Cake Donuts

First of all, sorry for the blurry pictures. When you live in Seattle, the lighting isn't always picture perfect for these kinds of things. Oh well, who cares when you're eating donuts.

Anyways, I've expressed my love for donuts once before and I'm here to do it again. I'm obsessed with donuts!! Fried dough with a sweet coating of some sort from glaze, to chocolate, to maple to plain ol' sugar, these things are damn good.

This recipe and I go way back. I was in the seventh grade when we were offered an opportunity for extra credit by making bread of some sort from our culture. I can't quite remember what bread had to do in our lesson plan but all I remember was we had to make cultural bread. When I got home that day, I told my parents about the project and they had no clue what to do because they aren't bakers. In fact, I can't remember them baking anything, ever!

What I can say is that filipinos love to fry. Let's be honest here, everything is better when it's fried and so filipinos know some good food. I remember coming to the conclusion to just make donuts because it would be relatively easy and well, it's fried, my parent's expertise.

Let me tell you, these were the days of dial-up internet and I remember it taking forever to find a recipe but I got one from Tyler Florence who was my favorite TV-Chef back in the day. Now remember, this was supposed to be a cultural bread and this cake donut recipe was far from a cultural bread of the Philippines.

After all the donuts were made, my parents just said to say that they were "Bitsu-Bitsu" which I guess is a filipino version of donuts. I mean, no one would know what they really were in my class of 12 year olds.

No one even questioned what they were and at the end of the day, everyone loved them and I got my extra credit so who cares if these aren't the true filipino Bitsu-Bitsu. They can't take away my extra credit anymore! 

AJ's Secret:

• The directions indicate to refrigerate and roll out the dough. However, I've never seen cake donuts rolled and cut like yeast based donuts. Donut shops always have those cool contraptions that plunges dough into the fryer in the shape of a donut. Thus, I simply used a 1-ounce ice cream scoop, scooped out the dough and dropped the dough into the fryer. I fried it for about 5 minutes, or until the inside is cooked.

Cake Donuts

Recipe by Tyler Florence

Ingredients
3 1/2 cups (1 pound) cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup sugar
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 cup milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fat for frying, such as canola oil
*Variation: for chocolate donuts, melt 3 ounces of unsweetened chocolate along with the butter and continue as directed.

Directions
Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a large bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle, beat the eggs until foamy, gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until thick and yellow. Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat and combine with milk and vanilla extract. Stir the milk mixture into the egg mixture until blended. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Chill for 30 minutes to make it easier to roll and cut.

***See my secrets above!
Roll or pat the dough out on a heavily floured surface to about 1/4-inch thick, the dough is somewhat wet. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter, saving the holes. Transfer to a sheet of waxed paper and allow to air dry for 10 minutes. The dough will form a slight crust and absorb less fat when fried. 

Heat 3-inches of vegetable oil or shortening to 375 degrees F in an electric fryer or deep saucepan. Fry doughnuts until golden, about 5 minutes each side. To keep the oil temperature constant, fry 3 at a time. Fry the holes separately and drain on paper towels.

-Aaron John