Cure for the Winter Crankies
Well, we’re in the middle of it.
It being January. It being winter. It being the season that most people dislike.
The internet told me that only 7% of people name winter as their favorite season. I know that this is totally accurate because I found it on the Internet. Also, the website where I found it has the word “gov” in it and therefore must be reliable information published by the government. Right?
Throughout much of the U.S., it is icy and snowy and dreary and grey and very, very cold right now. Unless you are one of the 7%, you are probably very cranky. I actually love cold weather, AND it’s my birthday month.
I am still very cranky.
Here’s what I like to do to address this Very Cranky Situation.
- Take a walk outside daily to try to get some sun exposure. I layer lots, put on a neck gaiter, and as long as it’s above 0 degrees, I go outside and walk. If it’s icy, I put on my Yak Traks that I got at Costco for about $10. Not only can we do hard things, we can be hardy people.
- If for some reason I just cannot walk outside, l exercise inside. Check out Turino Fitness on Facebook (courtesy of my friend Sarah) for great body weight workouts . I skip all burpees because burpees make me exceptionally cranky. When I lived in Minnesota and it was really cold for weeks on end, I sometimes sat in front of a light therapy lamp to at least get fake sunshine.
- Eat something green every day. Green things are good and make me feel a little bit more human.
- Check out some books from the library. I just finished The Power, which was fairly traumatizing, and am about to start How States Got Their Shapes, which I sincerely hope is not traumatizing at all.
- Make Lemon Blueberry donuts. They taste like sunshine. In a donut. Sorta miraculous. My taste testers just about burst into applause after trying them.
I would dearly love to hear what you do to banish the Winter Crankies for yourself. Let’s go forth and create some sunshine together!
I was inspired to make these donuts by one of my favorite items I used to bake for sale: Lemon Blueberry Scones. There are two topping options here: a lemon-infused sugar and a lemon glaze. The sugar is much lighter on the lemon flavor while the glaze is more assertively lemony. You pick which will help you feel more sunshine-y.
I prefer to bake with wild blueberries. I like how small and firm they are in baked goods instead of the great big blobs regular blueberries often turn into. Because the berries are frozen, this dough is quite a bit more wet than other donut doughs I’ve shared. I found that a good long chill, sprinkling on some flour when re-rolling scraps, and rather heavily flouring the pan holding the shaped donuts were all essential. Also, the dough requires a bit longer frying time than my traditional cake donuts. As always, check your first donut out of the fryer to be sure of it’s doneness.
Lemon Blueberry Cake Donuts
Adapted from Stephen Collucci’s Basic Cake Donuts
Ingredients:
Dough:
3 cups all purpose flour, plus 1 tablespoon and extra for flouring cutters
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 large egg
1/2 cup buttermilk (or make clabbered milk: 1/2 cup milk + 1/2 tablespoon white vinegar, allowed to stand for 10 minutes)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup frozen wild blueberries
A lot of vegetable oil (at least 48 ounces, probably more)
Toppings: (Each one is enough to top a full batch of donuts. Feel free to cut the amounts in half for half batch glazed, half batch sugared.)
For lemon sugar: 1 cup granulated sugar + 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
For glaze: 3 cups powdered sugar + 6 - 8 tablespoons lemon juice
Directions:
Make the dough: Place the first 6 ingredients (flour through baking soda) in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment, combine on low. Add the egg and mix on lowest setting for 10 seconds until mixture is barely crumbly. Add next 5 ingredients (buttermilk through vanilla extract) and mix on low for about 30 seconds, stopping to scrape the bowl once, until combined into a uniform, thick, stiff dough.
Place frozen blueberries and 1 tablespoon flour into a small bowl, and stir until berries are coated with flour. Add berries to dough in mixing bowl. Mix on low for about 15 seconds, stopping to scrape if needed, until berries are evenly distributed throughout dough. Berries will leak and stain dough purple; try not to overmix so that they burst.
Place a large piece of parchment paper on the countertop. Scoop the dough out of the bowl onto the parchment, and cover with an additional piece of parchment. Using your hand, gently flatten the dough. Then, use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to 1/2” thickness. Place the dough in parchment in the refrigerator, and let chill for at least 60 minutes or until the dough does not stick when parchment is peeled away from it.
