Fritter away the doughnuts that make up a good day

[madbaker]

This week's Resolution Recipe: To make dough for doughnut or fritter.

Take a chopine of cream, and boil it in a frying pan with a bit of butter, then take white flour, and make the dough in the frying pan on the fire[:] let it be well mixed with a wooden ladle, then break four eggs in [it], and beat it well with the ladle, that the eggs are well mixed in the dough, then take four more eggs and beat them once more until the dough is soft like a thick batter, add as many eggs as necessary so that the dough is soft enough, then take butter well boiled that the salt is out, then put the butter on the fire which should be a bit hot, then take some dough with a silver spoon as big as a nut, and throw it in the butter, eighteen or twenty at a time, and turn them over often with a skimmer, and let them cook until the dough begins to split, and pull it out, and if you see that the dough withdraws, they are not [done] enough, replace them again until it is enough.
de Casteau, Lancelot; James Prescott et al, trans. Ouverture de Cuisine. Self-published, 2003.

1/2 pint (1 cup) cream
1/4 cup butter
2-3 cups flour
7-8 medium eggses
rapeseed oil
cinnamon
sugar

Bring the cream and butter to a low boil in a saucepan, stirring to prevent scorching. Stir in the flour (until it is a thick dough that pulls away from the sides of the pot) and continue to cook for a few minutes. Remove from the heat. Beat four eggses together and then beat thoroughly into the dough. When they are completely worked in, beat the remaining 3-4 eggses and beat into the dough; the dough should be soft but still firm enough to scoop.

Heat a deep pot full of oil over medium-high heat (275 degrees). Drop in spoonfuls and cook for 1-2 minutes per side. Remove each as they brown, drain, and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Serve warm.

A chopine is approximately half a pint, in Liege 0.319925 litres. The Paris chopine was significantly larger, 0.4657 litres. Other fritter and pastry recipes in this collection call for cinnamon and sugar to be applied afterwards, so it seemed appropriate.

I used rapeseed oil (marketed as Canola) rather than butter for its higher burn point, and for cost reasons. Rapeseed oil is a common medieval and Renaissance frying oil, although it is not as tasty as frying in butter would be.

What worked: They were quite good. Light doughnut holes, really. I made the dough on Thursday to make the process easier and cooked them Saturday morning. This also may have helped relax the already-very-soft dough. The few nice and round balls of dough that I fried cooked well and were attractive.

What didn't: The dough was very soft. Spooning it into the oil meant that most of them were irregular lumps. I couldn't find my thermometer, so I was frying by (virtual) feel with the result that some of them were undercooked in the center. The cinnamon and sugar didn't adhere very well so we ended up sprinkling the plate and mashing the fritters around in it.

I planned to use a metal pipkin, on the theory that suspending the dough balls in oil would produce a lighter, airier end product than in a skillet. Sadly, the pipkin had Spanish moss growing in it (which will be killed by liberal, and repeated, applications of salt and fire before it is used again) so it was a good thing I had brought the skillet as a backup.

Will I make it again? This goes into the tourney breakfast rotation, although I've gotten to prefer having some protein with breakfast. The wife had a good suggestion to use ghee for frying. We can buy it relatively inexpensively at Trader Joe's and frying in ghee would not only be closer to authentic since it's supposed to be butter, but presumably would impart a better flavor than the non-flavor of rapeseed oil.

Comments

7 or 8 eggs doesn't count as protein?

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I just tried a variation on this--mixed the batter as suggested, but instead of frying small bits I cooked it in a largeish cast iron pot which I had set into the oven with some butter in it, to preheat as I mixed the dough. When the dough was ready I took the hot pot out of the oven, swirled around the melted butter to coat the sides, then poured the excess butter into the batter, beat it quickly in, and poured ot into the hot pan, which I put into the oven to bake.

It rose up well more than double the bulk whilst baking. The result was a lovely rich, eggy yellow thing that slices well, and feels nicely protein rich.

Re: 7 or 8 eggs doesn't count as protein?

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

You're right, of course - but this felt more pastry than protein.
I imagine this would work well as what I grew up calling a "Swedish pancake" but other people oddly-to-my-mind call a "Dutch baby".

Re: 7 or 8 eggs doesn't count as protein?

[kareina.livejournal.com]

I think it was comparing it to the Swedish oven pancake that makes it seem so protein rich to me. At least in Norbotten the recipe for oven pancakes involves one liter of milk, only one or two eggs, plus enough flour to make a batter that is starting to get thick, but still has a good flow to it when poured into the pan. This recipe, by comparison, tastes very eggy (at least when baked). However, this version, like the Swedish version, tastes very good combined with raspberry (or other berry) jam (which solves the "cinnamon sugar doesn't stick) issue) +/- whipped cream (or yoghurt).

If I try this again I will try using a large rectangular pan instead of the cast iron pot. The oven pancakes are usually baked in a thin layer in the largest baking pan that fits in the oven (hanging directly from the rails that the wire oven racks normally sit from). I just checked, and measuring in inches ours is 16.5 x 13.75". This lets them cook quickly without over browning before the insides are done, and I think it would work better with this egg-rich version. (Normally I bake cornbread or other quick breads in the cast iron, and it never sticks, but this recipe did, and it was bothersome to have to get out a bamboo skewer to loosen it--with the well buttered rectangle pan that might not be so much of an issue.)

The other think I am curious to try is what happens if one uses the cream straight from the fridge, without cooking it. It was bothersome to have the extra step, when I am used to just whisking together milk and eggs and sifting in a bit of flour. Do you have any idea what advantage boiling the cream imparts?

Re: 7 or 8 eggs doesn't count as protein?

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

According to Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking, scalding the milk/cream makes the fat molecules bind better.

and while I am asking you stuff

[kareina.livejournal.com]

If you are ever bored and want to page through your old resolution recipes, I would be curious to read how many of the "yes" answers to the "will I make this again?" question actually did become a normal part of your cooking habits (and which ones), and which, if any, "no" answers actually turned out to be revisited anyway.

Re: and while I am asking you stuff

[madbaker.livejournal.com]

How many I am not sure. I haven't done a count. I will say that there are a fair number that are in the regular rotation - hippy kale salad, chard bread pudding, carrot/chili salad off the top of my head.