brown butter brioche donuts
with a brownie spice glaze, though you can get crazy with the glazes. Don't let me limit you.
A week and a half ago my oven stopped working. I had excitedly made a test batch of a cookie dough I’ve been working on, went to put it in the oven that had been “pre-heating” for an hour, just to find it was still ice cold inside and smelled like GAS. Tragic, heartbreaking, and a pain in the ass to deal with/get fixed. You know it’s actually fine, aside from the hassle of getting cakes baked for orders etc etc. But, it’s been pushing upper 80s, low 90s in Los Angeles for a while, despite being “fall” and honestly, who wants to turn on a 350F oven when you’re already melting? So, the logical next step is to turn on the equally hot deep fryer to make donuts.
Normally, I don’t refer to anything I make as “the best”. You’ll never see me label a recipe as “the best cinnamon roll you’ve ever had”. For a slew of reasons: I don’t know what cinnamon rolls you’ve had in your life, I can’t rank them for you. Also, like personal tastes in general play a big part in titling things as “best”. So, I try not to reel you in with false hope. Because I really don’t want to hear people bitch and moan when they make the recipe and it turns out you’ve “had better”. I make and share what I’m craving, how I enjoy it. If you like it then that’s great, and if you don’t… well, that's cool too. If you think you can take the recipe and make it better for your tastes, I highly encourage you to do so ♡
Humility rant aside, one thing I do exceptionally well. Donuts. Sure some things fry up a little lopsided, or get an air bubble to two- the texture and taste though? Always pretty damn impeccable. I’ve out done myself this time too, by adding brown butter to the mix. GOD, brown butter makes everything better. These are the absolute next level. I was sent some of Benjamin the Baker’s Everything Brownie collab with Burlap and Barrel this week and it was just begggggging to be paired with a brown butter donut. The blend is subtly chocolatey and malty, the flavor reminds me of the crisp edges you munch on as chef snack when you’re trimming a brownie slab. But, the beauty of this donut is you can pair it with virtually any glaze you can dream up. Or rolled in cinnamon sugar. Or dare I say, eaten plain? You can also portion the dough into rounds and fry them off for filled donuts. Then the world that is your oyster doubles and you can fill them with a litany of fillings: curd, jam, pastry cream, caramel, etc etc etc.
For personal use, my recipes are always evolving and upgrading, as should yours. Every so often, that vanilla sponge I’ve been making the same for a year? It’s time to see if we can make it even better. See someone use a new technique you want to try out with your favorite recipe? Give it a whirl. The beautiful thing about knowledge is that it compounds and grows. This week I listened to two great “She’s My Cherry Pie” podcast episodes with Fany Gerson of Fan Fan Doughnuts and Zoe Kanan of Zoe’s Doughies. I love living in the modern age, holy shit. Two incredibly talented people, who I’ve yet to meet but still get to learn from while sitting in traffic. SICK. So cool.
Anyways, Zoe was diving into her frying methods and mentioned she fries at a higher temp than I normally do and that she flips the donuts after 20 seconds, fries the other side for 45 and flips back for another 45 seconds. What??? A rule I hadn’t thought to break. I was always told to never flip and flop things while frying- let one side finish before flipping to the other. But, that’s what you have to do- learn the rules, so you know how to break them. I loved this and immediately implemented a similar frying technique to my next batch of donuts. It definitely helps to set the outer crust of the donut while the other side fries- they came out so beautifully. Keep an open mind and you might just learn something new.
OH and we cannot forget a baking playlist for the *vibes*;
