glaze Archives - Sugar et al

Baileys Glazed Doughnuts for Easter

13|04|2017

Baked chocolate doughnuts with a decadent Baileys Chocolat Luxe Glaze, topped with hazelnut praline and mini chocolate eggs. The perfect Easter treat for adults.

This year I’m hosting an Easter Brunch. Am I excited? I’m super egg-cited. Not only because I have a delicious spread planned well but more so because I am making sure my guests are totally impressed with my menu. Easter is a great time to have fun as a family but amidst the egg hunts, candy eating and bunny costumes, adults can sometimes feel left out of the loop. It’s a long weekend plus gorgeous autumn weather and a great occasion so every reason to indulge with food. Like always my menu includes plenty of make ahead dishes. Dessert of course, was a no-brainer!

When I need a true blue, blow-your-mind-off kind of dessert, I just have to turn to Baileys. Who doesn’t love Baileys? This time I decided to use the Baileys Chocolat Luxe liqueur. Rightly named, it is luxe, it’s dainty, it’s indulgent, it’s special and oh so amazing! Picture the fusion of Belgian Chocolate, Irish whiskey and cream in a liqueur. And then imagine this liqueur in your dessert (that is if you can stop yourself from not drinking straight away. Go on, I dare you to). Sheer pleasure!

I created a Baileys glaze (you could also call it ganache) that would be perfect on doughnuts. The idea is to serve something cute as well as cheeky for my adult guests. Because the doughnuts are baked and not fried, they are light and soft. Paired with the Baileys glaze, they are irresistible. A little sprinkle of hazelnut praline gives the doughnuts a delicious, crunchy bite. Then make them festive by adding a mini chocolate egg.

The great thing about this glaze is that it is versatile. Drizzle it on your pancakes, glaze muffins or mini cakes or even spread it on toast. It makes for a super luxe dessert sauce that can be stored for weeks in the refrigerator.

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you spoil yourself and others with great food and indulgent desserts.

Disclosure: This post is brought to you By Baileys. As always all opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Baileys Glazed Doughnuts
Makes 10 regular size Doughnuts

11/2 cups self-raising flour
½ cup cocoa powder
½ cup castor sugar
½ tsp baking soda
a pinch, salt
¾ cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Baileys Chocolat Luxe Glaze (recipe below)
Hazelnut praline (recipe below)
Mini chocolate Eggs (store bought)
Baileys Choc Luxe Glaze
½ cup heavy cream
120 g dark chocolate roughly chopped
½ cup Baileys Chocolat Luxe

Hazelnut Praline
1/3 cup castor sugar
2 tbsp water
½ cup hazelnuts (lightly roasted)

Method

Preheat oven to 210 degrees c (190 degrees C for fan forced ovens). Lightly grease a 6 capacity doughnut pan. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda and salt. In another medium bowl mix together buttermilk, eggs, vanilla extract and vegetable oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient mixture and gently mix till smooth.

Place the batter in a large piping bag fitted with a round tip. Alternatively, you could fill up a zip lock bag whose tip has been cut off with scissors. Pipe out the batter neatly till about 2/3 full of each doughnut hole (as they will rise and become bigger in size).

Tap the pan a few times against your kitchen counter gently to release any air bubbles. Bake doughnuts for about 8-10 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn them onto a wire rack to cool to room temperature.

Once cooled, dip the doughnuts in Baileys glaze. Let the excess drip off, then leave aside on a wire rack to set up. Top with hazelnut praline and chocolate eggs.

To make the Baileys Chocolat Luxe Glaze, place cream in a medium saucepan over low heat. Bring to a boil (do not boil) and immediately remove from heat. Add the chocolate and set aside for 10 minutes. Stir with a spoon to mix together until chocolate has melted completely and mixture is well blended. Pour into a bowl.

Add Baileys Chocolat Luxe and mix again. Let the glaze cool slightly so that it starts to thicken.

