We got here | Walnut Crunch Doughnuts
We got here | Walnut Crunch Doughnuts
Thursday, March 12, 2020 was the last time I was inside a restaurant. (It’s been takeout since). Three of us were out for lunch, we ordered agedashi tofu and ebi mayo. I forget the rest. I have a sense I had the special, some sort of rice bowl, which was undoubtedly very good but surely taken for granted. The day before, the World Health Organization declared this a pandemic. I’d just managed to wrangle an early return from India for my folks and they were self-quarantined at home.
While my friends and I passed around the hand sanitizer and tucked in, I got the notice that the boys’ school was going to have an extended March Break.
The thought of such an anniversary feels surreal it’s already a year and also only one. Either way, we got here, and I’m making doughnuts*.
These last weeks I’ve made pizza babka, lasagna even though I’ve been craving chicken Parm, and my oatmeal cookies. (Subsequently reminding myself of how good those cookies indeed are.) There was creamed spinach with artichokes and corn. As mentioned elsewhere, I’ve boiled astounding quantities of marmalade. The blood orange was a particular triumph. (I associate blood oranges with the school trip to Paris my brother took when he was 15 or 16 . I did not go. The boy I had a crush on was on said trip. I did not go. He and my brother toured the things you’re supposed to tour with a gaggle of other students and did all the things done when you’re teens and somehow lucky enough to go to Paris when you’re a teen. I did not go. They’d all eaten baguettes on some stairs somewhere—I imagine it to be the stairs of Palais Garnier, without any proof either way, as I did not go—accompanied by ruby-juiced oranges. You don’t forget a story like that. It was such a crush. I let go of that one and picked up one for citrus instead.)
I assembled big containers of leafy winter salads full of herbs and nuts and seeds to live in the fridge with dressing in jars beside. The height of luxury, that. Most combinations inspired by restaurants I miss. (Also, I purchased new fridge containers. It is a whole new world.) I have an idea involving meatballs and pastry and cheese, wrapping the meatballs in dough parcels like fat, meaty dumplings, baked to golden and garlic-butter-basted, plunked in a puddle of slow-cooked marinara. I’ve not gotten to yet. I think it’s going to be good. That’s yet to come, today it’s doughnuts.
YOU MIGHT WANT TO MAKE THIS
*Tim Hortons used to sell pies. Full pies, along with slices, baked on premises. As were the birthday cakes and of course the doughnuts. The counter was pale marigold yellow, the stools were unabashed red and shaped like pencil erasers, and everything else just lives in memory as brown. (Much as that photo above is; I really should retitle this newsletter “things that don’t look like a lot but are delicious and you should trust me and make them.”)
There aren’t cakes and pies anymore, and the doughnuts are made centrally somewhere mysterious and shipped to locations. I recently found out that years ago they retired the doughnut I associate most with my father—the walnut crunch. A dark chocolate cake doughnut, a sturdy rectangle of a thing, studded with the titular walnuts and glazed. Simple, perfect, gone. You don’t forget them either. I’m bringing them back.
WALNUT CRUNCH DOUGHNUTS (Makes 8 small doughnuts, half the size of the originals if you’re familiar with that standard of measure. Easily multiplied to make more as need presents itself. Long live the walnut crunch.)
Melt 30 g unsalted butter (it actually doesn’t matter, use salted with confidence) in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. As soon as it is liquid, tip in 45 g walnut pieces (none bigger than the aforementioned pencil eraser nub). Continue to cook, swirling, until the butter is browned and the nuts are too. Pull from the heat to cool.
Grab the medium bowl you use for such things, we all have a favourite, and whisk together 160 g all-purpose flour, 42 g unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon medium-grained kosher salt, and a good pinch of finely ground coffee or instant powder if you have it.
In another bowl, use that dandy whisk to whip up 2 eggs with 150 g granulated sugar until pale and thick. If you’re energetic it won’t take more than 45 seconds. Beat in 1/4 cup buttermilk spiked with a splash of vanilla extract, followed by the cooled buttery nuts. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined. Chill for 20 minutes to hydrate and firm up.
Lightly flour a work surface and scrape the dough onto it. It’s tender and supple, deft moves are the way. Dust the top with more flour, and pat out to a 8-by-4-inch rectangle. Transfer to a parchment-lined quarter-sheet pan and chill for 10 minutes more.
Heat a 2-inch depth of lard, peanut oil, or other frying oil to 360°F over medium heat in a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Whip 170 g confectioner’s sugar vigorously with about 2 tablespoons milk, more vanilla extract, a pinch medium-grain kosher salt and another one finely-ground coffee or instant. Add more milk if needed to make it pourable. That is your glaze. Keep it handy.
Using a bench scraper, cut the dough into 2-inch squares. Score each square deeply, going almost all the way through (this will help the doughnuts properly cook, and allow their middles to swell and open up proudly). Working in batches as needed, fry the dough squares, scored side-down first for 1 minute, then flip and fry for a minute more or until puffed, cracked and cooked through. Don’t worry if the dough sinks at first, that is its way, it’ll bob up soon enough.
Drain on a baking rack arranged on a sheet pan. As soon as the doughnuts are cool enough to handle, dunk the bottoms into the glaze, then flip and repeat. Place back on rack to set, indent up. (Glazing both sides of the doughnut heightens the risk of sticking to the rack, but also the rewards of a fully-enrobed bundle of joy. Be brave.) Eat them. Consider making more. Trust the instinct.
Other recipes: Hetty McKinnon’s Sesame Tofu with Broccoli, which has also been on heavy rotation. Simple, stupendous.
THINGS I WOULD TEXT IF I HAD YOUR NUMBER
Cheers for Kulfi Beauty’s kajal launch. Anyone who knows me knows I’m here for a graphic liner.
Podcast listening: Call Your Girlfriend tackles burnout. Today, Explained on the rise in Anti-Asian violence.
MIT’s 47th Annual Celebration fo the Life and Legacy Martin Luther King Jr , with Ijeoma Oluo’s keynote touching upon the fight for Black wholeness and joy.
All the talk of Tim Hortons has me high on Canadiana, thus leaving you with a throwback to head into the weekend strong: Northern Touch by Rascalz featuring Checkmate, Kardinal Offishall and Thrust. You’re welcome for the reminder or the introduction.