New Kitchen Toys and Donut Joys!

The last three weeks have been pretty glum around here.  We’ve endured non-stop cold, cloudy days with occasional apocalyptic downpours.  The most un-Springlike Spring I’ve ever spent in North Carolina.  But a great big box on my doorstep from the King Arthur Flour Co. put the sunshine back into my life!  KA had one of their 20% off everything sales last week so I stocked up on everything I’ve been waiting for a sale to buy:

Precut sheets of parchment for 8″ and 9″ cake pans and half sheet pans. No more wrasslin’ with a big ol’ roll of parchment that never tears straight or fussing around cutting a circle of parchment for a cake. How did I ever survive without it?

Espresso powder for making ice creams, milkshakes and for adding oomph to chocolate dishes. Speaking of chocolate, I also got a bag of something called “Black Cocoa” which I promptly put in a canning jar. I’m definitely looking forward to making some brownies or cake with that stuff! It smells amazing!

A jar of high falootin’ candied peels for making my beloved panettones and holiday breads.

Several bags of the world’s best flour for making crispy, chewy pizza crust. I make a LOT of pizza, and it pains me to say it, but this fancy, expensive flour is totally worth the fuss to acquire.

I got several Lorann extracts for sprucing up smoothies, cocktails and baked goods. I also got these brilliant dropper tops to go with them. No more sloshing out too much flavoring or having it drip down the sides of the bottle!

A little splurge for my sweetie. Popcorn is a favorite nitetime snack, and he is all about cheesy popcorn!

I’m really not a “mix” girl, but I will try them if they don’t have any ingredients I wouldn’t use if I was making it from scratch. These mixes complied with my “rule” so I thought I’d try a few. Even on sale they were pricey – I hope they’re worth it!

Which brings us to the two gizmos that actually prompted this whole spending spree in the first place:

1.  Regular and mini donut pans! These are so cute. Even tho we are not really that into donuts, I HAD to have them!!!

And 2.  Bonus points if you even know what this is!

That, my friends, is a dough whisk, and if you ever make muffins, quick breads, pancakes, brownies, etc. you NEED one.  It looks like it’s not going to do anything, but the design is dead brilliant.  The point of this baby is to thoroughly mix a batter without developing a bunch of gluten which will make your final product doughy or chewy.  The outer part perfectly scrapes the bowl clean, while the inner loops actually do a great job of mixing the lumps out of a batter.  It’s weird to use at first, but wow – I am very impressed with this thing.  Hopefully gluten-y pancakes, muffins, etc. are a thing of my past!

So with all my new toys I took a little break from spring cleaning this afternoon to whip up my first batch of donuts.  I tried the King Arthur chocolate donut mix (which I jazzed up with a 1/2 tsp. of espresso powder) and my fancy new whisk.  I transfered the batter into the pans by glopping it first into a plastic bag, snipping off a tiny hole in the corner and then carefully piping the batter into the rings.  Very quick and neat!  I can’t imagine trying to do that with a spoon or something.  They popped right out of their pans and they looked and smelled incredibly chocolate-y!

Fresh from the oven – soft, hot and insanely chocolate-y.

Since my hubby loves chocolate cake with vanilla frosting I gave them a vanilla glaze.  After I glazed “his” donuts, I added a few drops of my new Lorann Coconut extract to the glaze which gave it a great flavor, and then dipped the glazed donuts into sticky, chewy coconut flakes.  That last part serves two purposes – one, I love coconut and two, John hates it, so it effectively assures I’ll actually get to eat them!  Y’all, those donuts are delicious!  A big A+ to the King Arthur baking mix, the dough whisk, the espresso powder and coconut extract, and the adorable pans.

I can’t wait for my sweetie to come home to these treats! Happy Friday!