You Deep-Fried What?!

This weekend I went back home to visit my family, and my dear sweet mother bought a deep fryer!! I'm seriously so upset that it's going to be at home with momma instead of home with me! Nice trick, I'm sure I'll be coming home at lot more now to deep fry a whooole bunch of things! But, this weekend I made donuts and deep fried pickles!

Chocolate Donut Holes adapted from Smitten Kitchen

2 3/4 cups (12 3/8 ounces or 352 grams) all-purpose flour

1 cup (3 ounces or 90 grams) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa

2 teaspoons (about 3/8 ounce or 10 grams) baking powder

1/2 teaspoon (about 1/8 ounces or 4 grams) salt

4 large eggs

1 1/2 (10 5/8 ounces or 300 grams) cups sugar

1/3 cup (2 7/8 ounce or 84 grams) sour cream (what I used) or buttermilk

3 tablespoons (1 1/2 ounces or 42 grams) butter, melted and cooled a bit

Your fat of choice for frying (I used canola oil)

Doughnut Glaze

8 ounces powdered sugar

3 tablespoons water, milk or buttermilk

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk together until smooth. If you need it thinner, add more water, milk or buttermilk, a few drops at a time.

1. Whisk flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. 

2. In a medium one, whisk eggs, sugar, sour cream or buttermilk and butter. 

3. Stir wet ingredients into dry until well blended. Chill batter until cold, at least 1 hour, I left mine overnight.

4. Flour your counter generously and scrape dough onto it. Flour dough. Flour your hands. Gently pat dough out until it is 1/2-inch thick. Dip a 1 1/4 to 1 1/2-inch round cutter into a dish of flour and cut rounds from dough. 

5. Pat scraps of dough together and cut them again. If your dough or doughnut holes have gotten too soft to easily pick up, put them on a floured or parchment or waxed paper-lined tray and put them in the freezer for a few minutes, until they’re firm enough to gently handle again.

6. Prepare your fryer or fill a 5 to 6-quart with 4 inches of oil. Heat to 375°F (190°C). You can fry 6 to 12 doughnut holes at a time, about one full minute on each side. The trickiest parts will be visualizing when the doughnuts are done — since they’re chocolate, the color change will be subtle; I suggest practicing with scraps of extra dough first — and keeping your oil at an even temperature, if you’re not using a deep-fryer. Make sure you bring the oil back to 375°F after each batch.

7. Drain doughnut holes on a stack of paper towels. Once cool, roll in glaze and let drain and dry on cooling racks.

Yum! They taste better than any store bought donut I've ever had, although I would work on the glaze a little bit. They taste even better the next day (if you can wait that long!) or right when they come out of the fryer! 

Oh, and deep fried pickles!! So delicious and so cost effective doing them at home! They are so darn expensive when you buy them at a restaurant! All I did was cut some polish pickles into spears, dredge in seasoned (salt and pepper) flour, egg wash (2 eggs, milk, dill, basil, and lemon juice), panko bread crumbs (with paprika, more dill, salt, pepper, paprika, and a little bit of chili powder) and deep fry until crispy golden brown. 

Wow I love that deep fryer! Oh, the things I could do! (:

With huge hot chocolate hugs,