Yes, the mystery Christmas gift: a seven hole mini doughnut maker!
After I got back from all the excitement of the holidays and started school again – I think we needed something sweet to perk us up again. And, of course, I wanted to try out my present! I wasn’t expecting it at all and it was a real treat. I have, not surprisingly, no experience making doughnuts so I followed the little manual that came with it. It was actually very simple and fun to use, although a little scary the first time! The recipe given is really easy to do because they are ingredients we generally always have in our cupboard, so they can be made at very little notice. The recipe does make quite a lot though, and I think perhaps if I made them again just for the four in my family I might reduce the quantities slightly. Even for us there are limits to the amount of doughnuts we can eat! Also, when you make these you do pretty much have to stand over and watch them the whole time so after a while it gets a bit tiring. However – it is about ten minutes maximum (including making the batter) until you are rewarded with seven adorable and yummy doughnuts!
The recipe flavours them a little bit with vanilla, but once they were cooked this didn’t come through. I used vanilla essence, but the recipe said vanilla sugar would be good. I don’t think that would be any stronger though..I would like to add more, and also experiment with other flavourings – my sister wants to try lemon doughnuts! Next time I make them (which i definitely will be doing!) I would also like to dip them in chocolate like a traditional doughnut. This time I rolled them in sugar flavoured with about 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder to give them flavour. This was yummy and worked well, although I am not sure how to get the sugar to stay on better?
Doughnuts Basic Recipe
Ingredients: 250g plain flour
125g sugar
1/4 litre milk
2tsps vanilla sugar or few drops of vanilla essence
3eggs
50ml vegetable oil
15g (2tbsp) baking powder
pinch of salt
Preparation: 1. Place all the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
2. Make a well in the middle of these ingredients and add the wet ingredients: milk, eggs and oil.
3. Using a mixer, mix all ingredients thoroughly to produce a smooth batter.
Simple as that! Then you just put a teaspoon of batter in each hole. It seems like aboslutely nothing, but by the time I got to the seventh hole, the one I had done first had all bubbled up and grown! From there, I guess the method varies for each version of doughnut maker. If you think you would honestly make them quite a lot – a doughnut maker is a great thing to have! I really enjoyed mine and can’t wait to use it again and experiment some more… :D x
