Hi WLCN family and friends! I’m Laurin, Austin’s (4s class) mom, and I’m not sure how you guys survived the height of the pandemic but we did by learning to cook and bake all the things. Do you remember that crazy period where all the restaurants were closed and we weren’t sure if it was safe to eat outside of the home? For me, the one thing I missed more than anything was the ability to pop into a café to work remotely or the opportunity to visit a new restaurant so I spent our weekends practicing new recipes. Over the last couple of years it has become something fun for Austin and I to try new things together. Some days he is into more than others but I typically don’t have a hard time convincing him if it is one of his favorites – donuts.
We noticed Austin’s love of donuts also during the pandemic. This outing was one of the few places I could safely take him because there was a nearby local shop that, by a miracle, had a drive-thru in Austin, Texas – where we lived at that time. Even as a 2-year old he knew that trip ended with a bag of donuts for the house every Sunday. It’s amazing to think that one act of “normalcy” may end up being something that sticks with him as he grows up.
At this point, it is normal for us to have donuts every week or two to this day. So three weeks ago we attempted an at home cooking experiment one Sunday – do we prefer homemade or machine made donuts?
I found an online recipe for fried donuts that required live yeast (the good stuff) so I attempted that first. This allowed the dough to rise for 90-mins. Austin had no patience for this phase of the experiment so I mostly did this alone. Once that was out of the way I could re-engage him. We settled on making strawberry icing as our topping; and, he was the lead on this task. Then it was time to make the batter and heat up our new $20 donut maker I found online for this taste test.
After a few test runs we realized that Austin preferred the donut machine though I wasn’t a fan (the recipes that came with the machine taste more like a pancake than a donut to me). I also didn’t totally love the fried donut recipe (it didn’t feel airy enough). Since neither one of us found the donut recipe of our dreams we agreed we needed more practice 🙂 so our next kitchen adventure is this one. Let us know if you try it!
