Cake Donuts

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We're all about desserts over here and we always have a blast making donuts!  Plain ol' glazed donuts are my favorite but recently I've decided to branch out and try to make Slade's favorite, cake donuts!  It's only been about a year since I've known that they are actually called "cake donuts." Slade calls them "sprinkies" and I assumed that any donut with sprinkles is what he wanted... wrong.  I went on a search for a great recipe and let me tell you, these are legit!  We've made these a couple of times and the whole family gobbles them up!  This is a simple recipe that only requires the dough to be refrigerated an hour, not the usual "refrigerate several hours or overnight" business that comes with other donut recipes.

ENJOY!





Glazed Cake Donuts
(makes about 8 donuts)
Ingredients

Cake Donut

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 large egg, room temperature and lightly beaten
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 cups vegetable oil (2-3 inches deep in your pan)

Glaze

• 4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 teaspoons corn syrup (don't have this on-hand so you can sub with 2 t sugar and 1 t hot water combined and then add it to the glaze)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4-1/2 cup milk

Chocolate Glaze

• make glaze with recipe from above then add 1/2 cup cocoa powder with 1-2 tablespoons milk

Instructions
Cake Donut

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt.
2. Add milk, egg, butter, and vanilla extract.  Stir until ingredients are fully incorporated.  The dough will be sticky!  Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
3. Roll out dough onto lightly floured surface 3/4 inches to 1 inch thick (so they won't be too flat) 
4. Use donut cutter to cut them out (I don't have a special donut cutter so I improvised using circle cookie cutters one being about 3 1/2" in diameter and and small one that's about an inch in diameter.
5. Set donuts onto cookie sheet.

Prepare Glaze

1. Mix all ingredients in a medium to large bowl.  Whisk until they are smooth and you have reached your desired consistency (we like a thick syrup consistency).

Begin Frying

1. Heat oil to 350 degrees and drop donuts in (the original recipe suggested one at a time, but I'm impatient and did two at a time which still worked great)
2. Allow each donut to brown for 45 seconds to 1 minute on one side before flipping and cooking the other side.
3. Remove from the oil and set them on a paper towel-lined plate.
4. Let the donuts cool a bit and then dunk them into your glaze halfway.  Place them on a cooling rack over a baking sheet to allow drips to fall down and off of the donut.  I dip them twice to get a thicker glaze on top!

***Some family members prefer original glaze and others would rather have the chocolate so I make up the original glaze first, dunk half of the donuts, then add the cocoa powder and milk to make the chocolate glaze for the rest.  Also, they wouldn't be "sprinkies" donuts if there weren't any sprinkles involved!

Original recipe taken from https://iambaker.net/cake-donuts/
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Elsie's Chocolate Eclairs

Slade and Kerry have gotten really good at making these.  Kerry will call Slade and tell him he made a really big batch of pudding.  This way he hints to Slade to  make the eclairs to go with it.


Ingredients:
1 c water
1 stick butter
1 C flour
dash of salt
4 eggs

Filling:
Cook and Serve Vanilla Pudding prepared

Boil water add butter until it has melted.  Add flour all at once.  Cook stirring constantly until mixture forms a ball around spoon.
Take off heat.  Cool 2-3 minutes.  Add eggs one at a time.  After last egg beat mixture until it is shiny and smooth.
Bake at 450° for 10 minutes then reduce heat until 325° for last 10 minutes.
Cool
Cut in half and fill with  prepared cook and serve vanilla pudding.

Frosting:
Cocoa
Powdered sugar
Butter
Milk

Kerry's Lasagna

This lasagna is good - A+ good. Dad makes homemade noodles to go in it which kicks it up a notch but I use store-bought ones and it's an "acceptable" substitute :) This is Garrisons all-time favorite, #1 requested meal. Chase hates lasagna in general but loves this one. For me, the fennel is a must but it can be left out if you don't care for the taste of fennel. I recommend making the french bread found HERE to go with this dish.

Kerry's Lasagna

1lb sweet Italian sausage
1lb lean ground beef
1 large white onion, minced
5 cloves garlic, crushed
28 oz can crushed tomatoes
12 oz tomato paste
15 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 c chicken broth
2 tbs white sugar
1/2 c chopped fresh basil
1 tsp fennel seeds (optional)
1 tsp ground oregano
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 c + 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley, divided
1 lb lasagna noodles (Dad makes homemade noodle. Find the recipe for his homemade noodles here)
30 oz cottage cheese
1 large egg
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 pound mozzarella cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese

In a large pot over medium heat, add in ground sausage and ground beef. Use a spoon to break up the meat into small pieces. Add in onion and garlic and cook until meat is well browned, stirring constantly. Stir in sugar, fresh basil, fennel, oregano, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper, and 1/4 cup chopped parsley. Pour in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and chicken broth. Stir well and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer 1-4 hours, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, place lasagna noodles into the bottom of a pan. Pour hot tap water directly over the noodles, making sure the pasta is completely immersed in the water. Let them soak for 30 minutes, then drain and discard water.

In a mixing bowl, combine ricotta cheese with egg, remaining 2 tablespoons parsley, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and nutmeg. Refrigerate until ready to assemble the lasagna.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease a deep 9x13 pan.

To assemble, spread about 1 cup of meat sauce in the bottom of the prepared pan. Place 4 noodles on top. Spread with 1/3 of the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with 1/4 of mozzarella cheese slices. Spoon 1 1/2 cups meat sauce over mozzarella, then sprinkle with 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Repeat layering two more times to create three complete layers. To finish, place a final layer of pasta, topped with another 1 cup of meat sauce to cover the pasta. Top with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan cheese. Cover loosely with aluminum foil.

Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes. Remove foil, and bake an additional 25 minutes to allow the cheese to brown. Serve hot.

No Bake Cookies

For those of you who don't live with Dad or Slade, this recipe is for you!

You too can have good no bakes any time you'd like ;) 

Another "must have" recipe for the food blog.

No Bake Cookies

2c. sugar
1/2c. milk
1/4c. cocoa
1/2c. butter (1 stick)

Simmer for 2min. Remove from heat and add:

2/3c. peanut butter
1/2t. vanilla
Add approximately 4c. oats (or until desired consistency)

Drop by the spoonful onto foil, wax paper or parchment (whatever you have will work) Let them cool slightly and enjoy!

I know you have been waiting for this recipe so.....You are welcome! :)