INTRODUCTION
Welcome back friends! This week we’ll be frying the Doughnuts (or Donuts) Jim Dear and Darling give Lady in Disney’s Lady and the Tramp!
These doughnuts are featured during a breakfast scene after Lady retrieves Jim Dear’s paper. Darling offers Lady a doughnut and Jim Dear offers her coffee to dunk it in.
I knew I wanted to make old fashioned buttermilk doughnuts with a simple glaze. I considered making cake donuts, but deep frying seemed like so much more fun! If you’ve never deep fried anything before, be very careful! I use a very heavy dutch oven and a frying thermometer, heating the oil up a little at a time so it doesn’t get too hot too fast!
DOUGHNUTS (DONUTS)
- 4 tablespoons of butter, melted
- 1 cup of sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 3 1/2 cups of flour, sifted
- 3/4 cup of buttermilk
- 6 cups of canola or vegetable oil
INSTRUCTIONS (DOUGHNUTS)
- In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar until they form a light, sandy texture.
- Add the eggs one at a time, followed by the egg yolk, and then the vanilla extract.
- Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and salt.
- Begin adding in one cup of flour, followed by 1⁄4 cup of buttermilk. Continue alternating the flour and buttermilk, ending with the flour.
- The dough will be very sticky. Flour your hands and sprinkle a little on the dough, cover it with plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for at least an 1 hour.
- In a large heavy bottomed sauce pot (I use my dutch oven), slowly heat the oil to about 325F as read on a candy or deep fry thermometer.
- While the oil heats, flour a large flat work surface and roll the dough out, flouring it liberally if needed to prevent sticking. Roll out to about 1⁄2″ thickness.
- Using a doughnut cutter, cut out doughnut shapes. Keep re-rolling and cutting the dough as needed.
- When oil is hot, gently slide the doughnuts into the pan using a slotted wire spoon to prevent splashing.
- Fry the doughnuts for about 90 seconds per side, or until a deep golden brown then remove them from the oil and place a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet.
GLAZE
- 2 teaspoons of corn syrup
- 3 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 1⁄3 cup of hot water
INSTRUCTIONS (GLAZE)
- Combine all of the glaze ingredients in a saucepan and stir until smooth.
- Place the warm doughnuts into the glaze mixture one at a time.
- Use a fork or spoon to turn them over and coat them completely in the glaze.
- Place the glazed doughnuts back onto the wire rack to set for about 20 minutes.
- Enjoy on them on their own, or dunked in coffee!
INTRODUCTION
Spaghetti and meatballs are quite fun to make and did I mention delicious? I had to stop myself from snacking on the meatballs before I was done making the pasta! My only regret is that I didn’t make the pasta or the sauce completely from scratch. I chose the timesavers path and used pre-packaged pasta, canned tomatoes and tomato paste. The good news is, most of us do not have time to make everything from scratch, but I do look forward to revisiting this recipe in the future to bring you everything from scratch!
SAUCE
INTRODUCTION
This recipe is featured when Edgar wants to get rid of Duchess and her kittens, thinking they will be the sole heirs to his employer’s fortune. He makes a cream for the cats to drink, laced with sleeping pills and drives them out to the countryside to abandon them. Roquefort the mouse brings his cookie to share the cream, and ends up falling asleep too!
First thing is first, I did not lace the creme with sleeping pills, I’m not trying to knock you all out. What I did do was infuse it with chamomile to add a calming effect, although this is optional. With or without the chamomile it really is quite tasty as a dip, on its own, or even as a creamer for tea or coffee.
CREME DE LA CREME A LA EDGAR
ROQUEFORT’S COOKIES
INTRODUCTION
These crumpets are featured when Olivia Flaversham and Dr. Dawson arrive at Basil’s apartment. Mrs. Judson (Basil’s maid) offers and serves them before Basil sets off on a lead, Olivia managing to snag a few before they rush off.
I am going to be so bold as to say that these are not traditional crumpets. Disney usually does their homework pretty thoroughly so I may be wrong, but perhaps they meant scones? Traditional crumpets look like the ones I made for Ratty and Mole’s Recipe in November, cooked on a flat surface within round rings. It was very hard to achieve the puffed look from the film using a crumpet recipe in a muffin tin, but I tried twice. The first time I used the recipe from Ratty and Mole’s Crumpets and added cheese, but they were very deflated up top. The second time I got a bit more lift by using baking powder instead of baking soda. Neither option had as much lift and puff as the cartoon, but they both taste cheesy and delicious so use what you have available!
BAKED CHEESE CRUMPETS
INTRODUCTION
Winnie the Pooh’s hero cake (and the hero cookies we made last week) is featured in the “Blustery Day” featurette when Christopher Robin throws a Hero Party for Pooh Bear, believing him to be Piglet’s rescuer during the flood. Pooh and Piglet really just happened to be in the same predicament at the same time and came out together perfectly alright, but it was still sweet of Christopher Robin and their friends to celebrate them all the same!
This is a surprisingly complex cake, and I had a lot of fun creating and tasting it! I chose to make pink velvet cake (my own interpretation of what flavor the pink color stood for) with chocolate frosting. White buttercream frosting surrounds the base of each of the orange candles and orange buttercream, in color and in flavor, whimsically dots the chocolate frosting in puffs. If you take the cake with the chocolate frosting and orange buttercream in the same bite it is absolute heaven and will definitely satisfy the rumbly of any tumbly!
HERO CAKE
INTRODUCTION
HERO COOKIES
INTRODUCTION
These cookies are featured when Bernard and Miss Bianca visit the orphanage to find Penny. They find Rufus the cat instead, and he recollects the last time he saw her. In his memory, she snuck him two Gingersnap cookies, which he charmingly mistook for “Catnipsnaps”.
I think baking cookies is my favorite! There is just something so satisfying about making cookie dough and then baking snack size treats for loved ones. I tend to enjoy eating the chewier and gooier cookies, but these were like eating crunchy gingerbread cookies and I really love them! Perhaps its the crunchy store-bought or factory-made cookies I’m not as fond of!
GINGERSNAPS
INTRODUCTION
This turkey is featured when Ichabod visits one of his student’s households for supper and is fed a turkey by the lady of the house.
I highly doubt the residents of Sleepy Hollow had access to the Godzilla size turkeys we have available today, so I chose to work with a smaller size turkey. Smaller stature, paired with classic and simple seasoning and cooking methods resulted in the best tasting turkey I think I’ve ever created!
TURKEY
INTRODUCTION
Similar to
RED VELVET CAKE
INTRODUCTION
Crumpets are relatively easy to make, albeit time consuming due to the amount of time the dough/batter spends resting. These are tasty on their own, but you’ll definitely get the most out of them by slathering them with some butter, honey, jam or whatever topping you prefer. Like most foods, these are best when they’re fresh, but my husband has toasted them the last two mornings for breakfast and they’re still tasty!
CRUMPETS