Last week I did something a little scary, a lot vulnerable, and a bit awkward but totally fun: I Facebook Live’d. Is it a verb? Probably, totally not. But we talked rhubarb fritters and that’s all that really matters. If you want to check it out it’s still up on my feed (for how long? I have no idea.) or watch it below. You all were so fun, so supportive and encouraging. Thanks to those of you who tuned in! To date the demo has been viewed over 5,000 times and that, my friends, is awesome (and terrifying).

Facebook live is the most recent (or one of) social media tools to hit the internet. Being a grandma in internet-land (I mean I’ve been blogging for nearly 10 years!) I have watched many things come and go. I’ve seen vibrant, active websites become internet ghost towns and witnessed “the next big social app” fall apart before it caught on. I still feel a bit old – wasn’t snapchat were the young kids went for sexting and now I’ve JUST started snapping (nws-ashrod). Oh man, now I just sound like a real life grandma. But Facebook Live is fun. Super fun.

With Facebook Live I get to cook for you in more than 10 second clips and we can interact through questions and comments in real time. Away from the internet I get the opportunity to teach many cooking and baking classes so I’m thrilled to be able to use those skills with all of you. I’m not sure if this is one of those things that is going to catch on or be left in the dust by whatever is coming next but in the meantime I’m having fun and I hope you come join. I’ll be doing another live demo this Thursday (4/14) at 2:30 pm PST. I haven’t quite settled on what we’ll be making (currently thinking cocktails because it’s DATE  NIGHT!) so if you have any ideas please let me know. Or if you have any questions you want me to answer feel free to write them on my Facebook page or leave in the comments below. Or tune in and ask live! The internet is fun.

These rhubarb fritters were last week’s demo as I said and I wish I could have shared them through the screen. They’re perhaps a bit more doughnut than fritter. Meaning there is more dough to fruit than what I originally intended and you are welcome to add more rhubarb if you’d like but I was thrilled with the result. What I particularly love is that the rhubarb is cold poached in sugar and a bit of spice for an hour or so before the doughnuts are fried. The sugar soaks into the rhubarb sweetening it from the outside in while still maintaining a bit of crunch. The only time the rhubarb is cooked is during the frying process so you get a vibrant rhubarb tang, a pleasant freshness but – with the help of the glaze – enough sweetness to satisfy.

The glaze is made from the reduced liquid that comes from the cold poach along with a good bit of lemon juice to offset the flurries of powdered sugar that is whisked in. If you have a vanilla bean on hand I’d eagerly suggest you add that as well as I’m such a softy for those black flecks and the perfume they bring with them.

While we were devouring our doughnuts after the show Brandi walked in (we filmed at The Pantry where I often teach) with rhubarb mousse. So if you happen to have some rhubarb mousse lying around please do as we did and stuff your fritters with it. Rhubarb and more rhubarb is totally my idea for a good time. Mousse or no mousse these beauties are sure to sweep the internet or more likely, and even better, been seen in our kitchen on repeat.

Rhubarb Fritters

4 cups bread flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

4 eggs

zest from 1/2 a lemon

3/4 cup water

1 stick butter, soft

1 1/4 pounds rhubarb

3/4 cups sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

pinch freshly ground nutmeg

oil (sunflower or other flavorless oil) for frying

Glaze:

1/2 cup reduced rhubarb syrup (reserved from the rhubarb filling)

1 1/2 - 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

juice from 1 lemon

pinch flake salt, in the glaze or to finish the doughnuts

Put all the dough ingredients, apart from the butter, into the bowl of an electric mixer with a dough hook and mix on a medium speed for 8min, or until the dough starts coming away from the sides and forms a ball. Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for a minute.

Start the mixer up again on a medium speed and slowly add the butter to the dough, about 1 tablespoon at a time.

Once it is all incorporated, mix on high speed for 5 minutes until the dough is glossy, smooth and elastic when pulled.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to rise until it has doubled in size, about an hour. Knead the dough just briefly it to get the extra air out, then re-cover the bowl and put into the fridge to chill overnight. This overnight rest gives the dough a deep flavor with a soft, sour tang. If you are in a hurry you are welcome to skip this step and just carry on. 

The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and gently press it into a large rectangle about 1-inch thick.

Trim the ends off the rhubarb and cut the stalks into small dice, about 1/4-inch cubes. In a bowl combine the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and rhubarb. Give this mixture a stir and then let it sit for at least one hour. Stir the rhubarb occasionally.

Drain off the syrup into a small saucepan. Reduce the liquid to 1/2 cup and then set aside.

Layer 1/3 of the diced rhubarb onto the right half of the doughnut dough. Fold the left side over the rhubarb like a book. Gently press the dough down again, give it a 90° turn and repeat the process until all the rhubarb has been layered in. Cover the dough with a towel or plastic wrap then let rest from 10 minutes.

