Things are terrible. Eat the doughnut.

Six months ago, I made a batch of old fashioned doughnuts, and they were awesome. I thought about why I love this kind of doughnut, and I realized the reason they hold such a comfort for me. Maybe it was the sugar haze, or maybe I’d just had a particularly stressful week, but I decided that I would write the story of a joyless, soul-numbing job I used to have. A tale of boredom soothed by a weekly Starbucks run.

A story of a privileged person in absolute despair that she earned enough money to pay all her bills, but didn’t feel complete.

Yeah, I’ll spare us all.

Look, that feeling is real. I know. My friends know. Your friends know. There is a special kind of depression that comes from performing a job that requires you to hold a degree you paid $80,000 for, yet seems to only require the mental capabilities of an eighth grader. There are books about this. Bullshit Jobs is a great one.

But now, as the global economy grinds to a halt, and millions face unemployment, poverty, and the prospect of contracting a terrifying disease just as your locality runs out of hospital beds? Well, I sound like a piece of shit, don’t I?

So I won’t finish that profound essay, ok? I’m doing us all a favor, really.

I’ll just talk about the carbs. Because you know what? I think we all can use some carbs right now. How do I know? In the last week I’ve eaten: one loaf of banana bread, one 9-inch cornbread, half a baked ziti, a box of pop tarts, one full size bag of chips, one quart of banana ice cream, one half of a blueberry muffin cake, and half a recipe of homemade Hamburger Helper, and then washed all that down with 2 bottles of wine.

Obviously I am eating some feelings right now.

So if you are in the same situation as me, cooped up, anxious and nervous and scared and weirdly craving all the things you usually save for holiday splurging, rather than your daily elevensies, well, I have the perfect treat for you.

The sour cream doughnut!

Yes. Trust me.

I feel like sour cream doughnuts get a bad rap. And I kind of get it! They are dense, and cakey, and very, very sweet. They are generally the exact opposite of everything we have been taught to revere in our doughnuts (or donuts) by the likes of Doughnut Plant and Union Square Donuts, purveyors of lush, fluffy, yeasted confections that taste like frosted air held together by carbs. I mean that as a compliment.

But sour cream doughnuts are not that. They also go by Old Fashioned Doughnuts, and maybe old fashioned is ok, and we can learn from our elders.

(Let the record show there are bad sour cream donuts. Too big, too gummy, too sweet. I’m not celebrating those. They know who they are.)

But a good sour cream doughnut? A good sour cream donut is just the right density, and sweet, and glazed, and best of all, has these crispy ridges that you can break off and munch on as you take your time, meditating on the doughnut, forgetting everything terrible in the world. 

These are that kind of doughnut, and this recipe makes enough for you to share with whomever you are social distancing with, be it family, roommates, or spouse. Or kids! I hear the kids are bored! Put them to work dipping doughnuts and promise them sugar. That might help!

And if you think I’m crazy to tell you to muster the energy and positive attitude to attempt frying pastries while trying to survive a pandemic, well, then just go buy some doughnuts, ok?

Because I didn’t tell you my stupid story about a job I had 5 years ago, but I will tell you what I know to be true.

Sometimes you just need a doughnut. And it will, for a brief moment, make you feel better.

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PB&J Glazed Old Fashioned Doughnuts

As you can see from the photos, I made these back in September when concord grapes were in season. You won’t find them now, so I’ve just written the recipe to use the bottled stuff.

Adapted from ChefSteps. The original recipe is in grams, so that’s what I used to measure, with a baking scale. I didn’t convert into cups or other measures except for a few ingredients.

For the doughnuts:

• 120 g sugar

• 45 g egg yolks (from 2.5-3 large eggs)

• 18 g unsalted butter, softened

• 190 g sour cream (3/4 c), kept at room temp for a bit

• 300 grams all purpose flour

• 7.5 g baking powder

• 6 g kosher salt

For the glaze:

• 50 g concord gape juice (unsweetened if you can find it)

• 2 g salt

• 200 g powdered sugar

For dusting the doughnut holes:

• 2 tbs kinako powder or powdered peanut butter

• 1 tbs sugar

1. Make the doughnuts: Oil a large bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar, egg yolks, and butter and mix on high, with the paddle attachment, for 2 minutes, until lightened and the volume of the mixture starts to increase. Add in the sour cream, and mix together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes more.

