Jelly Doughnuts – Gluten & Dairy Free – Ratio Rally!

Doughnuts are not a great love in my life.  I like them well enough.  Prior to being gluten free I did eat them and enjoyed them.  One of our cold-weather, Sunday-morning treats was to stop at the doughnut shop in town on the way home.  Arrow adored doughnuts with pink sprinkles.  We’d buy our 6 doughnuts and head home for fresh coffee, tea or hot cocoa and doughnuts.  We even went to Krispy Kreme when they first opened here some years ago.

Once I was gluten free I didn’t do any of those things anymore.  And I didn’t miss them either.  Oh, I have purchased those gluten free boxed doughnuts in the freezer case of my grocery store.  In one gluten free cookbook I have, there are gluten free baked doughnuts.  Arrow asked me to buy the pan and make him some doughnuts.  I bought the pan and it sat in the box for months, then the cupboard for many more months.

Until this month…  This month’s ratio rally is doughnuts or fritters and is being hosted by Meg at Gluten Free Boulangerie where all the other doughnut offerings can be found.

But me make doughnuts or fritters at home?  I hate to deep-fry.  It isn’t that I don’t like to eat fried foods, for I do.  It isn’t that it makes to much of a mess, for it truly doesn’t.  It’s dealing with the oil afterward that I struggle with.  You can’t add it back into the bottle and THAT would be messy if you could.  Any container has to be easily store-able and UN-spill-able.  And um…, well…, um…, you have to remember you have that stuff in order to use it again.  Sigh.  Am I the only one to find this a pain??

What should I make?  What a conundrum!!  Hm, lets try fritters first… so I chose a fritter ratio from Rhulman’s Ratio book.  But I didn’t want sweet… let’s go with savory!  My first fritter attempt was Fried Cauliflower and Onion Rings.  Gotta have your vegetables right?  Sorghum flour with rice, potato and coconut flour for good measure.  I added some Cajun spices and dipped cauliflower heads and onion rings into it.

I heated coconut oil in my stainless steel wok, clipped a thermometer to the side and turned on the heat.  The thermometer kept sliding over sideways when I carefully added the coated cauliflower pieces and even fell into the hot oil at one point.  That is until I clipped it next to the handle.  But then the clip broke… grrrrr….  So I cautiously used my hand held thermometer to check oil temps after that…  and I didn’t burn myself either!  YEAH!!

These tasted alright but the consistency of the batter was too thick for the onion rings.  And The Patriarch said it tasted “like heavy whole wheat flour”.  What a funny “taste” with a gluten FREE flour!  😉  The consistency of the fritter batter was far too thick for onion rings.  I am sure that taste and consistency was from too high a proportion of sorghum and the added coconut flour.  So back to the drawing board!!

Um, but I am trying to reduce my girth here.  So I waited for a week.  I don’t want to overdo the fried foods.

My next attempt was to make doughnuts with my doughnut pan.  But that was not a ratio, so doesn’t qualify for this rally.  Plus it was out of a GF cookbook and not my own creation.  The doughnut pan package directions said to use a banana bread recipe.  I made Spice Doughnuts  dusted with Spiced Sugar.  These were proclaimed very tasty by the guys, but the consistency was too soft for a doughnut.  There would be NO way to dunk these in a cup of hot cocoa or coffee.  These were muffins in a doughnut shape.  NOT what I was looking for.  I am thinking a pound cake batter would give a better doughnut end product, but I AM still trying to reduce the girth here…

The third attempt was to try some fried doughnuts.  The ratio that others said they got the best results with was 4 flour: 1 egg: 1 liquid: 1/4 – 1/2 fat.  So I tried that.  I mean, in the midst of a weight reduction program one can not be experimenting with lots of different doughnut ratios can one??  🙂

Mrs. R’s Jelly Doughnuts – Gluten and Dairy Free

1 ounce brown rice flour

1 ounce sorghum flour

2 ounces millet flour

4 ounces potato flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 ounce coconut ghee (this is a blend of coconut oil & ghee I found at Azure) USE half this amount, see note at end of post.

1 egg

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp real vanilla extract

I got out my trusty scale, placed my mixing bowl on it and turned it on.  I then weighed out all the ingredients right into the bowl!  I love baking by ratios!!  Mix everything together very well.  Place dough into a plastic bag and pop it into the freezer for 2 hours to firm it all up very well.  It does not freeze solid, but firms up more than just refrigerating would do.

Start your oil heating in your pan of choice.  It should be wide enough to accommodate 2 – 3 doughnuts.  I used my stainless steel wok I purchased from Costco.  Oil should be brought to between 400 and 425 degrees and the dough should be fried at a 375 temperature.  Make sure to use an oil with a high smoke point.  I used coconut oil.  Using one with a low smoke point heats the oil too high, causing it to break down into unhealthy trans-fat components.

While the oil is heating, roll out the firmed-in-the-freezer dough between two pieces of waxed paper to a 1/2-inch thickness.  Cut into circles using a large diameter glass.  Place cut dough onto a plate and keep in the refrigerator till ready to fry.

When oil reaches temerature, place 2 – 3 doughnuts carefully into hot oil.  Cook for 2 – 3 minutes on each side.  Remove and place on a paper-towel lined plate to drain and cool.  Cook remaining doughnuts.

Cut a slit into each doughnut, and fill with1 – 2 TBSP of  jelly.   Using a small bag with a pastry tip would be easier than the ziplock sandwich bag with the corner cut off that I used.  I did work… and a knife helped push the rest of the jelly into the doughnut.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar.  Eat & enjoy!

These were proclaimed tasty by the guys.  I found them to be harder with a hard crust than I wanted, but we’re back to that girth reduction dilemma business again.  But this would have been corrected had I used the proper amount of fat in my recipe!  A rich dough, fried makes for a harder end product, one that absorbs too much of the oil and the possibility of it not being done inside.

The Patriarch said he would like to have these again, but in cold weather.  Hopefully that will be a month or more away… but this is the Pacific Northwest.  🙂  And with less fat in the dough they should be a better doughnut!!

Blessings,  ~Mrs. R