So, the other day I was craving brownies. J made mention of cookies, but we had finished the last of the cookies we had. (Which I don't even remember now...that's how fast the desserts rotate in our house.) But since I wanted brownies and J wanted cookies and nobody else was home, there was nobody there to talk me out of it. So off I went to search for a brownie recipe.
I pulled out my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. I was debating whether to make cake brownies or fudgy brownies, when I noticed the suggested glaze for one of the recipes. It referenced a page number, so I flipped over to check it out. Well, guess what happened to be on that page? Chocolate flippin' cake doughnuts.
...Oh...chocolate glazed cake doughnuts...my favorite doughnut of all time from Dunkin' Donuts, which no longer exists in my part of the world. It was a sad, sad day for me when DD left town. Hubs, on a best-husband-ever kind of day, even brought me a dozen from the Dallas airport while on business. He hand-carried that box on the plane all the way from Dallas to Portland, and in it, of course, were several chocolate glazed cake doughnuts. (The name is misleading...it's not a cake doughnut with chocolate glaze, it's a chocolate cake doughnut with plain sugar glaze. And it's awesome.)
Well obviously, I made the cake doughnuts and tossed the brownie idea aside. And I'm soooo glad I did. They were a little bit dark (in chocolate flavor, that is) because I only had dark cocoa, but otherwise they were just like my DD favorite. Swoon.
The recipe is below, but here are some photos to guide you. You make up the dough and chill it for two hours. This is painful, but necessary. Then you roll out the sticky dough on a well-floured surface and cut your doughnut shapes. Reference this post for my choice of doughnut cutting implements.
Then, 2 or 3 at a time, fry them. It looks horrid, but there's really no way around it.
Here's what they look like when they come out.
See, you've got to get your station set up. You have one tray or counter area with doughnut dough sitting on flour. Then you've got your fryer (or electric wok, in my case). Then you've got your paper-towel lined tray for draining after they come out of the fryer. Then you need some wire racks for cooling. (And when you're done cooling and ready to glaze, stick that paper towel tray under your wire racks so the glaze drips on that instead of your counter.) Doughnuts demand a lot of counter space, but I'm happy to oblige in any way I can.
You can just dip the tops in glaze, but if you're looking for authentic DD style, you gotta dip the whole thing in there. You must encapsulate the doughnut with the sweet, slightly crunchy glaze. (I've enlarged my glaze recipe for you to account for this.)
Oh, that first bite was delicious.
So was the second.
Wanna bite?
