Fauschnauts Redux

I so enjoyed the sweet potato Fauschnauts that I decided to try it again.  I didn't have time to fill them, so I had to come up with something different.  We had some caramel left over from a bread pudding.  This was special caramel, made with brown butter. 

I am definitely convinced that brown butter greatly improves anything.  I decided to go with the theme, and brown some more butter.  I let it cool and then beat the brown butter with the caramel to make the frosting.

This was a DELICIOUS frosting: the nuttiness of brown butter, the richness of caramel, and the slightness of salt.  It paired perfectly with the subtle sweet potato flavor, even better than the cinnamon custard filled. 

P.S. I encourage everyone to put brown butter in everything.

Fauschnaut Day

On Fat Tuesday, where I'm from, we eat Fauschnauts.  They're a German doughnut often made partly with mashed potatoes.  They are plain doughnuts, for those used to the sugar bombs at Dunkin' Donuts, they many not be doughnuts at all.  But to me they're tradition.

This year I couldn't wait for Fat Tuesday.  These I made using mashed sweet potatoes instead of the normal white potato.  Plus I added a little intrigue by filling them, with a homemade cinnamon custard.  Okay, so I like tradition with a twist, there's nothing wrong with that.  I finished them off with a simple glaze.

The added flavor and substance was much appreciated on my end. They really were quite wonderful, though maybe not "fauschnauts" to most. I guess I lean more towards the sugar bombs.

Earl Gray Doughnuts

My mom loves tea.  I mean really loves.  She drinks probably at least three cups a day.  And so, a year or two ago, when Kelly Alexander included a recipe for Earl Gray doughnuts in her New York Times Magazine article Fry Baby, a flag went up in my head. I have been wanting to make those donuts ever since.

Finally I did.  (Sadly my mom is far away and didn't get to taste this batch, but the next one she will.)  The earl gray comes in just as a topping, mixed with sugar and sprinkled over top.  The doughnut itself has orange juice and zest to pick up the bergamot in the tea. Otherwise it's a pretty basic yeast doughnut.

This was my first time making doughnuts, and I don't have a doughnut cutter, so I used one for biscuits. That's why there's no hole.  When they were cut and fully risen I fried them in a couple inches of canola oil.  They looked just like doughnuts from the store.  Except warm and more delicious.    Though I do think they'd be better with a hole, or some orange custard filling.