September 8, 2010

Beer Doughnuts

beer doughnuts


Donuts or doughnuts? Who cares!! These ones have beer in them!! As a treat recently Daz and I trekked out to Healesville to visit the White Rabbit Brewery. There are two things that I really like about White rabbit beer. Firstly the White ale is one of my favs, very subtle, low on the bitterness and sweetend with honey....isnt everything better sweetened with honey? Secondly they have a very cute white rabbit on the logo, I base my drinking habbits on very important aspects.

white rabbit white ale


white rabbit
These are some rabbits that I dont mind running over with my car.

After purchasing way too much beer for two people to consume, I contemplated using the beer to prepare a recipe. But what recipe? Beer Chicken....too cliché, beer battered fish....I’ll let the fish swim for another day. Then I channelled Homer Simpson and realised that Beer Doughnuts were the only way to go. As soon as I mentioned the idea to Daz, his eyes lit up...... “beer and doughnuts? But its not my birthday”. I did a quick Google search (where were we before the “don’t be evil” Google?) and came across this recipe.

white rabbit2
Oh look, they've multiplied!!

white rabbit3
Quick cross the road now while I distract this drive with my bare leg

What really appealed to me about this recipe is that the doughnuts are actually baked rather than deep fried, so in fact they are a healthier choice when doughnuts are concerned. So of course I made a couple of changes to the recipe, I can’t help it, I must always tinker with things. Once I made the batter it quickly became fluffy. I’ve never smelt the combination of nutmeg and beer before, and oddly I found it very appetizing, it instantly made me hungry! I half filled my pan and shove it in the oven. I followed the recipe and took them out before they began to colour.

beer doughnuts2


They tasted pretty darn good, a tiny hint of yeasty beer and loads of nutmeg. They were really fluffy, with massive air pockets in the dough, in fact they were more cake like rather than doughnutty. I thought they really lacked the deep golden outer crust and I’m sad to admit I missed the greasy after taste you get from eating a regular doughnut.

beer doughnuts inside


I had some batter left over, so I made the decision to throw away my initial intentions to make a healthier doughnut and committed to deep frying the rest of the batter, I’ve always been the fickle type. First doughnut, disaster!! The batter was way too runny, it managed to turn into a fat pancake sucking up loads of the oil! Solution....I added a whole heap of flour to the rest of the batter. Heck, I didn’t have enough to make another oven baked doughnut so I might as well be a big kid and play with goop. Surprisingly, they turned out really well. They fluffed up exactly the same way as the oven baked doughnuts - resulting in crater sized air pockets. However, they still managed to soak up a lot of the oil. I would much prefer the oven baked version. Next time I’ll just let them cook for a lot longer and actually become golden brown. Screw you recipe, I will not listen to you!!

fried beer doughnuts


Beer Doughnuts (My tinkered version)
Prep time : 30 minutes
Makes 9 Doughnuts

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (fresh ground is best)
1/4 teaspoon salt
60 mL buttermilk (at room temperature)
2 large eggs (at room temperature)
90 mL amber ale
4 tablespoons melted butter, cooled

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C. Grease a doughnut pan with a generous amount of butter.

2. Melt butter and let cool. Sift all dry ingredients together into large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, melted butter and beer until well-blended. Pour the liquid blend into the dry ingredients all at once, and mix just until blended (do not overmix, or the doughnuts will be tough).

doughnut batter


3. Fill each doughnut form half full. Bake in the preheated oven in the middle rack for 9-12 minutes. The doughnuts should not be browned on top. Remove pan from oven, let cool for a minute, remove from pan and roll in castor sugar.

doughnut batter in doughnut pan


13 comments:

Agnes said...

What? I don't understand this sentence: "After purchasing way too much beer for two people to consume". One of those two people was Daz, right??? How could that be possible!? ;)

Azza

CC11 said...

I'm not a beer drinker but that is too cute to pass up!

And great idea using it for donuts ;)

Hannah said...

Can I just mention how much I love that you decided to deep fry the last doughnuts anyway? GOLD. Also, I've never been a huge fan of doughnuts, but I do love me some beer and nutmeg, so I'm in. When was it that you were planning to drop by and make these for me, again? :D

. said...

Both versions look delicious! I love healesville, used to work there... so many options for lunch, dinner and drinks!

Iron Chef Shellie said...

mmmmmm white rabbit!
soooo making these!!

Celeste @ Berrytravels said...

I only just learnt of the white rabbit brewery from the recent Taste of Melbourne and was really taken by their white ale too. I didn't pay close attention then (too many things to see!) but I didn't realise they were in Healesville!

Sounds like a road trip is in order!

Conor @ Hold the Beef said...

Dude. You have a doughnut pan? I only just got a loaf tin. I have so much catching up to do.

Oh and finally it is easy to get White Rabbit in pubs here! Huzzah!

penny aka jeroxie said...

doughnut pan! how cute... I wonder if I can bake them in my mini bundt tins?

Stephcookie said...

Beer doughnuts sound very Homer Simpson indeed, I love it! Love the sound of beer and nutmeg together, I'm such a fan of the baked doughnut!

April @ My Food Trail said...

Hehe, love that you said you preferred the deep fried donuts then when you tried to deep fry it, you said you prefer the baked ones!

That donut tin is awesome! Where did you get it from?

Amy @ cookbookmaniac said...

beer donuts! must hide this post for the fiancee. otherwise he'll bug me to no end to make these.

Arwen from Hoglet K said...

It's cool that the beer made the doughnuts all puffy! I would never have thought of nutmeg and beer as an attractive combination, but now you've got me wanting a taste.

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