Circle of Life - Recap

Alton watches his sister Marsha’s cooking show on television. From time to time he shoots the image with a dart gun. Then his sister telephones him; Alton’s half of the conversation is mostly variations on “no.” He hangs up but Marsha calls him back. It seems she’s the “warren mother” for a pack of “little bunnies.” She tells Alton to go ahead and laugh his day away while she goes down to the Krusty Kreme for what she needs: doughnuts for the bake sale! Alton has bad memories of Krusty Kreme; the evil Mr. Krusty fired Alton from his first job. Before he knows it Alton has promised his sister ten dozen homemade doughnuts. But that’s okay - not so very long ago, all doughnuts were homemade. And with a few tips, anyone can learn how to make homemade doughnuts that are… Good Eats.

The doughnut might owe its origin to England’s King Henry the VIII. Henry created the Church of England, forcing separatists to leave for the more religiously tolerant climate of the Netherlands. There the separatists developed a taste for small pieces of dough fried in hog fat. When these people eventually left for America, they took the idea for these walnut-sized dough treats with them.

Modern doughnuts use chemical leavening but the homemade variety depends on yeast.
Alton starts by melting a little vegetable shortening in some milk. While that’s heating he sprinkles some yeast over barely warm water. He adds milk/shortening, yeast, eggs, sugar, nutmeg and flour to a mixer bowl and begins with a low stir to combine ingredients without ejecting clouds of flour into the air. Alton recommends weighing flour, rather than measuring it by volume. Flour is easily compressible so different weights can occupy the same volume. When precision is require weighing ensures the right amount of flour goes into the recipe.

After the initial mix Alton increases his blender speed to thoroughly mix the ingredients. He slowly adds more flour. Once the dough is entirely mixed he swaps the mixer’s paddle for a dough hook and kneads until the dough pulls from the side of the bowl. Then he moves the dough to a well oiled bowl, covers it with plastic, and lets it double in size.

While the dough rises Alton shares stories from the “Big Book of Culinary Lies.” Its pages contain two possible origins for the hole in the center of the doughnut. One story holds that in 1750 (according to a local paper) a New England housewife was preparing cakes. An Indian arrow flew through the window and pierced one cake; the woman reported that the hole improved the quality. Another and more popular tales comes from the logbook of Hanson Crockett Gregory. Rough seas forced Gregory to keep his station at the ship’s wheel for many hours. Hungry, he ordered the cook to send up a cake. The cake arrived along with worse weather. Unable to eat, Gregory impaled his pastry on one of the wheel’s hand spokes for later retrieval. He found it there later, with the hole.

Alton’s not sure either of these tales holds much water. He believes the Pennsylvania Dutch, masters of baked treats, created the hole to make the pastry cook more evenly. The extra surface area helps avoid a common problem with cakes: overcooked on the outside, undercooked on the inside.

Alton’s dough has doubled in volume. He puts the dough on a well floured board and gently folds it over itself a couple of times to distribute the yeast gas bubbles evenly and collapse any large voids. Then he uses a rolling pin equipped with rolling rings to achieve a uniform thickness as he rolls. To cut the pastries, he uses two pastry cutters from a set of nesting cutters. There are also (unitasker alert!) specialized cutters for making doughnuts. Their one advantage is that the inner cutter is fixed to the outer, minimizing the chance of an off-center hole. A little practice compensates for that. Alton flours his cutters and a half-sheet pan. He demonstrates the right cutting technique: push straight down and twist at the bottom, the same way you’d cut biscuits. Alton sets his doughnuts on the sheet pan and covers them, allowing them to rise for another hour or so. (Setting shaped dough aside to rise is called bench proofing.)

Pulling out a Dutch oven, Alton heats oil to 365º and adds the doughnuts one at a time. A deep fryer will also work. He allows a few seconds between additions to ensure the doughnuts won’t stick together and to keep the oil from cooling too much. If the oil cools it will take longer for the doughnuts to cook. Faster cooking times prevent the treats from becoming greasy. Alton cooks his pastries about a minute each side, then cools them on a tack with newspaper underneath; the paper helps wick away excess fat. Properly cooked, the pastries are golden brown outside, light and fluffy inside, and not greasy.

For those who like their doughnuts glazed, Alton demonstrates a simple recipe. He heats a little milk and vanilla over low heat and slowly whisks in confectioner’s sugar. A slow whisking speed prevents air from mixing in and ensures the glaze will remain soft. Alton keeps his glaze warm for dipping by putting the pan over a bowl of hot water and stirring it gently as he dips.

A leather clad Alton motorcycles his load of doughnuts to Marsha’s “bunny” meeting. There he learns that one of the families would be willing to buy five dozen of the treats if they were chocolate glazed. Alton is unenthusiastic until he finds out this particular customer is also a Neilson family. Ratings count, so Alton needs a chocolate glaze.

Simply melting chocolate won’t do. One could coat the doughnut that way but at the first bite the chocolate would shatter. The answer is to build on the earlier glaze recipe. Starting with that syrup, Alton adds a little more vanilla, some butter, and some corn syrup. The glucose in corn syrup is hygroscopic – it absorbs moisture and keeps the glaze from drying, shrinking or cracking. Then Alton adds the chocolate and stirs it over very low heat – it burns readily. This glaze takes longer to set up; Alton leaves his glazed treats alone for a half hour.

Alton delivers the doughnuts and declares himself done. Then Marsha brings one of the cute little bunnies to see him, and the next thing he knows he’s bought all his own doughnuts back!

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