Pseudo savoury donuts and chocolate donuts

This summer I always have dough or batter in the fridge.  Dough from Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day, usually Olive oil dough, rarely Brioche dough.

We were surfeit  with pizzas and foccaccias and I still had some olive oil dough in the fridge.

Now this is a very healthy dough - made completely of Whole Wheat flour (Chapathi flour), ground in small batches from Organic Wheat.  The scant 1/4 cup oil used is Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  The junk craving devil lurking inside decided to tip the scales by deep frying this dough.  With Cheese/Chocolate inside to boot!.

I was looking for a samosa like skin, so I rolled the dough quite thin - 3 - 4 mm thickness.
I then stuffed it with either a mix of paneer+cheddar cheese + fresh ground pepper+ powder or a 1 cm square of dark baking chocolate.  I fried it in sunflower oil and viola! It disappeared faster than the cooling rate!

roll the dough to a thin sheet

cheese+salt+pepper

I tried different styles for folding wrapper over filling.  No remarkable change in taste or texture.

Going Gone!

Donut holes

My mil gave me some old fashioned butter - actually churned from non-pasteurised milk.  I promptly made it into a pot of ghee when I got home to Chennai.  DH wanted Gulab Jamun made with this Ghee and I graciously obliged.  The Jamuns were gone in a blink, but I was left with a good litre of cardamom flavoured sugar syrup.  And a smaller quantity of heated ghee.  This was the starting point for this months eggless non-baking challenge suggested by Jayanthi of Sizzling Veggies. I had surrendered my cookie cutters to my son's play dough endeavours.  This would have to be donut holes rather than donuts.

I had already made pseudo donuts with the olive oil dough, I wanted to try something totally different for the challenge.  Instead of maida, I decided to go with Urad flour for making the Donut Dough  (say that 10 times, fast! ;)  I was hoping for a Jangiri like feel actually, sadly I fell short.  Next time I will add 1/3 cup sugar to the dough when I knead it.  This was not sweet enough for the kids, it was just fine for the parents.

1 tsp yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup luke warm water
1.5 cups urad dal flour
0.25 cups dry milk powder
0.125 - 0.25 cups maida
1 tbspoon ghee or melted butter or olive oil.

Add yeast, salt and sugar to lukewarm water.  Let it get all foamy.
Add the urad flour, milk powder and knead.
Add maida as needed to get a fairly non-sticky dough,
Add butter or ghee and knead all the sticky bits off your fingers.
Let dough rise until doubled.
Roll the dough to a 5mm thickness sheet.
Cut off small circles or ovals with whatever is handy, bottle cap/cookie cutter etc...
Heat ghee/oil
Fry on medium low heat until golden brown.
Either dust with powdered sugar or drop in a warm, thin sugar syrup (the kind for gulab jamun, equal amounts of sugar and water boiled for 5 minutes).
Serve warm.

I deliberately opted to not dip in chocolate sauce.  We have been inundated with desserts of late and I was aiming for a light summer breakfast, pairing donuts with mangoes and grapes.

Donut Holes dipped in sugar syrup

nicely porous center, not dense

Focaccia with shallots

Summer is HERE with its hellish heat, kids off school lazing around all day, envious me off to the lab where the ancient window Air Conditioners takes off every third day.  The kids would love interesting meals and I am loath to spend more than an hour in the kitchen.  Hubby has wisely chosen to eat at work this month. Meanwhile, I scrounge around for interesting recipes requiring minimal effort - the Perpetual Motion Machine of the cooking world.   This is my weekly schedule this summer - Cereal and Muffins/Quick breads or Cereal and Idlis for breakfast, rice + variety of lentils/beans/chickpeas+ vegetables+curds for lunch,

One of my staples is the Olive Oil dough from Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day.  Nilgiris has stopped carrying Fresh Yeast in reasonable sized packages a.k.a. 100g.  I found Active Dry Yeast worked just as well!  Not just that, my Organic Atta produced no discernible change in flavour or texture, No More Maida in pizza! Yay!

I did knead the dough a fair bit, even though ABIFD says to just mix with a dough hook or wooden spoon, and not just because of an innate inability to follow instructions.  Whole wheat may need more water, I had to ensure I had a fairly moist dough to start with.


Olive oil dough
3 cups warm water
1.5 tbspoons active dry yeast
1 tbspoon sugar
1 tbspoon salt
6 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbspoon olive oil divided, preferably Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Add salt, sugar, yeas,t to the warm water in a largish, lidded, bowl (large enough to hold 15 cups).
Once the yeast is foamy, add the flour all at once.  Mix with a wooden spoon until it just comes together.
Knead it for a few minutes with your hands, add the oil and kind off clean the dough off your hands and the oil into the dough.
Let sit loosely covered for 1 - 2 hours until doubled in volume.
Refrigerate loosely covered.
Take out a medium  canataloupe size dough and let it sit on a bed of APF until it warms up to room temperature.
Meanwhile prepare the toppings
 Once the dough has warmed up, knead with addition of flour as necessary. 
Warm over to 250 deg C 
Oil a rectangular pan generously with EVOO, and pat the dough on the base of the pan to reach all the 4 sides.
If the dough springs back, just let it rest a little longer.
Make thumbprints in the dough.

Dimpled dough, if the dimples hold sufficient rising

Brush oil on the dough, generously.
Strew the toppings on the dough.
Bake at 250 def C for 10 - 12 minutes.

Toppings:
1 tbspoon oil
1/2 cup sliced shallots
1 tsp dry rosemary

Heat Oil, add shallots and fry until softened, add a pinch of salt and crumbled rosemary.
Let cool


I have tried various toppings on foccaccia, cheese+corn, greens+corn, Olives, Grapes.  Shallots RULE!