Cooking With Dog's Doughnut Recipe

I'm probably slow to react on the news but...

I was checking the Youtube channel of Cooking with Dog (CWD) last week and I'm wondering why there's nothing new from the adorable chef of CWD. I was really shocked when I found out from both the final part of her Oyster and Egg Drop Donburi and runnyrunny99's vlog that the chef from CWD got into an accident and hurt her leg.

To join the stream of well-wishers on the chef's speedy recovery, I am making a tribute to CWD with my interpretation of her 'Simple Doughnuts'. Her original version had the classic powdered sugar doughnut and macha-flavored variety. Save for the fillings and sprinkles that I made with my own recipe, I faithfully followed CWD's instructions. 

Baby bro was beside me when I first saw her doughnut tutorial. Being a lover of sweets, he asked me to make him some for breakfast. So even if it's 10:30 in the evening, I immediately went to making the sweet fried dough treats. Yes. Fried. I am making up for missing Fried Food Friday :D

Trio of Doughnuts

You could make any sort of filling you'd like, you could have bavarian cream or custard cream, or any sort of glaze that suit your taste. I would make something elaborate like oreo-stuff or blueberry cheesecake, but my pantry's low on supplies. You don't have to worry about where to find the ingredients. You would be surprised to know that you could easily find them in your pantry and fridge. I am making churros flavor, triple choco truffle-filled, and classic vanilla and powdered sugar flavors for the doughnuts.

Before I forget, I know most of you would read 'doughnut' and say, 'That's not shaped like a doughnut! It should be a big circle thingy with a hole in the middle!' I am just following how the CWD chef call these treats. I am aware Dunkin' Donuts call them munchkins and Americans generally know it as doughnut holes.

Ingredients

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp cornstarch

1 tsp baking powder

1 egg

2 tbsp light brown sugar or regular white sugar

2 tbsp milk

1 tbsp melted butter

cooking oil (approx. 250 ml to cover 1/2 in of the pan) for those who are particular with the flavor of the oil in the doughnuts, you could use grape seed oil if it's available in your pantry. I used regular cooking oil, the vegetable sort.

Directions

1. Cooking with dog used ready-made cake flour. If you can't find cake flour in your local grocer, I am going to include a step to make cake flour. Mix the all-purpose flour and cornstarch together and sift thrice.

2. Sift baking powder into the cake flour and set aside.

3. In another bowl, beat the egg. Add the sugar, milk, and melted butter.

4. Make a little well in the center of the flour mixture. Pour in the egg mixture and mix the flour from the center to the outer edges of the flour well. Stir thoroughly until you get a smooth paste.

5. Heat a deep-set frying pan with cooking oil. To check if the oil is of the right temperature (340 degrees F or 170 degrees C), scoop a little bit of the doughnut batter and fry in the oil. If bubbles form around it, then you are ready to fry.

6. Coat your spoon with oil and then proceed to scooping up half a tablespoon of batter and frying them until golden brown. They would get swollen and circular like mini ping-pong balls. Scoop them out and drain extra grease with paper towels.

7. Coat with powdered sugar for a classic finish. 

To Make the Vanilla and Powdered Sugar Doughnuts

1. Add 1 tsp of vanilla extract into the doughnut batter before frying. Then, coat with powdered sugar.



To Make the Chocolate Ganache for
Churros and Triple Choco Truffle-filled Doughnuts 


Heavy cream is expensive in my local grocery, so I decided to make a crude version using About.com's tutorial on how to make homemade heavy cream. The website's heavy cream yield is a lot, like 250 ml's worth of heavy cream. For a small batch, I suggest cutting the ratio in half or thirds.

1/4 cup fresh milk
2 tbsp melted butter
90-100 g. dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
3 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tsp dark rum (optional)
pinch of salt

1. In a sauce pan, thoroughly stir together the fresh milk and melted butter. Turn on the heat and simmer until  bubbly.

2. Pour hot heavy cream into a bowl with coarsely chopped dark chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts.

3. Quickly add the sugar, rum, and pinch of salt. Stir until sugar dissolves.

4. Cover with cling film and store in the freezer until ganache sets.

To Make the Triple Choco Truffle-filled Doughnuts

1. Add 2 tbsp cocoa powder into the flour mixture and adjust the sugar to 3 tbsp.

2. Fry, drain the excess oil, then with a piping bag, scoop some of the chilled chocolate ganache and fill the doughnuts with choco goodness. You could pipe all your doughnuts with chocolate ganache and set half of them aside for the churros stage.

3. For the remaining choco-filled doughnuts, cover them in chocolate ganache. Then, roll them into a mixture of (1 tsp) cocoa powder and (1 tbsp) powdered sugar. You could chill them until they set, then cover them in another layer of ganache and sweetened cocoa powder.

To Make the Churros Doughnuts, 

1. Combine 4 tbsp of white sugar with 2 tsp ground cinnamon and 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg.

2. Roll the remaining choco-filled doughnuts in the spiced sugar mix.

As I said, your imagination's the limit when it comes to crafting your own doughnuts at home. I think you could even make savoury flavors with this recipe. The basic doughnut is neutral in flavor, so I think you could stuff it with quick-melting cheese and pre-cooked meat filling like chicken, pork flakes, or finely chopped sausages.

This is one of my tea time favorites :D

To the chef of Cooking with Dog, I hope you get well soon! Your videos have inspired a lot of people and to an extent, taught us different Japanese dishes beyond ramen noodles. :D

Browsing Youtube food tutorials is just not the same without you ;A

♥クキングウィズドッグのシェフーさん、お大事に～♥