d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-DONUTS! A story of failure, and a new hope.

Yes, donuts. The silly season is past (or is it? Does New Years day count? When is the official end??) and the White Christmas and Peanut Brittle are gone. The former we ate some of and the rest got chucked after Mum and Dad left and the rice puffs went a little soggy (after storing well for a week in the fridge). The latter we ate all of. Oops.

My story begins yesterday as I was doing the shopping. As always at my local shopping centre I walk past the Donut King. As usual, I stop to get a latte there. The donuts smell nice. That cinnamon-y donut-y smell. When I ask for my coffee with no sugar, the girl who is serving misunderstands and asks if I want donuts without sugar. Well yes, I would, but I know she just means the cinnamon sugar that is dusted on, I doubt they will make me up some sugar free batter. But an idea is spawned then and there, as I sipped my latte: sugar free donuts. I have to give it a go.

I've never made donuts, and truthfully I don't think I have ever deep fried anything. I don't own a deep fryer but I do own a sturdy saucepan, a candy/deep frying thermometer and a willing heart. So I arrived home with a car full of shopping and a head full of donut dreams. I needed to research a) donut recipes (preferably easy) and b) the best oils/fats for deep frying. The recipe was simple, there are a plethora of simple recipes for what are claimed to be donuts; the oil slightly less so because of the ongoing controversy about saturated vs unsaturated fats. I don't fear a saturate or two so I chose lard for my deep frying needs, mainly because it has a high smoke point, it is solid at room temperature (a must for donuts, otherwise they seep oil and get soggy) and a website by a US Donut Bakery where they stated that they used only the finest quality lard because of the importance of the 'mouth feel' of the donut. Well mouth feel is important to me as to any donut consumer, so lard it would be. Also, I knew I could buy it at the supermarket. I ignored internet posts suggesting that supermarket lard is inferior and I should get high quality lard from a farmers market. Some people have no idea about spontenaity.

Once the lard was in hand (actually, in fridge), I started the dough. The recipe is here. I didn't modify it other than to halve the recipe (not an easy proposition when the full recipe calls for one egg) and to use 1 tablespoon of dextrose instead of 75g sugar. I felt that I didn't want my donuts to be all that sweet, but I planned to cover them in a mixture of dextrose and cinnamon to get that true donut taste. Oh foolish mortal.

As soon as I started making the dough, I had my doubts. As I said, I have not made donuts before, but I have made scones before. This is pretty darn similar to a scone recipe, I thought to myself, except for the half an egg. Would this really make a delicious, fluffy treat once treated with lard?

Look, I won't tease you any longer. The answer is no.

I pretty much made deep fried scones. Even covered in dextrose and cinnamon, they were...not nice. Then there was the smell of the now-bubbling lard. I had read that lard is beef fat (plus some gross things about which part of the cow it was from, especially from those who visit farmers markets for their lard) so I was expecting some smell. The lard I used was clearly, clearly pig fat. I mean clearly. My nose does not lie. I love crackling as much as the next person (who loves crackling), but there is a point a gal reaches when standing over a bubbling pot of pig fat watching a deep fried scone float to the surface when it just becomes a bit overpowering. And I had to keep monitoring the temperature of the oil, taking it on and off the heat (carefully so as not to start a house fire/ set off smoke alarms and wake my son). And despite my best efforts, the dough was not magically turning to donut.

This was not going to happen, clearly. I turned off the stove and walked away (after carefully removing the pot from the hot element). Both the cooked and uncooked 'sconuts' went in the bin. May they rest in peace.

But I'm not beaten yet. There are other donut recipes to try, ones that actually might produce a donut-type product, with or without sugar. There are deep fryers to purchase or (more likely) borrow. There are other oils to fry foods in. With you as my witness, dear reader, someday I will eat a donut again, and it will be sugar free. And it will not smell like pig fat or taste like a crispy scone. But excuse me if it is not soon, I think deep frying and I need some time apart.

In the meanwhile, there are always Donut Muffins. My wonderful friend Betsi (a fellow blogspot-ee) posted a recipe ages ago for these, which she called Doughnut Muffins. I'm not going to quibble with her spelling as I'm about to steal her recipe (although I note that DK chooses my spelling...look, I'll be honest, I was faced with a decision and went with donut as easier to type, ok?).

Following the digital trail backwards across blogs, the original recipe is here. I've made two modifications to the recipe. One is substituting butter for the oil. I hate cooking cakes or muffins with oil, I much prefer to cook with butter, and a quick internet search told me this was possible with baked products such as muffins (but not with other products such as choux pastry- which I could care less about). And the other was obviously using dextrose instead of sugar. I used 1/2 cup dextrose instead of 3/4 cup sugar. This was partly to account for the fact that both dextrose and butter exude water when heated, unlike oil and sugar, so I didn't want there to be too much dextrose in there. To be honest, I'm not sure if my success was helped by this decision or if it wouldn't have made a lick of difference.

But here it is. It's not a donut, but it's a deliciously donut-y muffin.

