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Everyone eats fairly often, so it's usually a safe and easy topic of conversation. It's bound to come up a lot.
Okay for those who want and can:
Doughnut recipe from my mother's father's mother's mother:
-Make this when you've got some soured milk!
-Grind your grains extra fine and sift them twice <my notes: just use all-purpose flour, or 1/2 whole grain/whole wheat flour and 1/2 all-purpose>
-scoop out a bowl of your breadmother (this means sourdough starter/yeast mix) and replace the amount with equal parts flour/water to replenish it
[notes from mother's father's mother: proof a cup of dried yeast in warm water; if it doesn't bloom get some from the neighbor or give up on the recipe that day until you get new] <My notes: yeast is almost never dead these days, so sometimes I just add the dried yeast direct to the flour and use milk to make up the liquid deficit>
-in a bread bowl, put in about 1/3-the-bowl-size of your flour.
-Powder a piece of cinnamon the length of your pinky nail in your mortar and add it to the flour <my notes: ~1 teaspoon ground cinnamon is plenty if fresh/strong; double if stale>
-similarly, grind up 3-6 cloves. If you're using the Challah bowl (this means using a big bowl / larger recipe), do more; fewer if the daily bread bowl (smaller bowl / smaller amount of dough) and add them to the flour <my notes: a pinch or two of powdered cloves is enough!>
-Same with 5-15 allspice
-Pinch or two fine table-salt
-Powder a thumbnail's worth of coriander seeds, add
-Sift your flour and spice mix together.
-Make a well in the flour <my notes: according to my grandma, her mother-in-law said her mother used to put her fist into the bowl and gently sort of 'drill' down into the flour to make the well. I've tried that, and it's a good estimate method>
-in a separate bowl, pour soured milk of about the amount equal to the well you just made in the flour. Add about half that volume in eggs, whisk together.
<my notes: sour cream + regular milk + eggs. Use ~ 1 c. sour cream, ~2 eggs and an extra splash of milk if you added dried yeast directly to flour mix instead of proofing yeast; otherwise ~a small glass of milk>
-Pour in honey to taste, whisk into eggs & soured milk <my notes: I like making the donuts less sweet, and then glazing them with something sweet later, or rolling them in powdered sugar. If you want them sweeter, add regular white sugar to your flour mix, rather than a lot of honey, because honey upsets your liquid/solids balance more>
-Pour soured milk into flour, knead to soft dough
-add more soured milk if need more liquid, add more flour if too runny, but do not overknead
-Oil, set aside to rise
-toast nuts of your choice, set aside
-when dough has doubled in size, roll it out on a floured surface
-use a glass with a floured edge to cut into circles
-spoon a few nuts into the center of half of the circles
-wet the edges of the circles with the nuts, lay others on top
-use a slightly-smaller glass with a floured edge to cut off edges of stacked doughnuts and seal the two together
-transfer these to a sheet to rise, gather up dough scraps and roll out again, repeat the process
-put more wood in the stove and set a pot of oil on.
-while waiting for it to heat up, toast your post-second-rolling dough scraps until cooked and eat or feed to chickens
-the oil should be ready when the doughnuts have risen <my notes: use high-heat-index oil like canola, do NOT use olive oil! Heat on stovetop to 360-375 degrees; test with candy thermometer>
-use a slotted spoon to lower doughnuts into oil
-they should sink at the beginning and then float; turn once so both sides are golden brown, and use slotted spoon to remove
-only do a few at a time
-drizzle honey over hot doughnuts and eat <my notes: have a bunch of paper towels ready on a platter to transfer the cooked doughnuts to; they will drain some of the oil that way. Roll in powdered sugar while hot, or drizzle hot sugar glaze over them>
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