To make the Hazelnut Praline, line a large baking tray with baking paper. Place sugar and water in a saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and starts boiling. Using a pastry brush dipped in water, brush sides of pan to remove any sugar crystals. Increase heat to medium and boil for 5-6 minutes until caramel starts to form. Stir in hazelnuts, remove from heat and pour the mixture on to the prepared tray. Take extra care as the mixture is extremely hot. Leave aside until cool and hard.
In a food processor (or using a rolling pin and a zip lock bag), pulse the praline until coarsely chopped. Use to top desserts or add to truffles.

Butterscotch Cake With Orange Sour Cream Glaze And Figs

26|02|2015

A delicious butterscotch cake that is topped with an orange sour cream glaze and decorated with fresh figs. Made in one bowl and tastes amazing.

In summer every year, I take on a new role. Not the one I enjoy but more like an involuntary participation. Traffic police! Yes, supervising refrigerator traffic! You don’t know what that means? Let me explain. During my growing up years in India, traffic on the roads was not controlled by traffic lights or signage. It was manually controlled and supervised by a human being..a policeman stationed in the middle of important roads. As scary as it sounds, this was how entire cities functioned. He would signal with his hands and typically all driver’s eyes would be glued on to his actions. He obviously had to be completely perfect and alert at his job or else I cannot even imagine the repercussions! On my way to school every day, I would pass a very stern looking traffic policeman on a busy intersection. My sister and me would wave at him and he obviously would never wave back. Thankfully, he didn’t. I find it quite funny though when I remember how silly we were.

So, summer time for me is about managing inventory, reading labels, organizing contents only to re-organize in a couple of days and of course, gaining weight. Where do you think the fridge contents will end up? Because I am a fresh produce freak who gets so carried away looking at the beautiful fruits and veggies, my refrigerator is loaded to the point of things falling out if you opened the door. And the situation is somewhat like this ‘ricotta out…cream cheese in’….nectarines for lunchbox….strawberries have made it. Yay!

On Monday, I came back with two boxes of fresh figs. Beautiful, ripe, delicious figs…you can’t be accused of buying FIGS, right? Even with a loaded fridge. We ate a few in a salad, then with yogurt. Then I told my husband ‘how can we eat beautiful figs without putting them on cake?’ And I made this Butterscotch cake. Butterscotch is my favorite flavor from childhood but we hardly come across it these days. To get the flavor into the cake, I have used golden syrup. Golden syrup is just so effective to get the caramel-ish flavor into a recipe. You could substitute it with honey, if you do not have golden syrup at home but the taste is not exactly the same. This Buttersctch cake is really easy to make and the batter comes together in one bowl. You could also enjoy it like a tea cake by adding dried figs or fresh pears into the batter and skipping the glaze. The texture is soft, moist and the citrus glaze gives it a nice punch. The figs are a lovely addition to the not-too-sweet cake.

Having said this, our Summer is officially over in less than a week. Makes me sad. But yes, I can do without this supervisory role for some time:-)

Butterscotch Cake With Orange Sour Cream Glaze And Figs
Serves 8

180 g butter, room temperature, softened
2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
3 eggs
1/4 cup golden syrup (or honey)
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1/2 cup dried figs (optional)

Preheat oven to 160 degrees c.(140 degrees C for fan-forced). Grease a 19 cm round cake pan and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Place all the ingredients together in the bowl of your electric mixer excepting the dried figs (if using). Beat on low for 1 minute or until just combined. Beat on high for 3 minutes or until mixture is pale and thick. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean (cover cake with foil if over-browning during cooking). Stand cake in pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled completely, pour over the citrus glaze (recipe below) and allow to set. Serve the cake with fresh figs and grated orange zest.

Orange Sour Cream Glaze

1/4 cup sour cream
11/4 cup icing sugar,sifted
Grated zest of 1 orange (leave some for garnish)

Mix everything together in a medium bowl. Stir until well combined.

