Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts and Boiled Cider

 Like I needed another favorite recipe! and don't worry if you don't have a doughnut pan, just make muffins!

The recipe also says you can use concentrated apple juice instead of the boiled cider but you won't get the flavor out of it. It only takes an hour or 2 to boil down a quart of cider and have your 2 tablespoons. Try it!




Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts

Adapted from King Arthur Flour If you'd rather coat the doughnuts in cinnamon and sugar (which I highly recommend trying!), try this technique from A Cambridge Story: Brush the doughnuts with cider and coat with a mix of 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. If you go this route, you can skip the glaze below. The boiled cider is optional (you can use apple concentrate if you'd rather, but make sure to see the note below and add lemon to the glaze) if you don't want to shell out the money for it or make it yourself, but I have to say, it's pretty tasty and is great for salad dressings and it's even great in a glass of seltzer.
Yield 
6 doughnuts 

Ingredients

  • For the Doughnuts: 
     
    • 2 tablespoons soft butter
    • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon Vietnamese cinnamon
    • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
    • 2 tablespoons boiled cider or thawed frozen apple juice concentrate
    • 1 large egg
    • 1 teaspoon baking powder
    • 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
    • 1/4 cup Hi-maize Fiber (optional)
    • 1 cup King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
    • 1/2 cup milk 
     
    For the Glaze:
    • 3 tablespoons boiled cider or thawed frozen apple juice concentrate*
    • 1 1/2 cups sugar
    • 2 tablespoons corn syrup or honey
    • 1/4 cup water

Instructions

    1. To make the doughnuts:
    2. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease a standard doughnut pan.
    3. Beat together the butter, oil, sugar, salt, and spices. Beat in the boiled cider, then the egg. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl.
    4. In another bowl, whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, Hi-maize (if using), and flour. Stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with flour. Spoon the batter into the pan, smoothing the tops.
    5. Bake the doughnuts for 10 to 12 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into one comes out clean. Remove them from the oven, wait 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool.
    6. To make the glaze:
    7. Place all the glaze ingredients into a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil, cover the pan, and boil for 3 minutes. Remove the cover and boil for a few more minutes, until the syrup reaches soft ball stage, 240°F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove from the heat, and cool slightly.
    8. Carefully dip the doughnut tops in the warm syrup (reheat the syrup if it's thickened too much) and place on a rack.

Notes

Any extra syrup will hold for up to a week, covered, in the refrigerator. *If you use apple juice concentrate, add 1 teaspoon lemon juice; the concentrate 
isn't as flavorful as boiled cider. OR you can make your own boiled cider!
 
 
 
 

Boiled Cider (Apple Molasses)

Boiled Cider is everything wonderful about fall condensed into one syrup. It's pure, distilled essence of apple. It's completely and utterly wonderful. And you get all this just by boiling a pot of cider.

Ingredients

    • 2 gallons apple cider (or less, but remember you will be reducing this to 1/7th of it's original volume.)

Instructions

    1. Pour apple cider into a very large, non-reactive stockpot (stainless steel, copper, or glass, but NOT aluminum unless it's coated.)
    2. Use a clean ruler or wooden stick that you can mark with the starting level of the cider.
    3. Turn heat to high, cover the pot with a splatter screen (to prevent flies or other insects from dropping into the pot) and bring to a boil.
    4. Boil the cider hard until it has reduced to 1/7th of its original volume. Watch more carefully toward the end because it may creep up higher in the pan as it becomes thicker and bubbles stack up on each other. Turn off the heat and let the bubbles die down to check the depth of the liquid with your ruler or dipstick. You should end up with approximately the volume that it takes to fill a clean, empty 750ml wine bottle.
    5. Pour into a clean, sterile jar (for long term storage) or a clean, empty wine bottle (for short term, refrigerated storage). Cover tightly and store in a cool, dark place.
 

Notes 

Boiled Cider started as a way the settlers devised to preserve cider long past when even hard cider would be drinkable and would pass into irretrievably vinegar territory. Kept in a bottle on the pantry shelf, this stuff lasted through the winter and into the next apple season for them and it will do the same for you.
What do you do with Boiled Cider? Let me get you started, but once you have this handy, you’ll be off and running.
  • Drizzle over vanilla ice cream.
  • Use to baste pork roasts or chops, ham, chicken or glaze other meats.
  • Stir a little into hot tea.
  • Pour some into a mug, add a shot of whiskey or brandy, and top off with hot water.
  • Toss a tablespoon or two to the sliced apples for a pie or apple crisp. You will be blown away by how much more appley it tastes. (I know many professional bakers add this to their pies and crisps as their secret ingredient!)
  • Whisk into cream cheese icing for a pumpkin spice cake and be prepared for the compliments.
  • …Our personal favourite: Pour a tablespoon over ice, fill the rest of the glass with seltzer water, and give a quick stir. Voila! Healthy apple cider soda!

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Game Day Oven Burgers


GAME-DAY OVEN BURGERS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.

1 pound lean ground sirloin
1 packet (½ box) Lipton Dry Onion soup (I used Beefy Onion)
1 egg, beaten
2 Tablespoons of your favorite burger flavoring: ketchup, Worcestershire, steak sauce, hot sauce, or whatever (I used A.-1. Steak Sauce)

¼ cup bread crumbs***
4 Kaiser Rolls, unsliced





Note: This recipe calls for 4 rolls but I'm sure you could probably use 5. the burgers are pretty big.

Put the meat in a large bowl. Add the onion soup and mix it up with your fingers.
Whip up the egg in a glass with a fork and add it to your bowl. Squish everything around with your fingers.
Add 2 Tablespoons of your favorite burger flavoring and mix that in.
Sprinkle on the bread crumbs and mix them in just as evenly as you can. They’ll soak up some of the egg and the meat juices.


Take 4 unsliced Kaiser Rolls and carve out the insides. Be very careful that you don’t make a hole in the bottom. Try to leave at least a quarter-inch of bread around the inside of the roll and on the bottom.


 Note: There are two ways to prepare your Kaiser Rolls. One way is to pick out the insides until it resembles a little bread bowl. The other way is to cut a thin slice off the top of the roll, set it aside, and then pick out the bread inside until it resembles a little bread bowl. If you choose to get rid of the top, your burger will look brown and delicious. If you choose to pack your meat mixture inside and then clamp on the lid, your burger won’t brown as much. This method, however, has the added advantage of allowing you to take off the top after it’s baked and add extras like lettuce, pickles, and sliced tomato before clamping the top back on again.You decide. They’re delicious both ways.

Spoon about ¼ cup of the meat mixture into each hollow Kaiser Roll. One pound of lean ground sirloin should fill 4 Kaiser Rolls. If you’re afraid the juices are going to leak out the bottom and run all over your oven, bake the rolls in a disposable aluminum pan with sides or in a cake pan lined with foil.
Bake the Oven Burgers at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes. Serve warm. If you’d like to add cheese, take them out of the oven 5 minutes early, put on a piece of cheese, and stick them back in again for the remaining 5 minutes.


2nd Note: The roll gets pretty crunchy when made into 4 burgers if you make 5, cut down on the cooking time and maybe they won't be quite so crunchy.

3rd Note: If you can’t find Kaiser Rolls, any round bakery roll that’s not too soft will work. Make sure your rolls are over 2 and 1/2 inches high, unsliced, and the size of a large hamburger bun. I’ve even used unsliced hamburger buns from grocery stores that have bakeries. I haven’t tried this recipe with commercial hamburger buns (the kind you find in the bread aisle), but instinct tells me they’ll be too soft and the juices from the hamburger will probably leak out.