Sunday Brunch: Churros

In honour of all the movies I've been reviewing, I am going to officially call this recipe Benicio del Churros

 














INGREDIENTS:
Oil for frying (make 1 inch deep)
1/2 cup Water
1/4 cup Vegan Margarine
1/2 cup Flour
1 Egg Replacer
dash Sugar
dash Salt
Sugar + Cinnamon for topping 


Heat oil in a large, deep pan on medium-high (bring to 375F or so...if you let it heat on med-high while following the rest of the directions, you should be good)

Bring water and margarine to a low boil. Stir in flour, salt and sugar and mix into a ball. Remove from heat and stir in egg replacer. Pour mixture into a piping bag or piping tool (used for icing) with a large star or circle tip. Pipe long pieces into the oil and fry each side for 1-2 minutes. Remove from pan, shake off excess oil and toss with cinnamon and sugar. Enjoy while warm!
 

Sunday Brunch: Baked Donuts

Adapted from a King Arthur Flour donut recipe.













INGREDIENTS:
1 cup Flour, minus a heaping tablespoon
1/2 cup Granulated Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
2 tbsp Soy Buttermilk (1 cup Soy Milk w/ 1 tbsp Lemon Juice, left out for 5 minutes...take 2 tbsp of the result)
3 tbsp Vegetable Oil
2 Egg Replacers (I use Ener-G, as usual)

Preheat Oven to 375F. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a measuring cup or small bowl, mix wet ingredients and fold into dry mix. DO NOT OVERMIX! Spoon batter into greased muffin tin or donut pan. Bake for 11 minutes or until lightly golden.

Optional - drizzle with chocolate sauce (as pictured)

Sunday Brunch: Midway Donuts and Beingets

I made a decision that I was going to replicate the donuts that you get at baseball games and at the midway. I searched the internet and found this. I had to swap out some ingredients and make a few adjustments but it is basically the same.

Since I got out the deep fryer, I also tried out making Beingets, a German puff pastry.

Midway Donuts:
1 packet Active Dry Yeast or 2 1/4 tsp from a jar
3 tbsp warm water (I found I needed the extra tbsp to dissolve the yeast)
3 1/4 cups Flour, plus additional for sprinkling and rolling out dough
1 cup Soy Milk - Room Temperature
3 tbsp vegan margarine - Room Temperature
1 Egg Substitute
2 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Salt
Frying Oil

1 Cup Sugar
Cinnamon (to taste...about 1 1/2 tsp)

Combine yeast and warm water in a large bowl, set aside for 10 minutes. Add remaining ingredients to the yeast/water mixture and stir together until just mixed(should be a sticky dough). Set dough aside, covered, and let rise for at least an hour. Pat out dough to 1/2 inch and cut out circles. I like the suggestion of the shot glass from the website, but I might try using cookie cut-outs for shapes next time. Use your pinky finger to poke a hole in the centre. Set aside donuts in fridge to let rise (I wouldn't let the prepared donuts sit for longer than a few hours). Preheat deep fryer to 360F, if you do not have a deep fryer, you can use 2 inches of oil in a deep pot and heat to same temp (hot, but not smoking).

Drop in donuts and cook until golden, flipping once for even cooking. Drain onto paper towel and coat with cinnamon-sugar (or whatever topping you like!)

Beingets:
1/2 packet Dry Yeast
3/4 cup Warm Water
1/4 cup Sugar (brown would probably not work. White or cane would be best)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 Egg Replacer
1/2 cup Evaporated Soy Milk
3 1/2 cups flour
2 tbsp Shortening
Frying Oil
Icing Sugar to Dust

Combine water and yeast in a large bowl and set aside for 10 minutes. While you wait, make your evaporated soy milk by combining 1/2 cup Soy Milk + 2 tbsp Powdered Soy Milk or 1/2 cup Water + 4 tbsp Powdered Soy Milk in a blender and blend until smooth. Should be thicker than soy milk by a decent amount, but not too thick.

Add 2 cups of the flour, sugar, salt, egg replacer and soy milk to the yeast/water mixture, stir together. Add shortening and remaining flour and combine until just mixed. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour, but up to 24. Roll out dough to 1/8 inch thick and cut into 2-3" strips, then into squares and diamonds of similar width.

Heat deep fryer to 360F and put in beingets a few at a time. They should rise to the top of the oil and puff up. Flip once to cook evenly. Drain on a paper towel and top with icing sugar. Enjoy!