Caramelised White Chocolate Doughnuts

4|05|2014

I share a little shopping ritual with my twin boys. If they are joining me on a grocery trip to the supermarket, they would get to pick and choose and eat their favourite doughnuts. The supermarket is located inside a busy shopping centre and though many of the popular doughnut outlets also happen to be on the same floor, they always want to pick the doughnuts from the bakery section in the same supermarket. The obvious reason for that is the colourful inviting displays are very suitably placed within the eye level and even reach of a small child. Marketing strategy at its best. So each time not one but two of the combo packs tinted in bright shades and strewn with colourful sprinkles land up on my shopping trolley.With a constant supply of outsourced doughnuts, my blog has completely missed the opportunity to make some at home. But since the time I’ve discovered caramelised white chocolate I’ve developed an uncontrollable urge of dunking everything into it…muffins, cupcakes, eclairs, cookies and even store bought doughnuts. That is if I am able to convince the boys to buy the non-glazed ones, especially cinnamon doughnuts. Caramelised chocolate with a little spice is the next thing to Heaven…is all I can say. So I thought it was time to post a doughnut recipe.

I’ve tried out a few baked doughnut recipes before but they’ve never turned great so I was on the lookout for one. This one is way better (from Sally’s Baking Addiction) than the rest and is soft with a great texture. Though I personally feel that a baked doughnut never measures up to a fried one, keeping health and convenience in mind these are pretty good. You can use the fried ones as well and I am sure they would taste amazing too. The caramelised white chocolate is the star of the show so really anything dunk-able would do.

I think I have mentioned before that I use David Lebovitz’s recipe and method for caramelising the white chocolate. It always works for me. It is a simple process (explained really well) and all that it requires is some patience. The results are worth it. The recipe will yield more caramelised white chocolate than needed to glaze the doughnuts. To use up the rest of the chocolate, you may want to look at this cheesecake or this mousse. I’ve added toasted chopped pecans mixed with a little bit of chocolate sprinkles to decorate the doughnuts. Feel free to play around with the decorations.

The original recipe for the doughnuts using a doughnut pan made 8 doughnuts. Since I used individual pans which may be slightly bigger than the size of a regular doughnut, I got 6 out of the batter.

Caramelised White Chocolate Doughnuts
Yields 6 large or 8 medium doughnuts

For the baked donuts (adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction)
1 cup (125g) all-purpose flour (careful not to over measure)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup (65g) granulated sugar
1/4 cup (60ml) milk
1/4 cup (60g) Greek yogurt
1 large egg
2 Tablespoons (30g) unsalted butter, melted
1 and 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 recipe caramelised white chocolate ganache, lukewarm
1/4 cup toasted, finely chopped pecans, to decorate
chocolate sprinkles, to decorate

For the caramelised white chocolate ganache (makes about 2/3 cup)
1/2 cup caramelised white chocolate (using David Lebovitz’s recipe)
1/4 cup heavy or thickened cream

For the baked doughnut: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Spray a donut pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Whisk the milk, yogurt, and egg together until smooth. Add the melted butter and vanilla, whisking until fully combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Do not over mix. The batter will be very thick.

Pipe the batter or spoon the batter into the doughnut cups. Since the batter is quite thick it is easier to pipe it in. You can use a ziplock bag in case you don’t have a piping bag. Cut a corner off the bottom of the bag and pipe the batter into each donut cup.

Bake for 9–10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Allow the donuts to slightly cool before glazing.

For the Caramelised White Chocolate Ganache: Place the caramelised white chocolate in a medium bowl. Bring the cream to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate. Leave aside for 5 minutes and stir with a spoon till smooth. Cool slightly before glazing the doughnuts.

The chocolate ganache sets completely when cooled so the glazing would have to be done before the ganache cools completely. In case, it becomes hard, warm slightly while stirring with a spoon and it turns to a liquid consistency.

