Mini Doughnut Muffins

I’ve been thinking about doughnuts since the Food Network began advertising the new Doughnut Wars show.

Ingredients
Doughnut Muffins
  • 3 c. All-Purpose Flour
  • 2½ t. Baking Powder
  • ¼ t. Baking Soda
  • ¾ t. Salt
  • ½ t. Ground Nutmeg
  • 10 T. Unsalted Butter, softened
  • ¾ c. plus 2 T. Granulated Sugar
  • 2 Large Eggs, at room temperature
  • 1 t. Pure Vanilla
  • ¾ c. Whole Milk, at room temperature
  • 2 T. Buttermilk, at room temperature
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
  • 8 T. (1 stick) Unsalted Butter, melted
  • 1 c. Granulated Sugar
  • 1 T. Ground Cinnamon
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray 2, 24-cup mini muffin tins with cooking spray.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
  3. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the milk and buttermilk.
  4. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Beat in eggs, one at a time until just combined. Beat in vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, beat in ? of the flour mixture until combined and then half of the milk mixture. Repeat with remaining ingredients, ending with the flour mixture. Beat on low speed just until incorporated. Do not over mix.
  5. Fill the prepared muffin cups just to the rim with batter, about a spoonful. Bake, one pan at a time, until lightly golden and firm to touch, 15 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking time. Let the muffins cool in the pan for 5 minutes.
  6. While the muffins cool, combine the sugar and cinnamon in a large, resealable plastic bag. Brush each muffin generously with melted butter. Place a few muffins in the bag with the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Shake well to coat the muffins. Repeat with remaining muffins.
Notes
-For Jelly Doughnut Muffins, I omitted the nutmeg and filled middle of the doughnut muffin with strawberry jam before baking and shook in a bag with powdered sugar after they had cooled. You could also fill them with jam after baking, with a pastry bag and small tip. -Makes about 40 doughnut muffins.

via Mini Doughnut Muffins .

What's in Your Ultimate Chopped Basket? | Food Network Blog

This is what I created for the basket on Chopped. No planning,  just spur of the moment. Send in your own ideas. It’s fun!

Appetizer: lemon yoghurt, raw carrots, sea salt and a whole pineapple

Main: pickled eggs, lake trout, barley and apple cider vinegar

Dessert: dark chocolate, smoked salmon, seaweed and dandelion greens

via POLL: What’s in Your Ultimate Chopped Basket? | FN Dish – Food Network Blog .

Fried Pickles

I saw fried pickles on a Food Network show about food trucks in New York. One of them, Jen and Outlaws , was serving southern US traditional fare. I was surprised to see friend pickles, I’ve never heard of the idea before. It sounded pretty good with buttermilk and crispy coating on them.

This recipe from the Bick’s Pickles site isn’t the same but I didn’t see a recipe for the other:

Spicy Fried Pickle Sticks and Dip
1 jar Bick’s® Baby Dills – Garlic
or Bick’s® Baby Dills – 50% Less Salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) seasoned bread crumbs
1 tsp (5 mL) garlic powder
2 tsp (10 mL) cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1 tsp (5 mL) black pepper
Oil for deep frying
Dip:
½ cup (125 mL) Bick’s® Zesty Onion Relish
½ cup (125 mL) sour cream
1. Preheat oil in deep fryer to 375ºF (190ºC). Drain and rinse pickles, cut into quarters lengthwise and pat dry. Lightly mix eggs in small bowl with fork, until frothy. Combine bread crumbs and seasonings in separate bowl.

2. Dip each pickle stick in egg, then in breadcrumb mixture. Fry in small batches, 45 – 60 seconds, until golden brown and crispy. Serve with dip.

3. Dip: Combine ingredients in small bowl.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 minute per batch

Makes: 10 servings

Tip:
1. For a thicker coating, dip in egg, then breadcrumbs, then egg and breadcrumbs again. Cook as directed.

The Delicious Miss Dahl's Borscht

We make borscht a couple of times each summer usually. I love the beets with the sour cream swirled on top. We don’t put it all through the blender or serve it cold. Will be nice to try a new recipe this summer and see how it comes out as a cold soup. This recipe comes from The Delicious Miss Dahl, a cooking show from the UK with Sophie Dahl . I just happened to catch the show today on the Food Network. Too bad they didn’t make more than one season. It was kind of elegant and glamorous in a simple way.

Sophie’s Borscht
This hot pink borscht looks best served in a glass punch bowl with party fare all around.

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Yield: 4

Ingredients

6 medium sized beetroots – washed but not peeled
5 spring onions, white part only
olive oil
1 1/2 litres vegetable or chicken stock
Shot of vodka
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons creme fraiche, plus extra to serve
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
Handful of chopped fresh dill
Chopped hardboiled free range egg to serve – optional

Directions

Wash and trim the stalky bits of the beetroot.

Sweat the spring onions in a pan with some olive oil on a low heat until they are translucent.

Then add the stock to the spring onions and leave on a low heat to warm.

In another pan, cover the beetroot with water; bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes until the beetroot is tender.

Drain, and when cool enough to handle peel off the skins and cut the beetroot into rough chunks.

Put the beetroot into a blender with the spring onion, stock and puree until smooth.

Add the shot of vodka, lemon juice, crème fraiche, season and give the mixture another whizz in the blender.

The soup can be served hot or cold. Either way serve with the chopped dill on top, a swirl of more crème fraiche and some chopped hardboiled egg if you feel like it.

Chocolate Cream Pots from Laura Calder

Chocolate Cream Pots

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
6 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar (optional)

Directions
Heat the oven to 325ºF/160°C. Heat the cream, milk, and vanilla. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie. Whisk the melted chocolate into the yolks in a bowl, then whisk in milk. Strain. Pour into 6 ramekins and bake in a bain-marie until set at the edges, but slightly jiggly still in the centre, 20 minutes. Remove. Cool. Wrap and refrigerate several hours before serving.

This comes from the Food Network site for Laura Calder’s French Food at Home TV series. She has stick figure grrl drawings on her site too. I don’t know if she draws them herself or not.

Lisa Garza

lisagarza

We were away and I missed seeing The Next Food Network Star on Sunday. I’ve been watching it and hoping Lisa Garza would win. She is lovely, gracious and really knows her stuff when it comes to food and cooking. Disappointing to find out she didn’t win. But, there is a rumour that another television network has offered her a show of her own. Maybe it will give her a chance to shine with more of her real skills for crafts and cooking and all her food knowledge as well.

I found two different links to her couture/ designer aprons, both lead back to the same Couture Caviar URL but there isn’t anything up there, yet.

In addition to owning and operating a fine dining restaurant with her husband, Lisa has a couture apron line. “I see myself as a renaissance woman — I can teach the Food Network viewer everything from cooking to crafts to how to set your table and have it look like a $100,000 event.” – From Rachael Ray’s site .