Gluten Free Donuts

First, the hamburger buns!  I made them in a muffin top pan, because the dough is so fluid--they won't keep their shape if you just form them on a pan.  I think this is the one I ordered. 

I used one recipe of bread dough that was on the back of the Pamela's baking mix package to make 6 hamburger buns.  I baked them for about 25 minutes at 350*.

Now for the donuts (doughnuts?)

I followed this recipe from Hip Girls.  I didn't change it enough to call it my own, but here are my tweaks:

How to make Yummy Donuts!

Combine: 

2 1/4 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup warm water

In a mixer (do NOT use a dough hook), blend:

3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar

Then add:

2 TBS melted butter
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
a pinch of salt
the yeast/water/sugar mixture

Then add, 1 cup at a time:

3 cups of your favorite Gluten Free baking mix (I used Pamela's)


Beat for 5 minutes on medium.  It will be a wet, sticky dough--it will not come together like a regular, gluten bread dough.

GLAZE  (you can make this as the dough rises)
This is a Krispy Kreme clone recipe, which comes from this site:

1/3 cup butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla (the recipe called for 1 1/2 tsp, but I wanted a very-vanilla flavor)
4-6 TBS hot water


Now for the fun part.

Grease a sheet cake pan.  I poured oil on mine and swirled it around until it was well-covered.  The SIDES ON THE PAN are a MUST.

Take a tablespoon measuring spoon AND another spoon (I used a big soup spoon) and oil them well, too.  (I had some extra oil in a measuring cup that I used for re-oiling my spoons and my hands.)  Scoop up a heaping tablespoon of dough and then use the other spoon to flop that ball down on the sheet pan.  Keep doing that until you run out of dough--I had just enough to fill up my whole sheet cake pan.  The oiled spoons are a must-otherwise you will have that dough all over your hands--it's very difficult to pick up the dough and shape into balls with your hands. 

Cover and let the balls of dough rise for 1-2 hours.  I waited about an hour and a half.

After some failed donuts, I realized that the balls were just too thick to get cooked all the way through without burning on the outside.  So, use that oil you have in the measuring cup and grease your hand really well and then smoosh the balls flat.    They are not lovely but will taste good!

Heat oil in a deep pot to 350*.  Mine got hotter than this and fluctuated between 325* and 365*.  The donuts cooked just fine, but you must keep a close eye on them.  Using an oiled spatula (seeing the theme here?  Oil, oil, oil everything!), slide 3 or 4 donuts into the oil.  When they are browned on the bottom, gently flip them over.  The whole cooking time is about 3 or 4 minutes.

Drain the donuts briefly (I used that basket thing and held them above the oil for a few seconds until they stopped dripping oil) and then put into the glaze, turning to coat entirely.  Pick up and let them drip the extra glaze into the pan, and then let cool on a wire rack.

 Try to let them cool enough to handle before eating! 

Coffee Shop Catchphrase

The Doughnut Experiment reminded me of this. My siblings and I heard this story often. When my Dad walked to and from school (through the snow, uphill both ways--and barefoot!) Dad passed by a coffee shop that had this saying painted on the wall:

~

~

~

As you go through life, dear brother,

whatever be your goal~

keep your eye upon the doughnut

and not upon the hole!

Experiment: Failed!

What was I thinking?

The premise was cute. A lesson on fractions and percentages, using two dozen donuts. And a coupon for a free dozen glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme.

Aaargh!

So, where's Luci's picture? Just imagine you have x-ray vision and can see under the table--after half a donut, she hid out under there acting hyper.

I should know better. After all this time on the Feingold Diet, and I introduce artificial flavorings, colors and preservatives. At first, the only reaction we could see was the drool (slobber, slobber). Quickly, that escalated into short tempers and inability to multiply simple things (100 x 7 =??). Before it was over, Luci was under the table, kicking her feet. Bryan was telling JT some not-nice things about JT's brain power. JT was nearly in tears because he couldn't remember math facts. And I won't say what my reaction was, but it involved a lot of yelling.

~~~~~~~~~

Three things I learned: 1) Now we know, and I will never go to Krispy Kreme again. So much for "free" donuts. 2) I was able to put all of our that nervous energy to use, cleaning up the living room. (Boys! Get in here! Clean up! I had vacuum duty.) 3) Next time, we'll use homemade donuts.

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The remaining donuts went into the garbage can.

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If you think you have a hyper child, you might want to check out the Feingold Diet. It is much easier to deal with finding clean foods than it is dealing with out-of-control children.

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PS--yes, JT is officially done with his schooling this year. But he gladly got out his pencil because donuts were involved. (and I did the ~~~ because the dopey blogger is not spacing correctly--again.)