To Assemble : Dip the cooled doughnuts into the caramelised white chocolate ganache and turn to coat evenly. Transfer each doughnut onto a wire rack over a baking sheet to catch the glaze drippings. Take each doughnut and dunk again if you have enough glaze leftover. Sprinkle with toasted pecans and chocolate sprinkles in your desired pattern.

Turkish Delight Doughnuts with Rosewater Glaze

22|10|2013

When I posted my Candy Cake recipe a couple of weeks back, I almost forgot to share a recipe which has been such a huge personal favourite. Talking about candies and not thinking about Turkish Delight…certainly a sin in my eyes! So, without wasting a moment I made these simple fragrant, doughnuts that are filled with Turkish Delight and coated with a Rose flavoured glaze.

If you are unfamiliar with Turkish Delight, these are beautifully scented Middle Eastern candies or confection, generally flavoured with rose, lemon or bergamot orange. They are slightly chewy, jelly like…and coated with icing sugar. What sets them apart are they unique flavours! The rose flavoured ones remind me of a rose drink I loved as a little girl called Rooh-afza. Did I tell you how much I adore Middle Eastern flavours and spices!

Another reason why I love this recipe is that part of it is a creation of one of my favourite chefs, Shane Delia. His modern approach to Middle Eastern food is captivating and I have lost count of the number of recipes I have bookmarked for later. The doughnut recipe is from this video. The glaze and decoration are my own creations.
It is actually a very simple recipe (so few ingredients and no eggs) but the only thing I have to warn you about is that the dough is very sticky and difficult to work with. The first time I had made these doughnuts, I had followed the process shown in the video but coating the candies in dough was difficult and I was left arm deep in dough. The second time, I used a different method..I used two tablespoons. This one worked for me and I was happy I didn’t have to touch the dough with my hands. Don’t worry about having an even coat around the candies. All you need to ensure is that they are covered in dough. Once they hit the oil, they kind of even out as they melt within the doughnut shell.

The original recipe calls for tossing around the fried doughnuts in honey. Rose, for me also means bright rose-pink so I couldn’t resist making a rose flavoured glaze instead. They taste great either ways.

Turkish Delight Doughnuts with Rosewater Glaze
Serves 6

For the Doughnuts
2 cups (300 g) plain flour
2 sachet (15 g) dried yeast
2 tsp castor sugar
150 g rose-flavoured Turkish delight, diced into 1 cm pieces
Vegetable Oil for deep-frying
Pine nuts and chopped Pistachio nuts for serving (optional)

For the Rosewater Glaze
1 cup icing sugar
1 tbsp rosewater
1 tbsp room temperature milk
3 drops pink food colouring

Combine flour, yeast, sugar and ½ tsp salt in a bowl, and gradually whisk in 300 ml lukewarm water until combined and smooth, then stand in a warm place until swollen and foamy (30 minutes).

Heat vegetable oil in a deep fryer or a deep-frying pan. Working with one piece of Turkish delight at a time, coat and mould each piece in a tablespoonful of doughnut batter and deep-fry them, in batches, turning occasionally, until golden. To do this, take a little dough in a big spoon(tablespoon) in your right hand. Place the turkish delight on top with your left hand. Next spoon up some more dough with your left hand in another spoon. Place on top of the turkish delight. Even out like how you would do when you make a quenelle with the help of two spoons. Drain on absorbent paper, then transfer to a serving plate.

Make the Rosewater glaze : Make the glaze ready when the doughnuts are proofing. Place the sugar, milk, rosewater in a bowl and stir together till smooth and evenly blended. Add a few more drops of rosewater, depending on how thick or thin you want the glaze to be. Add the pink food coloring and stir till uniformly coloured.

To Serve: Place the warm doughnuts on serving plates. Drizzle with rosewater glaze and sprinkle with pine nuts and pistachios, if desired.