,
using a wooden skewer to brown the other side.
This takes about 1 minute to cook on each side.
Remove the donuts from the oil to a paper towel lined cookie sheet to drain.
And then do this to the rest of your donuts!
Yum-yum-yum-yum-yum-yum-yum-yum-yum!
We’ve made all of our donuts and now we are going to make our jelly filling.
The first thing that we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take our jelly, and I’m
gonna scoop the entire thing into our saucepan. Now I’m gonna add our water
to our cornstarch over here, and I’m just gonna mix it up until it makes a
thick paste. Then we’re gonna take our paste, jam, spatula and whisk
over to the stove!
Turn the heat to high and bring the jam to a boil, stirring consistently,
you don’t want the jam to burn at the bottom of the pan.
When the jam starts to boil, whisk in the cornstarch paste and cook until it’s thickened,
keep mixing! When it’s thickened, remove from heat, turn off the stove
and let it cool!
We’ve got our donuts ready, we’ve got our filling ready, and now we’re gonna
make a little bit of glaze! It’s very simple, in this bowl we’ve got powdered
sugar, and over here we’ve got warm water. We’re just gonna add a little bit
at a time, until we get the right consistency.
Time to fill and glaze! I’m gonna be glazing our regular donuts and filling
our jelly donuts! These donuts smell so good you guys! Not eating these is
harder than completing a test chamber, let me tell you, I’m not gonna pass!
OK, well I’ll just have one!
That is so good!
We did it! Mission complete!
This is all just optional now. But they are gonna taste better with glaze, so…
I’m gonna do that, I'm just gonna finish my little snack, I need to fuel up!
I’m gonna fill my jellies first, so you’re gonna take these donuts.
And I’m gonna take a little wooden skewer, and poke a hole here on
the side, then I’m gonna gently move my skewer back and forth, back and forth
to create a little cavity.
I put the jelly filling in a little plastic baggie, with a jagged tip.
And I’m just gonna place right inside the hole, start to squeeze, move it back
and forth, da-dew! Now you’re gonna do this to the rest of your jelly
filled donuts! We’re done with our jelly donuts, and, I am not gonna glaze these
because I am gonna decorate them with icing, they’re gonna have their
own frosting, very shortly, but, I wanted to glaze our regular donuts because
they don’t have any jelly filling! They needed a little yummy-ness!
So you’re just gonna take 1 of these guys, plop him in, and then flip him over,
I’m just using my hands, you’re just gonna use your hands, it’s messy, but
it’s a lot of fun! Then you’re gonna pick him up, ooop!
And I’m just placing him over here, it’s on top of a drying rack with a
baking sheet underneath to catch the extra glaze.
You’re gonna do this to the rest of your regular donuts, and your little donut holes!
Now we’re gonna let these little donuts sit and set for about 45 minutes.
Our donuts are ready and now it’s time to decorate, this is my favorite part!
Over here I’ve got some of our regular donuts and to decorate I have blue
and orange royal icing, I put them into plastic baggies, and put a little tip
at the end, for more control. This one is a #3, and now what I’m gonna do is I’m
gonna pipe 2 big circles, 1 blue, 1 orange, on top of our donuts to look
like the portal entryway and exit!
I’m gonna be frosting the inner circle first, then I’m gonna frost the
outer circle, then we’re gonna fill it in.
Then you can take a little toothpick and use it to move around the royal icing.
Now I’m gonna do the same thing, but in orange over here.
Da-dew! Look at this, it looks like both portals in the game, it’s so cool!
I’m gonna let these sit for a few minutes to harden. And then, I’m gonna take
it up a notch, not only are they going to look like the portals, but, with
the darker blue, and darker orange, I’m gonna pipe on some triangles to look
like the Aperture logo! Boom!
These are gonna look awesome!
Just a quick reminder, there are 8 triangles on the Aperture logo!
Boom! We’ve got our portal donuts decorated.
And now, we are going to decorate our jelly donuts!
To decorate our jelly donuts we’ve got a bunch of different royal icing.
We have a dark gray, a lighter gray and a pink, to decorate 1 of our donuts
to look like little Companion Cube!
And then dark brown, red and white royal icing, to make this 1 look like
the chocolate portal cake!
You’re gonna take your brown royal icing, I put these all into plastic
baggies with little tips at the end.
And we’re just gonna eyeball it, we’re gonna pipe on a circle to cover the top
of your donut. And now we’re gonna fill it in.
You can also use a toothpick again, to smooth out your icing.
We’re gonna let this donut set, and I’m gonna cover this 1 in dark gray.
Again, we’re gonna pipe a circle all the way around our donut and then fill it in.
These both sat out for a little bit, they’ve hardened, and now I’m gonna add
the details, I’ve got my white royal icing, and here I’m gonna add 8 circles
on the outside. Then I’m gonna let these sit, and I’m gonna add the details
onto my Companion Cube!
Our last 2 icing details will be red and pink.
Red for our chocolate cake and pink for our companion cube!
We’ve got our little Companion Cube and our chocolate cake, again this part is
totally optional, but the chocolate cake always has a candle in the middle.
So I’ve cut down a little white candle into these small little candles,
so you can make as many donuts as you’d like.
But I’m just gonna place these, little cut candle right in the middle.
The frosting will crack just a little, but that’s OK!
Aw!
Ta-da!
Here are the Portal Themed Donuts that we made today!
In celebration of National Donut Day, that is coming up soon!
If you guys make a geeky donut, or any of these donuts, please take a picture
and send it to me! I love seeing your baking creations, it makes my day!
And, I love donuts, I am super excited about the donuts that we made today
because it is the first time on Nerdy Nummies that we have made a traditional
fried donut! We’ve made baked donuts before, but never a fried donut, so,
yum-yum-yum! They are my favorite, you guys!
They are my favorite, this was a triumph!
I’ll be posting pictures of these treats on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram.
And, if you have any other ideas for any other Nerdy Nummies, please let me know,
leave me a comment down below and I will do my best to make it happen.
Alright, thanks again you guys, bye-bye!
And Happy National Donut Day!
Let’s see if this thing actually works!?!?
Hmmm-hmmm-hmmm-hmmm-hmmm-hmmm-hmmm!
Oh my gosh!