2. Meanwhile, sift together the remaining dry ingredients and add to the mixer on low speed, one spoonful at a time, just until everything is incorporated. Transfer the mixture to the oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for one hour in the refrigerator.

3. Prepare to roll and cut the doughnuts: line a baking sheet with parchment, oil or butter the parchment, and set aside. Dust a large surface with flour, dust the top of the dough with flour, and then transfer to the floured surface.

4. Roll the dough to 1/2 inch thick. Brush excess flour from the dough and cut into 3-inch circles. You can use a doughnut cutter for this, or do what I did, which is use a 3-inch biscuit cutter to cut the large rounds, then use a smaller, 1/2-1 inch circle to cut out holes (a large piping tip works excellently for this). Transfer your cut circles to the parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for another 30 minutes. You should be able to get about 6-7 doughnuts with holes.

5. While dough chills again, heat your frying oil and make the glaze. Heat 2 inches of frying oil in a large, heavy sided pot to 340 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk all glaze ingredients together until completely smooth, and set aside.

6. When your oil is at temperature, start frying! Cook each doughnut for 40 seconds, then flip and cook 80 seconds more, flip again and fry another 80 seconds. You are looking for the traditional crack to form around the top of the doughnut, giving you those crispy ridges! When doughnuts are golden, transfer to a rack to drain. Don’t forget to fry the holes too!

7. Let cool for 15 minutes before glazing, then dip each doughnut in the glaze and set on a wire rack to set. Stir together your sugar mixture for the holes, and roll each one in the mixture to coat well. Serve and enjoy!

Notes:

• I call for either kinako powder or peanut butter powder for the holes. I wanted to riff on pb&j, but I didn’t have any peanut butter, but I did have some kinako powder left from my matcha mochi donuts. The nuttiness of the kinako paired excellently with the concord grapes, but if you want to go traditional, us the peanut butter powder, which is now sold in many grocery stores or easy to find online.

• You can also sub milk for the concord grape juice and make plain vanilla glazed for the truly traditional take.

• When frying, I find it easiest to flip the doughnuts with either chopsticks or the ends of wooden spoons. For removing from the hot oil, I recommend investing in a spider or using a slotted spoon.

Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake

Have you ever had to choose between a pumpkin pie and a cheesecake?

It happens sometimes, especially around the holidays, when you have to face the impossible task of winnowing your dessert choices. It’s heartbreaking, really. And I find it most especially heartbreaking around Thanksgiving, which offers an abundance of dessert choices. Do you want pie? Cool. Will that be apple or pumpkin or something else? Do you want cake with that? How about a cheesecake or a trifle?

It’s all so much to choose from! Choosing all of the above options will surely make you miserable. But! It doesn’t have to be that hard. Some people like to pretend otherwise, but I think we all know that Thanksgiving is THE pumpkin day, where all other choices are just stand-ins. It’s just not Thanksgiving without a pumpkin pie.

I will admit though, even as someone who eats leftover pumpkin pie for breakfast on Black Friday, pumpkin pie can seem kind of boring, especially when putting it up against flashy cakes or dramatic deep-dish apple pies or that interloper pumpkin cheesecake. It’s just so…humble. Basic crust, plain whipped cream topping (if any), and filling that bakes into the color of the saddest, brownest leaves that always seem to fall last off the tree. Pumpkin pie is not a pretty dessert.

HOWEVER.

I think I’ve stumbled on the solution for a lot of the above. Too many desserts? Combine them! Basic & boring? Layer flavors! Ugly color? Add contrast!

All of that can be done with this simple pumpkin pie cheesecake. And no, I don’t mean “pumpkin cheesecake,” I mean “pumpkin pie cheesecake.” Because this tastes like a pumpkin pie dipping its toe into the cheesecake waters. The texture remains closer to a pumpkin pie, but it bakes up with the tartness of a cheesecake and a sour cream topping to boot.

We have flavor!

We have color contrast!

We have a pie and a cheesecake!

Plus, we have a ginger cookie crust because that is the correct choice here. Is that almost like three desserts? We are nailing this!

