Doughnuts and Irish Soda Bread (a two-for-one post)

I admit it: I let life get away from me a little bit after the new year. I woke up New Year's Day without a voice, sure that it was Nori's awesome party's fault. But no, it was germs. At a family gathering a couple of days later, Jarrod said I sounded like Mike Tyson. Jarrod's dad said I sounded like I was faking. (He said it nicely, though.)

Anyway, all that is just to say that it has been a low-energy couple of weeks. However, we did manage some bread preparation, including a major departure from James Beard. So now, in chronological order, I offer you Breads of the Last Two Weeks (not to be confused with Breads of India).

First project: DOUGHNUTS. Yes, you heard me right.

For Christmas I ordered Jarrod a doughnut cookbook and doughnut cutter (like a thick cookie cutter that only makes rings), and when the book finally arrived—late—we made some basic raised doughnuts with chocolate glaze first thing. Putting the dough together was a long and moderately arduous task. Unlike many bread doughs, you can't just chuck everything in a bowl and knead, knead, knead.

Side note: One thing that surprised us was the amount of yeast involved in a single doughnut recipe (8-12 doughnuts, depending on size): 3 tablespoons! Then again, they are expected to rise astronomically and to be full of air, so.

In any case, there were lots of steps. The dough was very soft, just on the edge of sticky before its final rise, but surprisingly easy to handle. Which is good, because "handling" in this case means rolling out, cutting out, allowing to rise, then frying in 360-degree vegetable oil.

The final result was pretty amazing (especially after glazing with hella rich chocolate glaze) the first night, but actually kind of cruddy by the next day. I think it's safe to say that, of all the items I've cooked, doughnuts keep least well. That probably had something to do with our pitiable frying technology: we think that the type of oil we used (plain ol' vegetable oil, as opposed to the pure safflower oil recommended) may have caused some unintended greasiness, and we know that our oil was practically never the right temperature. So that.

Holy CRAP they were delicious right after being made, though.

Second project: Irish Soda Bread (back to James Beard!), just this afternoon. As you can see, I was mixing business (terrific edited volume entitled Sex, Drugs and Body Counts, on the politics of numbers) with pleasure.

This has long been one of my favorite recipes, largely because it is insanely easy, fast, and fragrant. Four cups of flour, some buttermilk (I substituted yogurt), baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix, knead three minutes, form, bake. There's no yeast, and hence no rise, and the result is a big round rustic loaf with thick crunchy crust, small chewy crumb and amazing hearty smell. Nom nom nom.

This recipe surprised me by actually calling for enough salt...which is to say, I added too much salt because I usually find Beard's recipes undersalted. Live and learn. Live and learn and nom.