OCTOBER 2010 DARING BAKERS CHALLENGE: Let's Go Nuts for Doughnuts!

Oh my goodness, it's the end of October already! And it's time for another Daring Bakers' Challenge!

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.

When I first read the challenge I thought it would be so easy, after all, we've tackled ice cream, puff pastry, layer cakes, croquembouche and the like..boy was I wrong. I underestimated doughnuts. While my fellow Daring Bakers were uploading pictures of their lovely creations, I was slaving away in my kitchen--desperately trying to save mine. First of all, I didn't realize that I already ran out of flour, and when I was kneading my dough, it dawned on me that my flour was mixed in with some cornstarch. Instead of coming together after kneading for 10 minutes, it became more wet. I didn't have any choice but to go through with it--so I salvaged the mixture and went ahead. And then when it was time to roll it out, it kept sticking on the work table, and I couldnt find my round cookie cutters! So I just did my best to roll them into balls, proofed them for 30 minutes and fried them in hot oil. To my surprise, they came out alright--here's a cross section of the flour-cornstarch donuts.

I sprinkled them with some cinnamon sugar but I wasn't satisfied because of the free-form shapes so I melted bittersweet chocolate and dipped the tops. And they came out better looking. Good enough to post my finished products in the forums.

I had to redeem myself, I won't allow myself to be intimidated by these doughnuts so I bought some flour and did the whole thing again. And this time to my relief, the doughnuts came out more presentable. Here they are, made of all-purpose flour, no cornstarch. The dough was easier to knead and roll out, and I found my cookie cutters so they are really round this time. I glazed the tops with melted bittersweet chocolate, nutella and coffee and decorated it with some poured fondant icing (powdered sugar and milk). They got rave reviews at work, everyone said they tasted so good and couldn't get enough of the glaze.

Thank you Lori for this challenge, which taught me never to underestimate any recipe, be it simple or complicated!