Delicious Dextrose Donut Muffins

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup flour
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
75g butter (1/3 cup)- melted
1/2 cup dextrose
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Delicious coating:

1/2 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup dextrose combined with 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 180 C and grease a muffin tin. Combine dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon) in one bowl and wet ingredients (melted butter, sugar, egg and milk) in a larger one. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir to combine.

A little side note here. Muffins can go from deliciously moist and fluffy to deadweight in the blink of an eye. The trick, apparently is minimal stirring, just until the flour has been moistened. Ignore the fact that it is still lumpy. Really, ignore it. And lo, you shall make great muffins. You heard it here, folks. (And I heard it here).

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin. Another tip: apparently you are not supposed to fill them all the way up; aim for about 2/3 full in order to let them blossom into lovely domed muffins.  I sound like I know what I am doing, don't I? But really I got this from here again. Cook the muffins for 15-20 minutes.

Once done (check with a skewer), tip them out while still hot. Dip each one in melted butter, then in the combined dextrose and cinnamon mixture. Allow to cool on a wire rack.


Prepare for deliciousness :)

I bought out the good china for this little wonder.

I decided to do the topping on only what I was prepared to eat immediately, and put the rest of the batch in the freezer. I think (hope) I can simply reheat one at a time when the mood strikes and dip in melted butter and dextrose/cinnamon and enjoy.

Happy 2012 everyone. For those sugar free- may it be a sweet year anyway!

Fructose free peanut brittle recipe

This recipe is not for the faint of heart, the weak of teeth or the allergic of peanuts. It's also a bit of a marathon to make, which isn't to say it's not easy, it's just not quick. Mine took several hours (yep hours) to cook, and you need to stay by the stove pretty much the whole time (although you can do other things between stirring: fold washing, unstack dishwasher, make White Christmas slice, write blog, etc). But the results are well worth it if you are a peanut brittle fan like me.

You'll do best with a candy thermometer for this one. Believe me.


Ok, here we go. The original recipe is here (for those who stumbled onto this page looking for peanut brittle a la normale)

Fructose Free Peanut Brittle 
2 cups dextrose powder
1 cup glucose syrup
1/2 cup water
240g butter (yep, that's nearly a whole stick of butter)- cut into smaller pieces
2 cups peanuts- raw, roasted, salted, whatever you like. I used Nobbys salted peanuts chopped roughly
1 tsp. baking soda- if your baking soda is anything like mine it will be full of lumps, so I suggest you pre measure and press all the lumps out using a fork, as getting a lump of un-mixed soda in your peanut brittle is an unhappy surprise.

(Note: the above makes a LOT of peanut brittle. When I've made this recipe in the past I have halved the recipe and it works just fine- in fact, from memory, it took a lot less time to cook. Today I made the full recipe without thinking, so luckily mum and dad will be here for Christmas to help me eat it all up).



Method:

Combine dextrose, glucose syrup and water in a saucepan. Cook on a moderate heat (stirring) until the mixture goes from opaque white to almost clear, as pictured. 

Starts white...

Goes nearly clear- that's science for ya!

Let it come to a boil. When it boils, add the butter and keep stirring. It will look a bit funny- like the butter is not mixing in properly. Don't worry about this. Stir some more. This recipe is nearly all about stirring, sorry.

Buttery goodness

So, stir until the butter has melted in and then keep stirring until the mixture boils again. Keep it at a moderate boil. The mixture is now hitting what I call the toddler stage- you can leave it alone for about a minute or so, but don't think that it is independent. Oh no. It still needs lots of your attention. I would say stir fairly frequently at this stage. Use your candy thermometer to check it and once it reaches 230 degrees F (this will feel like forever), change from fairly frequently to frequently. So, not quite constantly. Between stirs you can go tend to that washing, or feed your real toddler, or send me a message below telling me how much you like this recipe (except of course you haven't finished it yet. So, save that for later)

The mixture will darken as it cooks- here are some pictures to entertain you while you stir (I'm presuming you have a laptop while you make this, you see).

Caramelly goodness

Slightly darker caramelly goodness (several hours later- felt like anyway)

Add peanuts when the temperature reaches soft crack stage (280 degrees F). Now you have to change from stirring frequently to- you guessed it- constantly. (To be honest, I just kept with frequently- I'm a rebel like that).

Nut much further to go! Get it?

Keep with your constant stirring until temperature reaches hard crack stage (305 degrees F). Take it off the heat immediately, and stir in your lump-free baking soda, mixing it thoroughly. Pour onto 2 cookie sheets or baking trays- greased or lined with baking paper. You can't spread it once you pour it, but if it's too thick, as the brittle cools, you can stretch it thinner by lifting and pulling from the edges. 

Once it cools you can break it into pieces. If you have such thing as a toffee hammer, then go ahead and use it now. Lord knows you are never going to use it otherwise.

The finished product- the full recipe makes twice this amount.
Yep, I have only photographed half of it for you. I'm lazy like that.

And that's it. If you have any questions, post them below.

I'm dreaming of a...

...fructose-free white Christmas slice!

