Dessert

Every now and then when I go to the downtown Farmers Market I get a delicious treat from one of the Amish vendors. A Powdered Angel Cream Filled Donut. The best donut I’ve ever had. I was browsing Foodgawker (only my favorite website ever) today and thought “oh my gosh, what if I could make the angel cream donuts????” So I looked up some recipes and came up with this extreme experiment.

I have an aversion to frying my own donuts, I’ve only ever wanted to bake them. You know, cakey baked donuts? Yum. But I didn’t feel like that would work with the angel cream. Then I remembered the Soft Pretzel recipe I love and decided to turn them into a sort of donut instead. This Soft Pretzel recipe makes those mall pretzels that, when smothered in cinnamon sugar, pretty much taste like a slightly salty donut. Again… Yum.

So here’s my experimental recipe…

Soft Pretzel Sandwiched with Angel Cream

Soft Pretzel Donut:

1 Cup Whole Milk

1 TBSP Dry Active Yeast

4 TBSP Brown Sugar

2 1/4 Cups AP Flour

3 TBSP Melted Salted Butter (plus extra for painting)

In large bowl, warm milk in microwave for about 50 seconds. Add yeast and let sit for 5 minutes to activate yeast. Add sugar and let sit 2 more minutes. Add 1 cup of flour and stir with a wooden spoon until comes together. This is important, don’t add all the flour at once. Stir in melted butter (if using unsalted butter add between 1/2 to 1 TSP salt). Then add remaining flour and stir until sticky ball is formed.

Turn out onto floured surface and knead briefly to form soft ball. Place in a clean, oiled bowl and cover to let rise. May take anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours, depending on climate to rise. You want the dough to double in size. Once doubled, preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. Punch dough gently and turn out onto floured surface. Separate into balls to form your donuts. Knead into donut shape, almost like a round disk. The number of balls depends on the size you want your donuts. Remember! they will increase in size after baking soda bath & bake. Which brings us to the next step!

Baking Soda Bath:

1/4 Cup Baking Soda

Enough water necessary to bathe your donuts.

Combine baking soda in bowl or pan of water. Dunk the donuts in baking soda bath so that they are completely covered. They only need to be in the mixture for about 10 seconds. They’ll puff up immediately. Remove and transfer to baking sheet.

Brush top of pretzel ball lightly with melted butter. Sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake at 450 Degrees for about 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Icing/Filling:

1/2 stick Crisco Vegetable Shortening

2 Cups Powdered Sugar

2 TBSP Granulated Sugar

1/4 Cup of Whole Milk

Blend until light and fluffy.

Once Pretzels in shape of donuts are cooled, cut in half. Slather with Angel Cream Icing and sandwich sides together. If desired, dunk top in melted butter then powdered sugar or combination or powdered sugar & cinnamon.

These are very dense & rich. I recommend making them SMALL. Mine were a little big and as a result a little dense and a lot to eat. Also, when I was making them I became pretty nervous that the combination would be strange but it was actually delicious. Soft pretzels and angel cream icing? Totally delicious.

Over the weekend I visited Stephen in State College and we went apple picking at Way Fruit Farm!!! I was so excited. I’d been wanting to pick apples for at least a month and couldn’t find a farm I was sure offered it. We went to Way Fruit Farms because I discovered they had a Fall Festival day and pumpkin patch picking IN THE FIELD. When we got there the line for the truck that takes you to the pumpkins was soooo long & my greater desire was apple-picking anyway so we got a 1/2 peck of a variety of about 4 apples. It was so much fun! I highly recommend it!

After we picked our 1/2 peck of apples we went inside to grab some of the BEST APPLE CIDER EVER. I’m telling you, Way Fruit Farm makes the best apple cider I have ever had. I don’t like my apple cider too sweet and theirs is just perfect. There are no added sweeteners or preservatives so you must keep it cold and it doesn’t keep for very long but we drink it pretty fast. Hot or cold, it is divine. Stephen has taken to adding a splash of Cinnamon Whisky which is also a delicious touch. I don’t usually prefer whiskey but that stuff tastes like pure cinnamon yumminess.

When we got back to the apartment I picked which apples I wanted to use for my first ever apple pie. I was so excited.

As you can see, there are a variety of apples there. I also borrowed (stole, although I guess he got some of it back when he ate the pie) one HoneyCrisp from a 1/4 peck Stephen had bought at the Farmer’s Market.

Anyway, onto the pie recipe!!

Kelley’s First Apple Pie:

For the Crust: