Wednesday 27 October 2010

Daring Bakers October 2010 Challenge: Buttermilk Doughnuts - Gluten Free!!

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I was more than a little daunted when I saw this months challenge. It was not the prospect of making doughnuts that made me nervous, we had done these before. It was the prospect of making them gluten free that I was worried about.

We were provided with an assortment of different doughnut recipes to chose from for this challenge, including a vegan gluten free recipe, however, as it was vegan this recipe didn’t include any milk or eggs in the recipe and I wanted to use these for my own doughnuts and so I decided to combine two different recipes together. I used the basic quantities from the vegan gluten free version and the ingredients and method from the non gf version. This worked well although my recipe was still a little hit and miss with the quantity of flour. Gluten free flours generally result in thicker batters as they absorb more liquid than wheat flours. My dough started off a little wet so I ended up just adding more flour until I got the right consistency but this seemed to work fine.

The dough was still quite sticky but we had been warned that this was expected so I didn’t worry. I also used a mix of yeast and baking agents in the dough as I wanted my doughnuts to be as light and puffy as possible. It produced a very smooth and puffy dough that was easy to work with.

I decided to make a few different varieties of doughnut – ring doughnuts, doughnut holes (the middle cut outs of the ring doughnuts) and chocolate stuffed round doughnuts. I filled the rounds of doughnut dough with chocolate chips before frying them, which meant a glorious molten chocolate centre when they were eaten hot from the pan – just watch out as they’ll be hot!

The doughnuts seemed to brown and cook incredibly quickly, more so than standard doughnuts I have done in the past. I’m not sure why this was but they were still cooked all the way through so it didn’t really matter. The ring doughnuts were coated in a maple sugar glaze, the doughnut holes were tossed in cinnamon sugar and the chocolate stuffed doughnuts were dusted with regular caster sugar.

When eaten warm the doughnuts were light, puffy and full of air holes. They had a crisp golden outer crust and a soft springy middle – success! I think the chocolate stuffed ones were my favourite, there is something so indulgent about biting into a hot gooey chocolate centre.

A word to the wise though, gluten free doughnuts do not keep well. They are fine for a couple of hours but after this time they start to turn a bit hard and dense. So if you want gluten free doughnuts – make and fry them to order!

Either way I was really pleased with my doughnuts and ate far too many of them – I had to take photos of them all you see. Thanks Lori for such a great challenge. Click to see the Daring Bakers blogroll for more doughnut delights.

Gluten Free Buttermilk Yeasted Cake Doughnuts
(My adapted combination of Nancy Silverton’s cake doughnuts and Whole Living Daily’s vegan gluten free doughnut recipe)
Ingredients
60 ml warm water
150g maize flour
100g rice flour
50g tapioca flour
50g buckwheat flour
¾ tsp xanthan gum
100g caster sugar
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1&1/8 tsp dried fast action yeast
200ml buttermilk
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Sunflower oil for frying

Extras
Decorations of your choice – I used cinnamon sugar, caster sugar and maple icing glaze
Fillings of your choice – I used chocolate chips

Method
Scatter two large baking trays with extra flour and set aside for later.
In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flours, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, xanthan gum and baking powder. Make a large well in the center, add the yeast and pour over the warm water and leave for 3 minutes before mixing briefly.
Add the buttermilk, whole egg, egg yolk and vanilla extract and mix together well using a round bladed butter knife. Switch to your fingers once the mixture starts to come together – it will be very sticky, but shouldn’t be wet.
Flour a work surface well with flour and turn out your dough. Scatter over a little more flour and gently roll or press the dough out until it is around 2cm thick.
Have the cutter of your choice to hand and cut out large round discs of doughnut dough. Use a smaller cut to cut away the centre if you want to make ring doughnuts. Keep any centre cut outs as these make great mini doughnut holes. Place the cut out doughnuts on the pre-prepared floured baking trays.
Gather up any scraps of dough and roll out again until all the dough is used up.
Leave the trays of doughnuts to prove for an hour in a warm place. They should puff up slightly but will not double in size.
Heat 1½ inches deep of oil in a fairly large saucepan until a small scrap of dough dropped into it turns golden brown within 20seconds (around 190C).
Carefully drop the doughnuts, 1 – 2 large ones at a time, into the hot oil. Once they start to look golden brown around the edges, flip them over and cook for a further 20 seconds. Remove from the oil with a slotted fish slice and drain briefly on kitchen paper before tossing in sugar or drizzling with a glaze.
Best served and eaten whilst still warm.

To make Filled Doughnuts
Method 1: Fill a piping bag with smooth seedless jam, custard or filling of your choice. Once the doughnuts are cooked, insert the tip of the piping bag in the side of the doughnut and squeeze out a generous amount of filling.
Method 2: (For more solid fillings) Place a teaspoon full of chocolate chips into the centre of the raw round of doughnut dough. Gather up the sides and squish together in the centre, encasing the chocolate in the dough. Turn the dough over and pat into a round flat disc. Fry as normal and leave to cool slightly before taking a bite. The chocolate middle should be all gooey and melted!
I made 12 assorted large ring & round doughnuts and 12 doughnut holes

17 comments:

Rachel said...

You had me at the chocolate gooey centre. Nice!

Simones Kitchen said...

O well done in making these gluten free and still so incredibly delicious looking!

Rhyleysgranny said...

Your doughnuts look perfect. You made a great job of the gluten free ones too. Lovely

Rosa's Yummy Yums said...

They look delicious and so fluffy! Great job.

Cheers,

Rosa

Anonymous said...

The chocolate filled donut looks wickedd! LOL

Please Do Not Feed The Animals. said...

Oh that chocolate filled one looks absolutely AMAZING! I wish I could live in a corner of your house and help you eat up all your baking. I'm a very good taster. I'll be no trouble.

Chele said...

I can imagine how you must of felt when presented with this challenge! But WOW! You did a fantastic job - I can almost taste them from here. LOVE those centres too ;0)

Elle said...

Katie, These look wonderful, especially that chocolate filled one! Great job of combining the recipes to be your way and gluten free!

Katie said...

Thanks for all your comments.
Please do not feed the animals, you are welcome to come for a tasting and to sit in the corner - if you don't mind sharing with a few spiders :)

Anita said...

Your chocolate filled doughnuts worked so well! love the different types you made.

Unknown said...

Oh I didn't know you were a Daring Baker! Fun! I'll probably be posting my donuts on Monday. Great job making them gluten free!

pigpigscorner said...

Very nice attempt! Love the gooey centre =)

Sam said...

Oh wow, these look stunning, I really like the liquid chocolate centre, fantatstic!

Monica H said...

oh my! You did such a great job on these and I'm so glad the gf donuts were a success. I'll take one of each please!

Nic said...

Katie - those look brilliant, especially the chocolate filled ones which have my name on them!

Unknown said...

Wow Katie these look amazing. Great job adapting to the challenge. And that method for solid fillings is something I hadn't ever seen, thanks :) Anything chocolatey has my vote, for sure!!

Sarah said...

These look awesome. I just came across your blog when looking for other cool food blogs to follow. I'm a fellow food blogger and I'm now following you. I hope you can have a peek at mine.

http://atasteofsavoie.blogspot.com/

Blog on.