What Goes Around...

I snapped the above picture as I rounded the crest of the gap on my way to the Round Barn to cook breakfast, it was just the most amazing sunrise, really. The picture (as they never do) just doesn't do it justice. Now, I would love to tell you this was the inspiration for the recipe in this little blog entry, but the only coincidence, or similarity they share is that they both are round. Here my inspiration was based on a craving for something warm, comforting and familiar.

Every fall in Vermont the orchards come alive, and apple picking season begins. The orchards are always welcoming, bustling, and filled with apple pies, cider, and of course donuts. I say "of course donuts" like it's a rule, or a law, well it should be and that law would require them all winter long. Here is my mid-winter cider donuts.

Apple Cider Donuts

My mother always had those donut cutters, you know, metal with a smaller cutter on the inside that with a little twist you could remove it. I don't own one, but I have tons of cookie cutters that allow me a bit of a change on the standard donut size and shape. However, my mothers cutters may just come up missing one day, sorry mom.

4 cups apple cider - reduced to 1 1/2 cups
2 packages active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups milk, warmed
3 1/2 cups King Arthur flour
4 oz Cabot butter softened
6 egg yolks
4 tablespoons maple sugar
couple scrapes of nutmeg
nice pinch of kosher salt


First, reduce your cider from 4 cups to 1/1/2 cups. Allow to cool to about 100- 110 degrees. Mix in the bowl of an electric mixer - the cider with warm milk and add the yeast, allow to get foamy, about 5 minutes or so. Then add butter, eggs, maple sugar, salt and nutmeg, and mix.
Crack eggs in a separate bowl and add to the mix. Mix in the flour, the dough will be wet, but will pull away from the bowl. cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm (not hot) place for about an hour. The dough will rise to about twice it's original size.
Heat about 2-3 inches of canola oil to 350 degrees, have some baking soda nearby, frying oil can be dangerous.
On a floured work surface roll out the dough till about 1/2 inch in thickness. Pick out your favorite donut shapes (circles, hearts, maybe even squares. The donuts should be allowed to rise again, slightly for about 10-20 minutes.
Carefully place the donuts in the oil and fry for about 1 minute before turning over, do not fry more than a few donuts at a time, it will cool your oil too fast and it will be difficult to fry your donuts evenly. the donuts should only require about 1 minute on each side. transfer to cooked donuts to a plate lined with a clean dry towel (or paper towels).
Allow to cool and eat!
Or, mix a one cup of confectioners sugar with just a few ounces of cider to form a thick icing and drizzle over the donuts as I did, or get crazy and just dip them!



I hope you enjoy these donuts, and share them, because what goes around comes around. You'll keep autumn going all year long, and remember, Cook from your heart.

A Guest For Dinner?

Currant-ly Dancing

Do you ever cook for no reason?
Well, obviously it's for a reason, I mean nourishment, right? But, sometimes I find myself cooking on inspiration, or maybe because today is when the first of the new crop is in, or the last day the crop will be harvested. Well, today I cooked something for a few of those reasons, but mostly, because I just love all of the ingredients.


I once heard someone say, "cooking with a recipe is like dancing with an instruction manual, but baking is different". Baking requires a manual, a recipe, some science. Which might be why some people just won't bake. I am a savory cook at heart, give me eggs and potatoes over waffles any day. Though, I like to bake too, and I bake like a dancing fool, holding an instruction manual.
This is what happened today when I found a few special ingredients that inspired me, got me dancing, baking and rewriting the instruction manual.

Almond Cake with Fresh Currants and Caramelized Kumquat-Ginger Glaze

Currants look so fantastic, though flavor-wise, they are a bit like cranberries in their raw form, the almond cake is very mellow, and the glaze is sweet - all together they are spectacular.

1 cup Confectioner’s sugar
2 1/2 cups Almond flour (I make my own by a sprinkle of flour over raw sliced almonds, pulverized in a food processor)
1 1/4 cup King Arthur a.p. flour
16 Egg whites
1 1/4 tsp Baking powder
10 oz Butter
Zest of 2 oranges
Red currants, washed, no stem

for the glaze:
18 (or so) Kumquats, cut in half, pick out visible seeds
2/3 cup Crystallized ginger cut into short julienne
1 Cinnamon stick
1/2 Vanilla bean cut in 1/2 lengthwise
3 cups Orange juice
3/4 cup Sugar
1/2 cup Vermont Maple syrup
1/2 cup Red currants, washed, no stem


Preheat your oven at 350 F.
Melt the butter in a pot.
Sift the flour and sugar separately.
Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl: flour, almond flour,orange zest, sugar and baking powder
Whisk and add the white eggs mix into dry ingredients
Add the melted butter, mix
Butter cake pans sprinkle a few currants on the bottom of pan
Fill pan with batter
Place more currants on top
Bake for about 30+ minutes or until the cake has set
Remove from the oven and let cool down before unmolding on a cooling rack

For the glaze:
Place all ingredients except currants in sauce pan over medium heat
Simmer and reduce
Once the liquid becomes thick allow to cook further until you get very small rapid bubbles and the sugars begin to caramelize
Immediately, but slowly add about 1 cup of water (you might not need it all) to the sauce mixing in the sauce will be loose, until it cools, and then should be glaze consistency, mix in the currants while the glaze is still hot, once cool, remove vanilla and cinnamon stick.
I had to have some whipped cream with it, I mean how could I not? Lightly sweetened and lightly whipped, perfect. Before I end this, just a note about kumquats, many people don't seem to love them like I do, or actually, I guess they don't really even know how tasty they actually are. Just remember, unlike an orange, it's the skin that is sweet and the inside is not (and the seeds are just not good at all).
Thanks for reading, and whether you cook from inspiration or necessity, if you dance or if you read a manual, just remember to Cook from your heart!