Jelly Donuts At Last

The Quiet Man and I were ambling the streets of London last year when we spotted this pastry shop. I'm not a big fan of fussy desserts. I prefer straightforward American style treats, like brownies, chocolate chip cookies, lemon meringue pie, strawberry short cake, and donuts. At the edges of the case, almost wedged out by opera cakes dripping with ganache and flaky squares of millefeuille, was a plump and pillowy jelly donut. I plunked down my pounds and nibbled my way around Picadilly Circus with a dusting of powdered sugar as lipstick. It was phenomenal. We met up with my siblings in front of a theatre to see 39 steps and I shared what I could of my jelly donut. My brother raced back to the pastry shop to buy his own jelly donut, but they were all gone. Mine was the last. (Ha, ha, Roy. That serves you right for all the chocolate chip cookies you have snatched out of my hands in our childhood. ) After our trip, I thought a lot about the food we ate in Europe: the crackly loaves of French bread, the creamy soft fresh mozzarella, the chocolate chip gelato, the dandelion-yellow butter from the Isle of Guernsey. But most especially, I thought about that London jelly donut and I knew I had to make them mine. All mine.

I scouted out a few jelly donut recipes, but most of them called for a shocking amount of butter. Blame it on our modern fear of fats, but somehow it just seems wrong to fry up blocks of butter in hot oil. My friend Mary Anne over at Meet me in the Kitchen made some reasonably fattening buttermilk donuts recently so I thought I'd use her recipe and tinker around. I shaped the dough into holes with the top of and old perscription pill bottle. After the donut holes were fried, I used a medicine dropper to inject some warmed jelly into the center. Why, just look at all the multi-tasking you can do with your leftover medicinal supplies! Prudy's penny pinching pharmaceuticals!

A light snowing of powdered sugar over the tops and they were ready to share. Yummy, yummy, yummy. I had loads to share with the Memorial Day visitors at my house and the visitors over at my mom's also. And they didn't even have to head all the way to London to get one. Although I wouldn't mind heading back just for another jelly donut on Picadilly Circus. It'd be worth it. Especially if I could get the last one again.

Money Saving Tips:

If you don't have buttermilk on hand, measure 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar into the bottom of a 1 cup measure. Pour in milk to the top. The most expensive part of making the donuts is the frying oil, so be sure to get it on sale in a large quantity. You can reuse the oil to make french fries the next day, to ge the most for your money. But then again, it might be better just to save frying for a once in a while treat. You decide.

Jelly Donut Holes

Estimated Cost: $4.00

1 cup buttermilk

1 large eggs, beaten

1/2 cup sugar

2 and 1/2 cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon (baking) soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 pinch nutmeg

2 tablespoons melted butter

1/4 cup strawberry or raspberry jelly, warmed
Combine buttermilk, eggs and sugar and blend well.
Beat in sifted dry ingredients.
Then stir in melted butter.
Roll or pat dough on floured board about 1/4 inch thick and cut with 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter. Fry in hot fat (canola oil) (375° F) till golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Use a medicine dropper of pastry bag fitted with a tip to inject jelly deep inside the donut. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Makes dozens of doughnut holes.

Coming First Light of Tuesday:

Dorie's Cinnamon Cake and Premature Labor

and then let's get some dinner going around here, for Pete's sake!