Delicata Squash & Toasted Fennel Seed Doughnuts

I have fond childhood memories of doughnuts. Just ask me about “little girl” doughnuts and you’ll see my face light up about special, perfectly-portioned treats my dad used to bring us from a small neighborhood doughnut shop. It operated out of a trailer parked in the lot of a shopping plaza. (I suppose this was my early introduction to food carts.) The best flavors always seemed to sell-out before sunrise, and the shop never stayed open past late morning. Now that I'm older, for health-conscious reasons, I stopped eating such fried indulgences. And really, most places selling doughnuts around town just don't do justice to my flavor memory anyways.

Although lately, I've been justifying eating “junk food” if I make it myself AND if I turn it into something a little more “high-end”. About this time last year I became very interested in homemade doughnuts. I was inspired by this post from Cannelle et Vanille, and then as the doughnut trend took off, built up momentum in my doughnut-making repertoire trying several different recipes. The recipe below is adapted from Cannelle et Vanille, but it incorporates the flavors I’ve been drawn to this fall: roasted winter squash and toasted fennel seed; warm notes of caramel with cool notes of licorice. To me, that combination tastes like a decadent candy; satisfyingly sweet but not overly saccharin.

I’ve been sampling various squash from my farm share, trying earnestly to learn the differences amongst them. So far, my squash of choice is delicata. A well-ripened one will taste candied when roasted, but not cloying. A moderate-sized one (just under a pound) yields the perfect amount of puree needed to make these doughnuts. Expect about one cup of puree per pound of squash. Sure it’s an extra step of preparation to roast and puree a whole squash instead of mindlessly opening a can of solid packed pumpkin. But branch out a little in your “from scratch” abilities. Try a new flavor. Learn how to circumvent a pumpkin shortage, if the need again arises. Avoid the fallout from what BPA-lined cans might leech into your food. I'll stop. I think you get the point.

Farmer's Market photo by Sarijk.

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

Delicata Squash & Toasted Fennel Seed Doughnuts
makes about 20 doughnut rings plus 20 doughnut holes

Pre-preparation of squash puree and fennel seeds:

1 medium delicata squash (about 12 oz or 350 grams)
1 TBS fennel seeds

Preheat oven to 350° F. Slice the squash in half lengthwise and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Roast the halves, cut side down, in a baking dish filled with enough water to come a ½-inch up the sides of the squash. Cook until ultra tender when pierced by a fork, 25-30 minutes.

When sufficiently tender, remove squash from oven and allow to rest until cool enough to handle. Scrape the flesh away from the skin and tranfser to the food processor. Puree until extremely smooth, like baby food. Transfer to a mesh sieve set over a bowl and strain for several hours to remove excess liquid.

Meanwhile, place the fennel seeds in a dry skillet set over medium heat. Toast the seeds for about a minute or two. Tossing the seeds often. When they have turned a few shades darker and begin to smell fragrant, remove from heat and transfer to a spice/coffee grinder. Grind the toasted fennel seeds to a fine powder.

To make the doughnuts:
3 cups (375 grams) all purpose flour
scant ½ cup (55 grams) hazelnut flour
10 grams baking powder
8 grams baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1½ tsp freshly ground toasted fennel seed
⅛ tsp ground cloves
10 grams salt
½ cup (110 grams) delicata squash puree
¼ cup (60 grams) whole milk at room temperature
2 TBS (40 grams) sour cream at room temperature
scant ½ cup (100 grams) sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
4 TBS (60 grams) butter, melted

Canola oil, for frying
2 cups (400 grams) sugar
2 tsp freshly ground toasted fennel seed
1 tsp ground cinnamon

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, hazelnut flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground fennel seed, cloves, and salt.

In a separate bowl, mix the squash puree, milk, sour cream, sugar, eggs, and melted butter. Add this wet mixture to the dry ingredients and fold until it starts to come together. Knead lightly with your hands until a cohesive mass forms.

Dust your work surface with a bit of flour and turn out the dough on to this. Dust your hands and the top of the dough mound lightly with flour. Shape and pat the dough gently down into a circle about ½-inch thick. Using a doughnut cutter or two graduated-sized, round cookie cutters, cut out the doughnuts and place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment and dusted with flour.

To fry the doughnuts, fill a pan up to 2" of canola oil. Heat the oil until it reaches 375° F. Do not over-crowd the pan with doughnuts. Fry about 3 at a time (depending on the size of the pan). They will sink to the bottom but then float to the top. Turn them over and let them cook for an additional minute or so.

Drain them on paper towels and while hot, toss them in the cinnamon-fennel seed sugar.

