A New Look

What would a new start be without a new look? I rather impetuously decided to try out a new template last night. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but I'll give a few days to get settled, and me a few days to make some formatting tweaks, and see how I feel about it. As always-- your comments are welcome.

A Return to the Daring Bakers- Doughnuts

I have an unhealthy obsession with doughnuts. I love them, well and truly. Although I avoid most fried foods as I don't think they're worth the calories, doughnuts will get me every time. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'll eat any doughnut that crosses my path. As a rule, I prefer cake style over yeast, especially if those yeast doughnuts come from Krispy Kreme. A certain college roommate of mine loved Krispy Kremes, particularly the way they 'melted in your mouth'. Her words, not mine; I like to masticate my baked goods, thank you.

The only other time I attempted doughnuts was in my 10th grade foods class in high school. I remember the special cookie cutter we had (with center hole removal device) and covertly snacking from a brown bag of doughnuts for the rest of the day. Needless to say, I was pleased with the first challenge to bring me back in to the DB fold.

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I chose the Pumpkin Doughnut recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine, by way of Epicurious, as it was a cake-style doughnut, and I had half a can of pumpkin in the fridge from another recipe. I didn't get creative with this one, besides cutting the recipe in half (as there was absolutely no reason for me to have 24 freshly fried tempting treats in my kitchen), so you can follow the link to get to the recipe. This time around, I didn't have a special device for cutting out the center hole so I improvised and used a rolled up piece of paper. Not the best, but it worked, especially once I started dipping it in flour between cuts. The only word of advice I have on the recipe-- make just half the amount of spice sugar to roll the doughnuts in. I made the amount the recipe called for and had tons left over.

A Tuesday with Dorie

I just spent a Tuesday with Dorie, and not just in cookbook form, in real, live, reading from Around My French Table, telling stories about Madame Saucisson form. This was my first book signing, and I was utterly charmed. Dorie is, as they always say, much smaller than the slim woman you expect from pictures. So small, you wonder how she could really be the author of so many books about food, but then she starts talking and you immediately think that yes, this is someone who knows food and loves to share it, both in cookbooks, and in person for those lucky enough to be guests in her home.

As I was waiting in line to have my book signed, I started chatting with some fellow Dorie-admirers, who happen to be food bloggers as well. Strange as this may sound, it was the first time I had ever met other food bloggers in person. Three out of the four of us had been Daring Bakers at one point, and I was reminded again how easy it can be to talk to complete strangers when food is the common denominator. Meeting them, and talking with one of my food idols has inspired me to give Real Good Taste another go, so you will be hearing from me again in the near future. Until then, I'll leave you with a few links to my favorite Dorie Greenspan recipes.

Perfect Party Cake (the name really does say it all)
Dorie's Macarons Parisiens (I'm still working on perfecting this one)
Florida Pie (you'll never go back to plain Key Lime again)
Chocolate Chocolate Cupcakes (you can see the recipe if you search in Baking: From My Home to Yours on Google books
And finally, Dorie's own website, where she often posts recipes and stories about her fabulous life.