Oh yes, Christmas time is upon us and this is the time of year to apply the old 'party foods are for [Christmas] parties' advice from Sweet Poison. I don't know why I wanted to try to make White Christmas slice- it's not a traditional treat in our family, but for some reason I always think fondly and slightly yearningly of it around this time of the year. Because it's full of fat (yum, Copha) I haven't made White Christmas for years. I'd toy with the idea of making some, realise that I would only eat far too much of it and turn into a White Christmas-fuelled blimp, and abandon the whole idea. 'If only I could make a low fat White Christmas slice' I would deludedly think to myself whilst chowing down on some of mum's delicious Christmas fruit cake (at a thousand billion calories per slice).

Anyhow,  those crazy days of dieting are behind me, and I'm sticking to the simple plan of eating anything I want minus sugar (specifically fructose). I've lost over 13 kilos, and I'm not afraid of over-indulging because my stomach is now talking to my brain and telling it when to STOP (it speaks in capitals now). So, when mum and I were planning the Christmas menu this year, I said I would make White Christmas as a bit of a treat, and I planned to do it fructose-free.

When turning this plan into reality, I hit a few snags immediately. For those familiar with the slice, besides the Copha it is mostly made of a) sugar, b) rice bubbles, and c) dried fruit. The sugar is no problem- with a few adjustments I can make it with dextrose instead of sugar which has fructuse and glucose. Rice bubbles are out because they are nearly 10% sugar (nearly all of it added), but I have been eating a cereal which is pure puffed brown rice (nothing else added), so I decided this would make a good substitute for rice bubbles.  Simple so far.

But Sweet Poisonites (Poisoners? No, Poisonites) will know that dried fruit is a no no if you want to keep your fructose intake as low as possible. A piece of real fruit will a) contain fructose, b) contain fibre which counteracts what the fructose does in the body, and c) contain enough water to be bulky and fill you up, limiting the amount that you can eat in one go. Dried fruit does the first two, but doesn't fill you up, so you get a bunch of sugar in just a handful of sultanas. The recipe that I worked from had 1/2 cup (80g) of dried fruit- which is about 27g of fructose. Holy crap.

Looks so innocent...

I've avoided dried fruit altogether since starting sugar free, and it's not been a problem. But could I avoid it in White Christmas? Well, it is kind of integral to the slice...so, I decided that, since it's the season to be jolly and all that, I would make the White Christmas low in fructose, with limited dried fruit, diced finely to get the most out of it, dextrose instead of sugar, and rice puffs. As the slice is very rich, it's not difficult to limit yourself to a very small slice, which would mean very very little dried fruit per serve.

That was my first thought. My second thought (which came to me only as I was finishing up the low fructose version) was that this slice would taste pretty good even without the dried fruit. It has coconut and powdered milk as well as the rice puffs, and these make up the bulk of the taste. If I left out the fruit, I could therefore make a no fructose version as well. So, I did both, and here are the recipes for y'all. The no fructose one is first, the low fructose one (with the dried fruit included) is second- there are slightly different quantities to each recipe as I was experimenting a little.



No fructose White Christmas slice
1/2 cup dextrose
1/2 cup powdered milk
1.5 cups puffed rice mine are from the 'health foods' aisle of Coles and are 100% brown rice (puffed). Anything similar will probably work.
1 and 1/3 cups coconut
150g copha


Mix all dried ingredients together.  Melt copha on the stove until it is a clear liquid and then pour over the dry ingredients. Mix together well and press into a foil-lined dish or molds. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours and voila!

Low fructose White Christmas slice
1 & 1/4 cups Rice Puffs
1/2 cup full cream milk powder
1/2 cup dextrose to be honest, you could probably use a bit less- the dried fruit adds quite a bit of sweetness
1/4 cup dried fruit- I used just sultanas and dried apricots, chopped finely to give maximum value with minimum fruit
155g copha

As above, mix the dry ingredients first, add the melted copha. Press into foil-lined dish or mold- a Christmassy one if you've got it- and refrigerate.

I just happened to have a silicone mold with little Christmas trees- tis the season for making tree-shaped food.

And here are the beautiful results:

A trio of  White Christmasses- the trees are low fructose, the squares are no fructose, the hearts are a la normale (for my husband)

A note on Copha- this stuff is sold oil- hydrogenated coconut oil to be exact. They say (pure) coconut oil is incredibly good for us (if you ignore all the nay-sayers who are stuck in the 'saturated fats will kill you quicker than crack' mindset), but the word 'hydrogenated' should alert you to the fact that this stuff is a) way cheaper than pure coconut oil (being a processed, cheaper product) and b) nowhere near as good for you (and potentially quite bad for you). To be honest, if I had pure coconut oil available, I would have tried that instead but alas, I did not. So, keeping in mind that this is a one-off treat (at least for me), I stuck to the Copha. If you happen to try the above with something else instead of the Copha (e.g., pure coconut oil) then please post below to let us know how it went. I imagine it would work fine but perhaps be very very coconutty.

So that's it. Christmas conquered. Well, I also made some peanut brittle- but I'll post the recipe for that seperately- it's a bit of a marathon.

Have a lovely Christmas and New Year everyone, and a big shout out to those doing it sugar free for the first time this year- may it be merry and bright without the need for a sugar high!