After a truly hectic month, in which I spent far too much time out of my kitchen (not to mention being slightly out of my mind), I spent most of Easter weekend pottering between stove, sink and vegetable garden. It was great.
I even managed to make a menu plan and I only made one emergency dash to the dairy (in which I bought the last bottle of cream in the eastern suburbs). I managed to use some of my recent cookbook acquisitions AND my
fancy new cake tin. The cake I made in it was a disaster, but that's another story. My hot cross buns - Dan Lepard's spiced stout buns - turned out a little heavier than I expected too, but anecdotal evidence tells me that a lot of people struggled to make decent buns this year. Let's blame climate change, shall we?
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| Buns, blue cheese and rose petal jelly |
Anyway, today I achieved a longheld ambition and made the Cream Doughnuts from Treats From Little & Friday. For non-New Zealanders,
Little & Friday is an Auckland cafe with a cult following. The cafe's owner/founder Kim Evans published a gorgeous book of some of her best recipes last year and I've been dying to make the famous doughnuts ever since. I won't reproduce the recipe here, but essentially you make brioche dough (about 900g flour, 3 eggs, 140g butter, milk, yeast, sugar, salt etc), which is then deep-fried (!) and filled with jam and creme diplomat (a half-half mixture of creme patissiere and whipped cream) until they are at near-bursting point. Then you roll them in icing sugar and eat them, until you are near bursting point (and covered with icing sugar).
They are seriously, seriously good. I took a basket of them to an annual Easter bun-fest/chocolate frenzy at a friend's place and while the kids ran amok hunting Easter eggs, the adults just ate doughnuts and reclined with beatific expressions. I can't wait to make them again. But perhaps I'll sign up for the Wellington half-marathon first...
What did you make this Easter? Have you made the L&F doughnuts before?
Aah Lucy I can relate. From the hectic March, to the kitchen filled Easter, to making doughnuts today! I didn't use L & F's recipe but by jeez those things are amazing. Now I know how dangerously easy deep frying is, maybe I'll try them next time. And get running while I'm at it!
ReplyDeleteHow deliciously decadent!
ReplyDeleteI bought the Little and Friday book last year but to my shame have not made anything from it yet - I think I know now what my first project will be! I'm always a bit nervous about deep frying though, not because of the copious amounts of oil, more to do with the potential for burning a)myself or b)the the house down.
ReplyDeleteI was always terrified of deep frying too, but it turns out that it doesn't have to be very deep (ie, not a huge boiling vat). It does make the house smell like a fish and chip shop though!
DeleteI think the L&F book is lovely, but I wish as much attention had been paid to the text as the pictures - in my copy at least, there are various instructions missing, and another friend has said she has made a series of disasters from it. It's not a book for beginners (not that I'm suggesting you are one!) x
Oh, I've been craving those all weekend. Even tried the Newmarket shop Easter Monday but damn it was closed! Probably a good thing but these really are the haute couture of doughnuts, are they not?
ReplyDeletefantastic post. it's very interesting.
ReplyDeleteModular Kitchen Collection