Food Law 101; "Even If You Can't Say It Correctly..It is Perfectly Legal To Eat It"!

What do you get when you cross a waffle, a pancake and a doughnut together? You get Aebleskivers of course! Don't worry about the pronunciation; there will be no test at the end of this post...

Aebleskivers are much easier to make and far easier to eat than they will ever be to say. They even have their own special little pan, which is an absolute must to make these properly. These are so much fun; they end up being the size of a tennis ball with the slight crunch of a waffle, the tenderness of a pancake and the taste and sensory pleasure of munching on a doughnut.

Just like doughnuts Aebleskivers can be eaten plain fried or you can fill them with assorted jams, jellies, chocolate or they are incredibly good with a little mashed ripe banana in the middle. Aebleskivers can be dusted in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar or can be dunked in maple syrup or whipped cream. You can just go crazy with these little sugary carby delights.

I truly believe that an Aebleskiver pan is a must in everyone's baking pan collection, once you have it you will see just how much fun they are to make as well as eat.

Aebleskivers

2 c. buttermilk

2 c. flour

2 eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. soda

2 tbsp. sugar

4 tbsp. melted butter

Separate the eggs and beat the whites stiff. Mix all the other ingredients together at one time and beat until smooth. Fold in egg whites last. Put about 1 tablespoon of oil or shortening in the bottom of each cup of the aebleskiver pan and have hot.

Pour in about 2 tablespoons of batter into cup and as soon as they get bubbly around the edge turn quickly. Use forks to turn continue cooking turning the ball to keep from burning.

If you would like these filled add your choice of filling (no more than a teaspoon full) to the center of the batter right before you flip your Aebleskiver over. When finished roll in sugar or leave plain, may also dunk in syrup or dip in whipped cream.

Why Adopt When You Can Raise Your Own Doughnuts!

It really is hard to find a good doughnut these days none of the major doughnut chains even come close to what I remember as being a good doughnut. Granted I am a little spoiled in the doughnut department as I grew up eating them homemade. Although we did have one place in Rochester years ago that made amazing doughnuts by the name of; "Mueller's". Unfortunately they closed up shop many years ago which saddened a great many loyal customers. Mueller's doughnuts were big in size and taste. Today's doughnuts are a quarter of the size they use to be and the fried cakes look like bracelets with these giant gaping holes in the middle. If you got a custard filled at Mueller's it was fresh homemade custard and lots of it, not a little teaspoon full of canned custard which pitifully brushes against the inside of the doughnuts today.
I could complain about doughnut quality all day once I start it is hard to stop.
So as I say when it comes to many food items if you do not like the taste of something you usually purchase already made, make it yourself.
Here is a doughnut recipe that has been around for ages using mashed potatoes, so much easier than the yeast raised.

Mashed Potato Doughnuts

1 c. mashed potatoes
4 tbsp. butter
2 c. sugar
3 beaten eggs
5 c. flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. vanilla

Mix hot mashed potatoes with butter, eggs, baking powder, nutmeg, vanilla, and sugar. The flour will have to be added a little at a time while kneading the mixture together. Use plenty of flour to roll out and cut with doughnut cutter between 1/4-1/2 inch thick.
Place in hot deep fryer (approximately 3 at a time). Turn after they pop up, about 1 minute, and leave for another minute.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar or just enjoy them plain.

Angeloo/flickr

A day at the Casino

Yesterday seven of us went on one of those casino package bus trips. We went to Seneca Niagara Casino on the American side of the falls. You couldn’t beat the price $17.95 second person was half price. The package came with luxury bus travel, $20.00 each in gambling money and a $5.00 voucher for lunch, plus depending on how many points you had on your player’s card you could get an additional dollar amount off the price of your lunch. You could not beat the lunch that we had, we went to their"Thunder Falls Buffet" which had a seafood bar with shrimp and crab legs, fried haddock, fried catfish, mini crab cakes, and all were delicious. They had an Italian bar, salad, bar, pizza bar, southern bar with biscuits, collards, brisket and fried chicken, the brisket was wonderful. Then of course there was the dessert bar which was deadly, I couldn’t decide so I had to try a couple different things (huge sacrifice on my part lol).They had assorted pies, cakes, bars, cookies, brownies even an ice cream sundae bar with all the toppings, I’m surprised they didn’t have to roll us out of there.
All in all it was a great day; we left at 9:30am and were back by 7:00pm. Travel time wasn’t bad as we are only an hour and a half drive away. My 90 year old Aunt who is here from Florida just for the summer came along with my grandmother (her sister) who is 88 they are the only two left of their 5 siblings. So it was really cute seeing them sit on the bus conversing as little old Italian sisters do. The conversation on the bus seemed to veer towards the making of a good doughnut, probably because the doughnuts that we got on the way weren’t the greatest. So today in honor of that conversation I decided to include an old family doughnut recipe, enjoy.

Sweet Milk Doughnuts

4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons butter

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup milk

2 eggs (well beaten)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 -6 cups of oil for frying

Blend together. Roll 1/2 inch thick. Cut using a doughnut cutter or just cut into any shape you would like and let set 5 minutes, then deep fry. You may eat as is or dust with powdered or cinnamon sugars.