Cucina 49: pastry

A confession: I do not like doughnuts.

Part of it is that I generally don't like sweet breakfast pastries (though a good muffin is welcome), and part of it is that a ring of dough fried in oil just isn't appealing to me.

There are several major Hannukah traditions: lighting the menorah, or candelabra, for eight nights, playing dreidel games and frying foods in oil to commemorate how long the oil lights burned when the Jews reconsecrated the temple. For more about the story of Hannukah and its traditions, please see this link.

Latkes, or potato pancakes, are the most traditional food fried in oil, followed closely by doughnuts filled with jam.

This year, I was lucky enough to receive a gorgeous new wire skimmer from my parents just in time to make treats to take to our friend Vicki's annual Christmas Eve open house. Earlier last week, I heard a wonderful story on the public radio show Here and Now about a Persian chef's take on traditional Hannukah foods, including doughnuts filled with pastry cream instead of jam.

Pastry cream? Hmm, maybe doughnuts didn't sound so bad.

These are not your standard yeast doughnuts. The dough didn't rise very much, and though the doughnuts largely stayed flat, they were delicious when stuffed with pastry cream.

Persian Cream-Filled Doughnuts

Adapted from Chef Reyna Simnegar

1/2 cup unsalted butter

¼ cup sugar
2 tsp. salt
¼ cup water
2 large eggs
2 tbsp. amaretto liqueur

4¼ cups all-purpose flour

4 cups canola oil

For the pastry cream:

1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 egg yolks
5 tsp. cornstarch

Powdered sugar for garnish

Combine the sugar, half-cup of water and yeast in a small bowl. Cover and set aside while the yeast activates.

Using a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, combine the butter, sugar, salt, quarter-cup of water, eggs and amaretto. When those ingredients are just mixed, add two cups of the flour and mix again.

Add the yeast and remaining flour and mix to combine. The dough will be pliable and not too sticky.

Dump the dough on a piece of parchment paper and roll out to an even, one-inch thickness. Set the dough aside for at least an hour in a warm place to rise, covering it with a dish towel or plastic wrap.

When you are ready to make the doughnuts, cut the dough in two-inch circles using a glass or a biscuit cutter. Re-roll the dough scraps and cut out as many doughnuts as possible.

While you are cutting the doughnuts, heat the four cups of oil in a large saucepan. The oil is ready when it registers 350 degrees on a thermometer.

Drop the circles of dough into the hot oil, being careful not to crowd the doughnuts. Flip with a wire skimmer or a slotted spoon so the doughnuts brown on both sides. This process goes very quickly--be careful your oil stays an even temperature and keep an eye on them. Each batch will take less than two minutes.

Place the cooked doughnuts on a paper towel-covered baking rack or in a colander to drain. Repeat with the remaining dough.

Allow the doughnuts to cool completely. While they are cooling, make the pastry cream by combining all five of the ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil, whisking frequently.

Cook the cream for an additional minute, continuing to whisk it. Then remove the cream from the heat and cool at room temperature, whisking periodically.

To fill the doughnuts, use a pastry bag with a long tip. Insert the tip into one end of the doughnut and carve a small hole before inserting the cream. I stopped filling the doughnuts when the sides of them bulged and looked as if they were about to crack.