Brunch: Sourdoughnut🔗

Frying is rarely worth it at home. True, with some rare exceptions. Here is one of them.

Have you had super fluffy briche doughnut with golden crispy shell and ooey gooey filling inside that one bite feels like cracking into lightest cloud surrounded by cozy warm filling? That's a tantalizing sensation once a while I have cravings for. But have you also nitpicked that perfect experience on filling being too sweet, sugar dusting too much, dough too rich or anything not to your personal liking that makes the should have been perfect experience just a hair short? Well, that's why it's worth it to do frying for what I call soudoughnut.

One issue with indulging bakery style brioche doughnut is that brioche dough is as rich as it is. Frying and filling make it a bit too much. This home version uses my regular lean sourdough dough about 70% hydration. In fact, I made a big batch of dough, half for doughnut and half for burger bun. So it's efficient that you can mix one dough and use for two. Another advantage is that whenever cutting rounds for doughnut, you'd have dough scraps. Just rerolll them into balls, wait 10min for gluten to relax, and then shape into burger buns. No waste!

Curious what the burger bun half brother is like? They are every bit as soft, with a light crust. You can even see the wheaty bits from sourdough starter. And it's a six pack!

After cutting rounds, let doughnut dough proof for 1-2 hours depending on ambient temperature, until an indent on the dough very slowly bounce back.

As for frying, the goal is to use as little oil as possible. Use a wok with small bottom as it uses the least amount of oil for the same depth. Pour in the amount of oil so that oil depth is about the height of doughnut. It's enough as if dough is properly proofed, once in the pot air bubbles inside dough will expand and doughnut will afloat.

Heat up oil to 350F. Drop in doughnut one at a time, if you are using the minimal oil as I do. But no worries they are done so quickly that a batch of 8 takes no more than 20min. Flip once one side is golden. Usually it takes 1 min per side if oil is at the right temperature. If everything (proofing + frying) goes right, the finished doughnut should have a signature white band.

After is cooled a bit on wire rack, it's ready for fillings. The easiest is chocolate (white, milk, dark any you like). As it's solid when cool and melting when warm. You just need to shovel a piece inside warm doughnut. When you eat it, it will be lava runny inside. This way there is no need for piping bag. Another option we happen to have at hand is maple butter, which is of similar nature as chocolate. Of course, a light sprinkle of cinnamon sugar is always good. Be creative now that you have a perfect cloud to paint with.

sugar dusting

maple butter

chocolate bar	melty inside

white chocolate	dark chocolate

Wonder what happened to burger buns? They become delicious burgers!

Main: Soup Pan-Fried Dumpling🔗

Homemade dumpling, is an ambitious endeavor, always. Is it worth it? (Hmm, seems like this question is the theme of this blog)

To me, it's not to be evaluated on the normal pareto scale. As unlike most of cooking that it's the final result carries most value, making dumpling is all about the process, the experience and the bond. It's for special occasion, for loved ones, for good memories.

That's why I'm never proficient at it. It's never a regular routine. But I've always enjoyed it. Even though it's arduous long-hour standing, making delicate pinches that exposes my clumsiness, before we know it, the world is just me, A and dumplings passing between us. What a good way to be lost in time. (Maybe not for A, the constant questions in his mind are probably when I can get back to game and when we can eat them :P). Still, I'm so grateful to have the shared time with him making after hours of work probably the best dumplings to us.

I won't comment too much on the technicalities here. We did make the wrappings as well. It's about 60% hydration. It's relative easy to work with. Just takes time. As for the fillings, my only advice is to add enough moisture as it can take, so that the final product is juicy. For the wrapping, just enjoy the time.

What if there is extra filling? Let me present eggwich bonus. Remember the burger bun brother above? You can create something amazing with corner materials. Just be creative!

Dessert: Banana Popsicle w/ Magic Shell🔗

Who needs popsicle when you have bananas? It's no longer a consolation talk when you miss the experience of cracking chocolate shell followed by creamy ice cream in one bite. It's now a treat for rainy days (quite literally now) on momentary notice. Assuming you are a banana fan like us and always have bananas handy.

True joy in life is often deceivingly simple. This treat is a spontaneous invention. It's easy to make and fun to eat. To relive childhood pleasure, it takes only two steps.

1. Skewer ripe bananas on popsicle stick and put in freezer
2. 1:3 coconut oil to chocolate chip microwave at 30s interval, stir in between until fully melted

Here comes the fun part: dress up naked bananas with hot chocolate (no pun intended). It's like a craft project. The easiest way is to use a spoon to drizzle runny chocolate all over frozen bananas. It takes only a couple of seconds for chocolate to set. So use some rotating motions to maximize shell coverage and create cool patterns.

A fussier way is to pour melted chocolate into a narrow cylinder container and dip in. It should yield very even pro looking shell. Just small diameter container is not that common and using bigger one will need a lot extra melted chocolate. So I did a MacGyver experiment. I rolled parchment paper into cone shape (tape seam to fix shape and reinforce on the outside with tin foil). Then put makeshift cone in a mason jar. Fill chocolate syrup into cone and dip. Mathematically, cone yields maximal height after displacement given the same amount of liquid. Eureka! However, in practice, frozen banana sticks to paper as chocolate is stretched too thin and ends up emergent abort. What's left as by product is paper thin chocolate shaves that's extra fancy to decorate ice cream scoop.