Gently roll the dough out to about 1 1/2-inch thickness then cut into 2x2-inch squares (or really, whatever size you’d like). This dough can be quite sticky when it has lost its chill from the refrigerator so don’t be afraid to use a good bit of flour to keep it from sticking.

When the dough feels light and airy, no longer cold, and springs back very slowly when touched they are ready to fry.

Heat about 3 inches of oil in a large high sided sauce pan or dutch oven. When the oil has reach 350°F the doughnuts are ready to fry. Add the doughnuts to the oil, a few at a time as you don’t want the oil temperature to drop too much. Fry for four minutes, flipping them over halfway through so they brown evenly. I like them good and dark - color equals flavor! Remove them from the oil after four minutes to a rack set over a sheet tray or paper towels set on a plate.

Let cool slightly before drizzling the glaze over the top.

For the glaze:

In a bowl whisk together the reduced rhubarb syrup along with the juice of 1 lemon and 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar. Whisk until no clumps remain. If it looks too wet add a bit more powdered sugar. The thicker the glaze the thicker it will be on the doughnuts.

Homemade donuts mark an occasion. They call out the day and deem it special simply because of their presence.

I love how food can do this; how it can turn an ordinary Sunday into something significant because of what is on the table. There are some celebrations such as birthdays, weddings, and anniversaries that ask the food to help illuminate the occasion and then there are the days, like today, where I ask the food to give us reason to pause, say thanks for all the good and to help set it apart from the others that passed without us really noticing.

Donuts, even in their humble beginnings, have this sort of power. Anytime a yeasted dough is involved I find a sudden reverence for the process because so much of it is out of my hands. I add a few things to the bowl, use the same folding, smooshing, turning and pushing technique my mom taught me and her mom taught her and then I wait. I wait for the dough to rise, always a bit anxious because of my lack of control. Please rise, please rise, please. I plead.

A hot pot of oil also gives us the occasion. While I probably fry at home more often than most, it’s not everyday and that alone is reason for us to see this day, a day of donuts, as different.

So while the house is still quiet I slip into the kitchen to wake up some yeast and set this day apart with something as simple as homemade donuts. The rest of the day can go on as normal and yet this day will feel different and perhaps even a bit memorable.

These Apple Cider Fritters are worthy of an occasion or powerful enough to create one. They require a few steps and need a bit of encouragement and folding to lure the apples into the dough. But what happens in the folding is evident as you fry – stunning laminations of cider poached apples and dough. While some still refuse to cooperate, jumping ship from the dough and bathing solo in the oil instead, enough stay put to give these fritters a bit of heft and a tart bite. An apple cider glaze and a sprinkle of flake salt aids in the occasion-making.

As I step back into the kitchen to hopefully find a risen bowl of dough destined for a hot pot of shimmering oil, I hope you will head over the Live.Love.Lux for the recipe and give this day a reason for celebrating.

Apple Cider Fritters with Cider Glaze

Click this link to Live.Love.Lux. for the recipe!

Friday Donut (or doughnut) Day! It started sometime last year with the simple act of Gabe picking up doughnuts on Friday and then repeating himself the next week. Just like that a tradition was born. Now we all expect it, crave it, look forward to it and appreciate Friday’s all the more because of it.

We’ve used it as a chance to tour Seattle via their doughnut scene, although truth-be-told we’ve mostly landed back to Top Pot because I’m weak for their Salted Caramel Old Fashioned.

It wasn’t until the start of this school year that I started making the doughnuts at home. Three weeks in and, get this, my kids are begging for the store bought kind.

Sorry kids, I’m making you doughnuts. These doughnuts in particular.

It was these very doughnuts that had Gabe and I making the long trek from our little hotel in Notting Hill to St. John Bread & Wine across the street from Spitalfields Market. I know we went at least twice and it’s quite possible there was a third visit. It was because of these doughnuts (thanks, Molly for the heads up) and the bacon sandwich.

They are a simple doughnut; soft, not very sweet and not complex in flavor but have a subtle bitter tang which I now know to be lemon zest. Like most good yeasted recipes the dough takes a sweet time rising and developing in flavor so there’s a very soft sourness. At St. John they filled them with lemon curd and – my favorite – custard. Although someone on Instagram tells me they now have butterscotch which blew my mind and had me pining for a trip back to London.

These doughnuts fueled our weekly fix last Friday and the one before that. The boys missed them warm from the fryer so to make up for it I served them as dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the middle along with a bit of chocolate sauce. I recommend that way too.

St. John Bakery Doughnuts

This recipe comes from Justin Gellatly who perfected this recipe while working at St. John. He now has his own bakery and a cookbook,Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding: Sweet and Savoury Recipes from Britain's Best Baker, which is high on my list of next purchases.

I changed the recipe subtly - used all-purpose in place of bread flour, added salt to the custard and switched it from grams to cups for those of you who don't use a scale. If you want the original recipe it's right here. 