These are best eaten the day they are made, but will last a day or more, loosely covered at room temperature.

French Macarons: trend predictions and ego maintenance

Trend ALERT: Have cupcakes met their match with the French macaron? The macaron may not be mainstream quite yet, but it's been speculated that it's coming. Ask most people (and I have) if they know what a macaron is, and they say “sure!”. Confirm by stating it doesn’t contain sweetened condensed milk or coconut; a bit puzzled, they say “oh?”. Compared to its American namesake, French macarons are a much more sophisticated meringue-style cookie traditionally made with ground almonds. Sandwiched together with a ganache or buttercream or jam or curd, these confections are infinitely customizable by flavor and color combinations. I first read about them a few years back in a foodie magazine article about Christmas gift suggestions. Intrigued, I looked into ordering some as a treat for myself but was shocked to find the shipping price as expensive as the cookies. Determined to have a taste, my next instinct was to figure out how to make them on my own. That’s when I stumbled across the blog of the lovely and talented Tartelette and read every tip and trick I could gather from her. With a great virtual mentor and perhaps beginners luck my first batch ever (tinted purple and filled with a lavender ganache) was perfect! And then I never made them again…

Fast forward to this month where the 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe. I was extremely excited to be reacquainted with macarons—I’ve already done this!

Unfortunately my first batch (cocoa flavored with spooky Halloween decorations) was disappointing. They tasted fine, but looked like sad little cracked and deflated disks, almost too soft and flimsy to hold a filling. I had read much about the finicky nature of the meringue batter, especially the careful attention needed during the macronage process (the technique of incorporating the dry ingredients into the whipped egg whites), but had yet to experience it firsthand. Things worked fine for me the last time. What was I doing wrong this time? Needless to say my kitchen ego was a little bruised, so I regrouped ingredients, pulled out the Tartelette recipe I was comfortable using (sorry Claudia Fleming) and started over. Round two (still cocoa flavored but with fall leaf and pumpkin sugar decorations) turned out so much better. I achieved the much sought after "feet"—that little ruffled edge at the base of the cookie. Complete success!

For the filling I wanted something that evoked the flavors of fall, so I chose a spiced pumpkin, dark chocolate ganache. I adapted it from a recipe shared with me by my favorite local chocolatier, Nancy Biehn of Sweet Gem Confections. I shouldn’t have strayed as far away from her recipe as I did, as the ganache turned out to be a mini disaster of its own—major, inexplicable cocoa butter seepage from the fancy chocolate in which I invested quite a fair penny! I couldn’t get it to pull together to be cohesive with the rest of the mixture. Having run out of ingredients and time to start fresh, I decided to drain off the liquidy cocoa butter and use the remaining spread as is to fill my perfectly-footed macarons. In doing so, I duly noted the additional opportunity for an ego check—making a ganache is usually foolproof.

Understandably, if this hasn’t enticed you to try making these yourself and you want to check if any bakeries near you sell French macarons, here’s a good place to start.

Will the French macaron supplant the cupcake as the next sweet trend? Hmm, perhaps not all regions of the country will readily take to the frillier dessert. If you ask me, I think pie might need to be thrown in the mix for good Midwestern measure. This is just my humble prediction, but it may be quite likely if the amount of flaky pastry dough coming out of my kitchen this year is any sort of barometer.

Chocolate Macarons

Ingredients
3 egg whites (separated from yolks 3 days before baking and kept at a cool room temp)
50 grams granulated sugar
200 grams powdered sugar
110 grams blanched almonds
2 TBS cocoa powder

1. Combine the cocoa powder, powdered sugar and almonds in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery. Sift into a large bowl. Regrind any large leftover bits of nuts in a coffee grinder and add to bowl.
2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment to a foam. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks and you achieve a glossy meringue.
3. Add sifted almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently with a rubber spatula to combine. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients. The whole process should not take more than 50 strokes.
4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.
5. Pipe one-inch-sized rounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper). Let the macarons sit on the counter for an hour to harden their shells a bit.
6. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 300°F. Bake the macaron for 10-12 minutes.
7. Cool completely on a rack before filling.

Makes 2 dozen filled cookies

Spiced Pumpkin, Dark Chocolate Ganache
(this definitely needs tweaking)

1 cup heavy whipping cream
½ cup half and half
1 cup pumpkin puree
4 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
1 tsp cloves
2 lbs chocolate, finely chopped and set aside in a large bowl

In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, bring all ingredients except for chocolate to a boil. Remove from heat and pour over chocolate. Let stand for a minute or so and then stir to incorporate. Ganache should be cooled slightly until firm enough to spread onto macarons.