I am learning to bake!

I decided to try something new for this post and hopefully once a month or so I will be able to do something similar. I am really trying to learn how to bake and cook new things lately. Shane loves home made bread so that is what I started trying. I made some earlier this week and it turned out just okay. I will be trying again. But in the mean time I made Eskimo Donuts using the bread recipe I used earlier this week. Here's how it turned out!

I used the Amish White Bread recipe found on allrecipes.com. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2/3 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 6 cups bread flour 

 

First you dissolve the sugar in the warm water then stir in the yeast. I used a butter knife to do this. I let it sit for about a half hour to get nice and foamy. Here's what it looked like: 

Next I added the salt and oil to the yeast mixture (in a large bowl). Then one cup at a time I added the flour. I mixed it with an electric mixer until I got the 5th cup, then I just used my hands. It looked sorta like too much flour in the end but it's not. It's needed for kneading. Speaking of kneading, after all the flour was in, I kneaded it for a few minutes. Here's what it looked like after kneading:

Next, I got another bowl and oiled the sides and bottom well. I put the dough in that bowl and rotated it around so that the outside of the dough had some oil on it. I left it in that bowl and put a damp cloth over it. Then I let it set to rise for an hour and a half. 

 

 

 Then I started forming them into Eskimo Donuts. You make them into a ball them smooth them out flat. Then you put one hole in the center and five holes around the donut.

Here's what one looks like before it is fried:

Now into the deep fryer they go! Well, I just used some oil in a pot. I kept in between at about a medium, maybe a little higher. If you let the oil get too hot it just won't work. It's a good idea to test one donut first by sticking it in the oil. If it just sinks to the bottom without any fizzing and bubbling then it is not hot enough. I stuck two in at a time. About 1-1.5 minutes on each side. 

Then pull them out and put them on a paper towel. Yummy Eskimo Donuts! I can't wait to show them off to Shane. He loves these and he will be happy I finally made some!