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Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake

For the crust:

• 2 cups ginger snaps, crushed into fine crumbs

• 1/2 tsp ginger

• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

• 1 tbs flour

• 3 tbs butter, melted

For the filling:

• 1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz)

• 1/3 cup brown sugar 

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

• 1/4 tsp cloves

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp ground ginger

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 8 oz cream cheese, room temp

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten

For the topping:

• 12 oz sour cream

• 2 tbs sugar

• 2-3 ginger snaps, crushed

1. Make the crust: In a bowl, combine crushed ginger snaps, cinnamon, ginger, flour and melted butter and stir to fully coat the crumbs. You want the mixture to be pretty damp but not wet. Add a little flour if it seems too wet. Press the mixture into the bottom of an 8 inch springform pan, and chill until you are ready to bake.

2. Preheat your oven to 350 and make the filling: In a small pot, combine pumpkin puree, brown sugar, salt and spices. Stir to combine, then cook over medium low heat, stirring frequently, until mixture darkens and thickens, about 45 minutes. The mixture will be very dark and smooth at this point, like apple butter.

3. Scrape the pumpkin mixture into a bowl to cool. Meanwhile, in the bowl of a stand mixture, place your cream cheese and beat with paddle attachment until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the cooled pumpkin mixture and beat to fully combine, then add the eggs and vanilla and beat to combine, scraping down the bowl as needed to fully incorporated the cream cheese with the pumpkin mixture.

4. Scrape the filling mixture into the prepared pan on top of the crust and smooth the top a bit. Place the pan on top of a baking sheet and bake on the middle rack of the oven for 30-35 minutes, until the cheesecake is set but still a little wobbly in the middle.

5. Remove cheesecake from oven and increase the temperature to 450 degrees. Combine the sour cream and 1 1/2 tbs sugar and stir to fully mix, then spoon and spread atop the baked cheesecake. Return to the oven and bake 7 minutes to set.

6. Remove from oven and cool completely. Chill and serve, topped with more crushed ginger cookies.

"My" Salad Dressing

It might seem weird to put quotes around a possessive here for “my” salad dressing. No, I promise you I do know how to use quotation marks, mostly (someone tell me definitively, do I put the punctuation inside or outside when I’m ending a sentence?). But really, I put the quotes in because I associate ownership of this recipe more with David Lebovitz. It was from his blog where I first got the idea to repurpose leftover salty feta into a salad dressing, and after rereading that post, now I know he actually got the idea from the Joy of Cooking.

You can follow that attribution chain if you like, but on this blog, the ownership of this dressing was bestowed on me by my brother in law, Ryan, who requested I make this dressing during a visit to Boston by asking for “your salad dressing, you know, that one you made one time!”

No, I didn’t know! I have a salad dressing?? Apparently, yes!

That “one time” was way back in December 2017, when I wanted to make a creamy dressing for a wedge salad, but neither I nor my sister like blue cheese dressing, so I needed a substitute, and Claire had some feta in her fridge. I added some vinegar, herbs, and olive oil and blended it all up, and I guess “my dressing” was born.

And really, it doesn’t matter who lays claim to owning this recipe, everyone should be making it! If you make anything with feta you probably have some leftover, and the rest of the ingredients can be whatever favorite vinegars, olive oils, and dried or fresh herbs you have on hand, plus a little ground pepper if you like. I add shallots whenever I have them. And you can even keep it simple and just mash it all into a chunky dressing or go the extra step and blend it until creamy, both are equally delicious.

Whatever you do, just use the good stuff, ok? That pre-crumbled feta isn’t going to work very well here. If you do insist on using it, well, you are the master of your own kitchen, so I can’t stop you.

But in that case, we’ll extend this ownership chain and you can call that “your” dressing, ok?

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Feta Salad Dressing

Inspired by David Lebovitz

• 4 oz feta (a good quality block of it, not pre-crumbled)

• 1 small shallot, minced

• 1/2 tsp dried oregano (or thyme, parsley, etc)

• fresh ground black pepper

• vinegar (sherry, apple cider, red wine, whatever your preference)

• extra virgin olive oil

1. In a bowl, add the feta, shallot and oregano and mash together. Add a little black pepper, then add vinegar, mashing as you add it until you get a loose paste-like consistency. Add in enough olive oil to form a liquid dressing, loosening with a little water if needed (or more vinegar). At this point, you can either serve as is, with small feta chunks visible, or blend the dressing to a creamy, smooth consistency.

2. To serve, toss with your favorite salad ingredients. The dressing works well as a sub for blue cheese dressing in a wedge salad. I especially like it tossed with fragile butter lettuce, radishes sliced paper thin, chives, and sliced avocado, pictured here above.