Wonderful Donuts for Hanukkah

This is from Roben Ryberg's Wonderful Cookbook with some slight variations.

Save yourself time, measure 2-3 times the given amount of dry ingredients , so you can easily whip up more by just adding the wet ones!

These are so easy to make and quick, we were eating donuts in under a half hour with some scrambled eggs!

Cake Donuts

Dry ingredients

3/4 C cornstarch
2/3 C potato starch
1/3 C sugar
1 tbsl baking powder
1 teas xanthan gum
1 teas salt
1 teas freshly grated nutmeg

Wet ingredients

1 room temp egg slightly beaten
2 tbsp vegetable oil (best to use what you will fry in, I used peanut)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspon pure almond extract
1/3 cup milk or cream

2 cups peanut oil for frying

coatings:
GF powdered sugar

Or mixture of 1/2 raw sugar and 1/2 best cinnamon you can afford

Mix all dry ingredients together well. If making extra batches, divide by the amount you mixed and set aside for one batch. Mix wet ingredients together and then blend into dry. Work quickly as this sets up fast. This dough will be very similar to regular cakie bread dough. Sprinkle your working surface with cornstarch, using a little sieve or fine strainer. Meanwhile add 2 cups oil to your electric fry pan, heated to 350-375.

Sprinkle cornstarch on ball of dough that is put on the dusted countertop. Dust your hands as well and pat into a flat about 1/3" thickness. Using donut cutter or circle or glass, cut out doughnuts shapes, ( you can use a soda bottle cap to make holes if needed).

I used my star of David cookie cutter and these came out well. I also tried with my donut cutter and a small flower cutter, to test doneness on the various sizes.

Fry for about 2 -3 minutes each side, stay by it, and watch, you will see them puff up slightly and rise in the center, which is pretty cool using the flower or star cutter, and they will be brown around the edges, turn carefully and fry until that side is similarly browned.

Drain on a plate with double thickness of paper towels. These donuts don't absorb very much oil and will not be very greasy so this should be all the towels you need to use.

After cooling a bit roll in cinnamon sugar mix on both sides ( a extra large coffee/tea cup is great for this) but wait until cool and turned once on the paper towels if using the powdered sugar, so it won't clump.

Eat!

My experiment yielded, 4 - 4" traditional donut shapes
5 - 3"Star of Davids
7 1 3/4" flowers
and 5-6 scrap shapes left over

These are wonderful , but only if eaten the same day, preferably within a few hours of making. They are so wonderfully crispy, not greasy at all, and very cake like. I am going to try making these with dried blueberrys to imitate the ones like my husband used to like from Dunkin Donuts so very long ago before he started keeping kosher with me.

I am not a real donut person, never was but I ate about 3 of these they were so good!

I tried them the next day and all their wonderful crispiness was gone and most of the flavor. So eat them right away!

Hanukkah tip! - These can be cut into circles or only pat out to 1 inch thickness and use a round cutter to make likeSufganiyots, just, not filled with jelly. Use kosher gelitin to roll them in, like raspberry or strawberry to get the fruit taste.

I experimented some more since I wanted to make some for my guests that came on Shabbat , right after havdallah. So I made them, cut them out and froze them on waxed or parchment paper. I took them out when I turned the oil on in the frying pan and they were ready to go when the oil was hot. They fried up just like I'd just mixed them up, and tasted wonderful. I think that as long as you use enough corn starch to 'flour' them with before putting on the sheet to freeze, when they are frozen you can then quickly put them in a container or zipper bag and take out and fry up whenever you have a hankering for fresh donuts.

My hubby declaired these better than from a donut shop and one of my sceptical guests on GF stuff, when they left I had given them a bag of cookies I made and some donuts. He came back and told me I had forgotten to give them the donuts not realizing I had put them in the bag they had brought with them. He told me today that they all didn't make it home.
So that should be enough to make you try these, I'm sure you will again and again.

My next experiment will be with dried blueberries, and maybe cherries and then cranberries. I'll let you know how they turn out!