Accidental Doughnuts

Bob Ross always says, "We don't make mistakes, we have happy accidents."
Today I had the happiest accident probably ever. I was attempting to make GF funnel cake, because we're bored, it's summer, and Scott and Simone said I probably couldn't do it.
And they were right. But it's ok!

I DID find a very easy recipe right away, with a quick google search, however, I didn't have all the right ingredients or ratios, so I kinda had to wing it. And the result? Light, sweet, puffy doughnuts. Crispy on the outside, cakey and melt-in-your-mouth on the inside, and crazy easy to make!

Here's how I modified the recipe above:

Dry Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups gluten-free flour (Bob's Red Mills All Purpose Gluten Free Flour)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon gluten free baking powder
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free xanthan gum (Bob's Red Mills)

(If you are NOT gluten sensitive, use 2 cups of all purpose flour and omit the xanthan gum.)

Wet Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup cream of coconut
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

You will also need a few cups of cooking oil. Peanut Oil is best, but if you have an allergy, I recommend corn or coconut oil. 

Place 2-3 inches of oil in a deep frying pan or wide, shallow pot.  Slowly heat up to medium heat.

While your oil is warming, combine all the dry ingredients and set aside.

Next, combine all the wet ingredients and whisk or beat until the eggs get slightly frothy.

Now sift the dry ingredients into the wet mixture, beating or whisking constantly.  Batter will be thick and sticky.

When your batter is thoroughly combined, test your oil with a small drop of batter. The drop should solidify and float to the top of the oil.

When the oil is hot enough, drop rounded tablespoons of batter into the oil. Cook for a few minutes until edged turn golden, then turn doughnuts and cook until golden all around. 

Remove from the oil and place on a wire rack. While the doughnuts are still hot, dust the tops with cinnamon and sugar.

This is the base recipe for a very versatile doughnut. I just dusted mine with the cinnamon-sugar, and we ate them like that. Scott thinks they would be even better with some cream-cheese icing to dip them in. I think they would also be scrumptious with an orange or lemon glaze, or you could sexy them up and dip the top half in chocolate, or fancy them up with some spun caramel.

You could also play around with piping them into some different shapes.  I played around with shapes a bit, but Scott and Intolerable Steve determined that they like them best in a rough-ball shape, like hush-puppies. They also preferred them slightly under-done and still a wee bit gooey in the center. But that's a personal thing.

But they were super easy and fun to make, and only took about 20 minutes, so if you want an easy and impressive breakfast... Yeah buddy.

Papoose Calzone

Today, my husband invited a friend over to hang out and watch football. Football, as it often does, corresponded with dinner time, and I thought I'd be a good hostess and actually cook. I haven't been doing much of that since our daughter was born. Scott and I were mostly living on leftovers of things people made for us, take-out sushi, and cereal. And I couldn't, in good conscience, feed a guest cereal. Maybe if the guest was Intolerable Steve. But it wasn't.
So I was looking around, trying to think what to make, and I was looking at my daughter all wrapped up in her blanket, and I thought she looked really cute, like a papoose.
And that made me think about things wrapped up like papooses. And that made me think about foods wrapped up like papooses. And a calzone looks a lot like a papoose, sort of. And I had some mozzarella and pepperoni in the fridge. So I was like, "Right on, Papoose," to Ivy, and then I made this:

Calzone Dough

In a large mixing bowl, combine:

3/4 cup brown rice flour
1/4 cup potato flour
1 cup garbanzo bean flour 
3/4 cup cornstarch  
3/4 cup potato starch  
1/2 cup tapioca flour  
1/2 cup sorghum flour  
2 1/2 tablespoons xanthan gum  
2 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar  
1/2 teaspoon salt  

It's a lot of different flours, which is what makes this recipe such a bitch. But it turns out SOOOO good. Trust me.


Ok, now in a bread machine, put 2 cups of warm water and 1 tbsp of olive oil.
On top of that, add the flour mixture. On top of that, add 1 package active dry yeast. 

Set the bread machine to "dough" setting, and press go. 
You might need to watch it and push the dough down a few times as it mixes.

(If you do not have a bread machine, I'm pretty sure you can combine everything in a mixing bowl and just mix it by hand, or if you have one of those fancy mixers with hooks. Which I don't, so I don't know for sure. Because I do have a bread machine. If you don't, try it some other way and let me know how that goes.)

After the first kneading cycle, take the dough out and combine it into a ball. (I suggest flouring your hands and a bowl for this step. The dough is very sticky initially.) 

Next, roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is about as thick as your pinky.

Spread the rolled-out dough with a very thin, even layer of softened unsalted butter.  Roll the dough up jelly-roll style, fold into thirds, and then pat back into a ball shape, but do not knead it! You want to maintain the thin layers of butter throughout the pastry.  

Put the ball back into the bread machine with the lid closed to rise.  
Bread machines are different, so be familiar with your machine's settings. 
Mine raises dough for an hour and then has a final knead cycle, so I left my dough-ball in the machine to rise for about 45 minutes and pulled it out before the last knead cycle. 

Divide the raised dough in half and shape into 2 balls. Set one aside. 

Roll out first ball on a floured surface to a large circle about as thick as your pinky. 
This is your calzone shell. Fill it with yummy stuff!

I happened to have, in my fridge, courtesy of Bean, some pepperoni, fresh basil, and fresh mozzarella cheese. So I just chopped that stuff up and tossed it with a teeny bit of olive oil and black pepper. It was very delicious.

Lay the filling on one half of the calzone dough, leaving a half-inch edge. Then, fold over the top and roll up the edge, pinch-pressing to seal it. 

Bake in an oven pre-heated to 500 degrees on an olive-oiled baking sheet (or baking stone) for 25 minutes, or until the top is golden. 

Let rest for a few minutes before serving, so you don't burn everybody with molten cheese. 

I served mine with a quick marinara sauce I made from 8 oz of crushed tomato, half a teaspoon of garlic powder, a teaspoon of onion powder, a teaspoon of butter, a pinch of parsley, a pinch of red pepper and salt, black pepper, and Parmesan cheese to taste. 


It went over hugely well, both with Husband and Guest, and I felt it was well worth the pain-in-the-assery it took to make it.


I think this will be the dough we use from now on for pizza as well. I'd like to try a deep-dish style with it, maybe throw some goat cheese and sun-dried tomato on there... mmm.... goat cheese....

This is what Ivy looks like in her blanket, all papoosed-up.