The recipe makes about 20 doughnuts, so it's safe to say that our neighborhood now celebrates Friday Doughnut Day.

Doughnuts:

4 cups flour

1/3 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

4 eggs

zest from 1/2 a lemon

3/4 cup water

1 stick butter, soft

oil (he recommends sunflower, I used vegetable) for frying

sugar, for tossing the doughnuts
Custard:

2 cups milk

1 vanilla bean, seeds removed or 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

6 egg yolks

scant 1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup heavy cream

For the doughnuts:

Put all the dough ingredients, apart from the butter, into the bowl of an electric mixer with a beater attachment and mix on a medium speed for 8min, or until the dough starts coming away from the sides and forms a ball. Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for a minute.

Start the mixer up again on a medium speed and slowly add the butter to the dough, about 1 tablespoon at a time.

Once it is all incorporated, mix on high speed for 5 minutes until the dough is glossy, smooth and elastic when pulled.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to rise until it has doubled in size, about an hour. Knead the dough just briefly it to get the extra air out, then re-cover the bowl and put into the fridge to chill overnight.

The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and gently press it into a large rectangle about 1-inch thick. Cut the dough (I find a pizza wheel makes quick work of this) into 2 - 3 -inch squares. You should get about 20.

Roll the squares into smooth, taut, tight buns and place them on a greased baking tray, leaving plenty of room between them – you don’t want them to stick together while they prove. Cover lightly with cling film and leave for about 2-3 hours, or until about doubled in size.

Fill a large pot with 2-3 inches of oil leaving at least 5 inches of space from the top. Heat the oil to 360°F.

Carefully place a few doughnuts in the oil. Watch your oil temperature so that he remains right around 360°F. Don't overcrowd the pan.

Fry about 2 minutes per side, until deep golden brown.

Remove the warm doughnuts to a bowl with sugar and shake until covered.

Repeat until all the doughnuts have been fried.

For the custard:

To make the custard, slit the vanilla pod open lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Put both pod and seeds into a heavy-based saucepan with the milk and bring slowly just to the boil, to infuse the vanilla. Meanwhile, place the egg yolks and 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl and mix together for a few seconds, then sift in the flour and mix again. Pour the just boiling milk over the yolk mixture, continuously whisking to prevent curdling, then return the mixture to the saucepan. Add the salt then cook over a medium heat, whisking constantly for about 5 minutes, until very thick.

Pass through a fine sieve, discarding the vanilla, and place a sheet of plastic wrap on the surface of the custard to prevent a skin forming. Leave to cool, then refrigerate.

Whip the cream and the 2 tablespoons of sugar together until thick but not over-whipped and fold into the chilled custard.

Because there are some mornings that call for donut holes.

Like a morning when friends come over to learn more about coffee knowing that we, or more accurately, my husband, knows a thing or two about it and that we have eight, or so, brewing methods.

Or when the sun appears for the first time since the calendar declared, “it’s SPRING!” And although it feels more like Winter than Spring, deep down you sense it’s coming and begin to arrange the rhubarb baking schedule and direct your thoughts towards asparagus and away from earthy root vegetables.

A morning when the kids play contentedly around you and the google calendar reminds you that you have an entire day with nothing to do but simply be present.

Or one that finds you urging your slow moving 5 year old to hurry up as the clock ticks on seemingly mocking your tardiness and you glance to the counter spying a few leftover donut holes from the day before.

Then there is a morning when you sit alone with your feet perched on a tattered grizzly bear foot rest and the silence is interrupted from the crackling of a fireplace and the soft crashing of rolling waves. When you write at a leisurely pace and linger over cookbooks, dreaming of recipe ideas and menus, realizing that you are doing exactly what you were created for and taking that in as the incredible gift that it is.

These are the mornings for donut holes.

Brown Butter Donut Holes

5 Tablespoons butter

1 cup (8 1/2 oz) milk (I use whole)

1 egg

1 1/2 cups (10 oz) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (3 oz) whole wheat flour

2 Tablespoons (1 oz) brown sugar

1 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

oil for frying

For dipping:

1/2 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

In a small saucepan add the butter. Bring to a boil and cook until the milk solids present in the butter turn a nutty brown color. Carefully swirl the pan so you can periodically check the color of the butter. Immediately take it off the heat when you smell a fragrant nuttiness and the butter is golden.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl. Combine the milk and the egg in a small bowl and whisk to break up the egg. Stir the milk, egg and browned butter into the dry ingredients being careful not to overmix.

Heat 2-3" of oil in a deep sauce pan. Once the oil has reached 360* carefully drop a tablespoon size mounds of dough into the oil. Fry a few at a time watching the oil temperature making sure it stays around 360*. Fry until deep golden, about 2-3 minutes. Carefully move the donuts around in the oil for even frying.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Add the warm donuts to the cinnamon and sugar and roll around until well coated. Serve immediately.