Fine Cuisine with Art Infusion

2 packages yeast
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
1/3 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 or 5 cups flour
3 egg yolks
Jelly of your choice for filling
Powdered Sugar

Mix water, sugar, juice, and yeast. Let stand 10 minutes. Melt margarine
and add to yeast mixture. Beat in eggs and salt. Add flour, mixing and kneading by hand to form a soft dough. Let rise 1-1/2 hours. Roll dough
1/4 inch thick and cut circles (approximately 2 inches). Let circles rise
1/2 hour.
Deep fry at 400 degrees F about 3 minutes, turning once. Pipe in jelly
and roll in powdered sugar.

Spiced Cake Doughnuts
by Lauren Groveman
Recipe courtesy chabad.org

Yield: 16 to 20 three-inch doughnuts (Depending
on if adding the suggested embellishments)

3 cups sifted unbleached, all-purpose flour
(sift before measuring), plus more, as needed,
for dusting
1 cup (un-sifted) cake flour
1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
(preferably freshly grated)
1 1/2 teaspoons fine table salt
1 cup mini chocolate chips or
dried (but supple) currants
(optional)
3 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream (close to
room temperature)
1/4 cup milk
4 generous tablespoons
shortening, melted

1) To assemble the doughnut dough: Whisk the sifted flour with the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Sift this
into another bowl. (If planning to add either of the optional embellish-
ments, whisk them in now.) In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with
a paddle attachment (or using a wooden spoon). Beat the sugar with the
eggs, until light-colored and increased in volume (mixture will be loose).
Blend in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk the sour cream, shortening
and milk together, until well blended. Add the sour cream mixture to the
egg mixture, alternating with the dry ingredients and, when blended, chill
the dough for 2 hours.
2) To set up to make doughnuts: When getting ready to shape doughnuts, place a large wide pot on the stove and fill it half way with fresh vegetable
oil. Attach a deep-fry thermometer to the side of the pot, making sure that
the mercury tip is suspended half way down the depth of oil (so it does not
touch the bottom of the pan). Heat the oil to between 365 and 375 degrees
F, and maintain this temperature while you cut your doughnuts.
3) To shape and fry doughnuts: Turn the chilled dough out onto a lightly floured surface and, like you were working with biscuit dough, knead the
mixture gently and superficially, just to smooth out the exterior. Pat, then
roll the dough out, 1/2-inch thick and cut out doughnuts and holes, using
a floured doughnut cutter. Fry the doughnuts until golden, turning them
once, about 1 to 1 1/2 minutes on each side, keeping an eye on your ther- mometer and regulating the heat so the oil doesn't either get too hot or
cool down too much. Remove the doughnuts with a slotted implement,
and let them drain on paper towels. .Drain them well on doubled paper
towels. Line several wire cooling racks with doubled paper towels.

Chocolate Variation:
For deep-dark chocolate doughnuts (with or without chocolate chips):
Reduce the sifted all-purpose flour to 2 3/4 cups and the cake flour to
1/2 cup. Add 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-processed)
and an additional 1/3 cup of powdered sugar to the dry ingredients, before
sifting. Omit the spices but keep the baking powder, soda, salt eggs and
granulated sugar the same but increase the vanilla to 2 teaspoons. After
sifting the dry ingredients, if desired, whisk in 1 cup mini chocolate chips. Follow the remaining instructions for making spiced cake doughnuts,
using this mixture. (Don't be alarmed when you feel the increased stiff-
ness in this particular dough after being chilled for 2 hours. This is inten-
tional for easier rolling.) Yield: 18 doughnuts when using the chocolate
chips or about 15 when not.

Doughnut making tips...
Be sure to roll the dough out to the proper thickness before cutting out doughnuts. Remember, both variations are leavened with baking powder
and will expand in the hot oil. If rolled and cut too thick at the onset, they
will require longer cooking which will likely cause the outsides to burn.
Try to cut out as many doughnuts as possible the first time you roll the dough. Excessive gathering of dough scraps and rerolling can adversely
affect texture.
When working with children, save the decorating part for them. It's safest
to have most of your doughnuts already fried and drained before begin-
ning or set up to decorate in a completely different section of the kitchen.
If desired, show the kids how the last few doughnuts are fried, so they understand the entire process.
Never fill a pot more than half way with oil.
Don't crowd the pot when frying doughnuts since this will make the temperature of the oil drop severely causing the doughnuts to absorb too much oil. It's best to use a large, wide pot so the doughnuts can sit freely
and have enough surface space in between them when frying.
Let the oil reach the desired temperature before frying each successive
batch of doughnuts.
For the best finish on sugar-coated doughnuts, shake them in sugar when
still a bit warm and then again, when the doughnuts are completely cool.
And, when applying a glaze to the tops of doughnuts (whether chocolate
or vanilla or colored), do this when the doughnuts are completely cool.
If you'd like to purchase plain store-bought doughnuts and decorate them,
as described here, that's fine. For sugar-coated doughnuts, just re-warm
them briefly on a wire rack set within a shallow baking sheet, in a 350-
degree F oven. Let them stay on the rack until barely warm before shaking them in the sugar of your choice. Shake twice, for best coverage.
To make a liquid glaze pipe-able, make it thicker by adding more sifted powdered sugar. When thick enough to hold it's shape, it's fine for piping through a plastic squeeze bottle, with a 1/4-inch opening (if your opening
is too small, snip off the tip using kitchen scissors. If, when assembling,
the glaze becomes too stiff to pipe, stir in a few drops of milk or water.
If, while decorating your doughnuts, the glaze becomes too stiff to pipe,
plant the squeeze bottle in a drinking glass half-full with hot tap water,
for a few minutes.
If you'd like to completely cover the doughnuts with a topping (like shred-
ded coconut or ground toasted coconut), make a generous amount of a somewhat thin glaze, using powdered sugar and egg white or water, in a
pie plate. Dip a doughnut into the glaze, then turn it over to coat the other
side. Use a chop stick or the stem end of a thin wooden spoon to remove
the doughnut from the glaze and lay it directly on a plate filled with your
topping. Cover both sides, using your hands to help the topping adhere.
Let the doughnuts "set" on trays lined with parchment paper, turning
them once the top side is set.

Doughnut Storage Tips...
Unglazed doughnuts (and without a sugared finish) can be frozen, once
cool, if laid flat in a heavy-duty plastic container, separated by sheets of
wax paper. To use them, reheat them (frozen) on a wire rack place on
a shallow baking sheet in a preheated 350-degree F oven for about 10
minutes, or until warmed throughout. At this point, you can apply a
sugar coating. Let the doughnuts cool before applying a glaze.

Chanukah pg 1
Chanukah pg 2

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