Prepare the donut making and topping stations: Line a baking sheet with paper towels, and set next to your stovetop. Dust another rimmed baking sheet very well with flour (remember, the dough is sticker than usual), and place a few tablespoons of flour in a small bowl next to your donut cutters. If using lemon sugar, use your hands to mix granulated sugar and 1 tablespoon lemon zest in a medium bowl, and set aside. If using glaze, place powdered sugar in a medium bowl and add 6 tablespoons of lemon juice. Stir together until the consistency of glue, adding the additional tablespoon or two of lemon juice if needed, and set aside. Place a cooling rack on a large rimmed baking sheet (or on top of a piece of parchment or wax paper) on the counter next to your topping bowl.
Begin heating the oil: About 10 minutes prior to cutting, place at least 2” of vegetable oil in a large, heavy pot outfitted with a candy thermometer. Heat over medium and keep an eye on it. Once it reaches 350 degrees, you’re ready to fry.
Cut the dough: Meanwhile, when the top piece of parchment can be peeled away from dough without significant sticking, remove it entirely from the dough and then set back gently onto the dough (it won't stick). Flip dough over, peel that side of parchment off, and set it aside. Dip a 3” cutter into flour, cut one donut, then cut a hole in the center with the 1” cutter. Remove the donut to the floured baking sheet, and set the donut hole aside. Repeat this process until you’ve cut as many donuts as possible. Dust parchment paper on counter with flour, gently squeeze the donut holes and scraps together, place dough on floured parchment, dust the top of dough well with flour, and cover with other sheet of parchment. Very gently, roll out dough to 1/2” thickness. Repeat cutting and rolling process until you have about 12 donuts (and perhaps 1 or 2 donut holes).
Fry the donuts: Once oil has reached 350 degrees, use a skimmer to gently slip one donut at a time into the pot, only adding as many donuts as you can without overcrowding the pan. Cook for 90 seconds, then flip donuts over using skimmer. Cook for an additional 90 seconds, until both sides are a deep golden brown color (60 seconds per side for donut holes). One at a time, remove the donuts with the skimmer and place on the paper towel-lined pan. Repeat frying with the remaining donuts, allowing the oil to return to 350 degrees before adding more.
Top the donuts: After removing donuts from oil, allow them to cool just until they are no longer too hot to touch (just a few minutes). If using lemon sugar, immediately dunk in the sugar, turning over to coat thoroughly. If using lemon glaze, immediately dunk the top half only of the donut in the glaze. Place on cooling rack to cool slightly before serving or for glaze to set if using, about 20 minutes. Yield: 12ish lovely donuts and just a couple of donut holes.
1. Get your zester out and start grating! You'll need the zest of about 1 - 1/2 lemons. My very favorite zesting tool is the Microplane grater.
2. Mix your dough as you would for traditional cake donuts. It'll be fairly thick and stiff, but with lovely little bits of lemon zest for flavor.
3. Mix your blueberries with some flour before mixing into the dough. In theory, it keeps the berries from leaking their color. I don't know if that actually works here, but an extra tablespoon of flour certainly won't hurt such a sticky dough.
4. Mix the berries into the dough on low, trying to keep the mixing as brief as possible. We don't want a berry apocalypse, but some streaks and marbling are going to happen.
5. After rolling and chilling, cut the donuts using a 3" round cutter and a 1" round cutter. You may need to use a good bit of flour to help with sticking. Just try to shake off the excess before adding the donut to the hot oil.
6. Fry your beautiful dough in a few inches of 350 degree oil for about 90 seconds each side. The donuts will puff up and the outside will become delightfully brown. You'll see hints of the blueberries and marbled interior peeking out though.
7. If using sugar instead of glaze, use your (really clean) hands to rub the zest into the sugar. It's a bit difficult to get the zest evenly distributed using a whisk or spoon.
8. If using glaze, mix it to the consistency of glue (think about all your elementary school craft projects!). You want it to form pretty drips down the sides of the donut when you dunk the top. Skip a full dunk for this one; it will be overpoweringly lemony.
9. Dunk the entire donut in the lemon sugar. All of my testers found that these sugared donuts had just a hint of a lemon taste. If you're serving to someone who isn't wild about lemon, this might be the best choice. I found them irresistibly pretty!
10. If you want a wallop of lemon flavor, the glaze is your best bet. Glaze drips make me swoon.