The idea from mojewypieki.com again. I wasn’t stunned initially, as I’m not crazy about peanut butter myself. I like it on a toast every now and then, but I kept on thinking about it and finally yesterday I got around to making doughnuts. Mum and Dad are still here, so most of the 19 doughnut batch was filled with plum conserve, those with peanut butter I shared with Andy- Lisa said it would be quite his thing.

For the doughnuts I used 450 g of plain flour, 180 ml of warm milk, 2 whole eggs and 1 yolk, 60 g of melted butter, 60 of sugar- 20 g of which was vanilla sugar and 20 g of fresh yeast. A splash of vodka was added as well, to prevent the dough from soaking too much oil. Zaczyn was made, then added to the remaining ingredients, kitchen aid worked it all nicely for a few minutes, then it proved for over an hour. Knocked down, rolled out, doughnuts cut out and left to prove again.

Now, I need to think of a method which will allow me to transfer the risen, light as clouds dough from the surface onto the oil.  Everytime I do it, lots of air escapes and the ready doughnuts are not that as round and perfect as I’d like them to be.  Mum suggests greasing the surface rather than flouring it. I might give that a go.

Now, the peanut butter cream is surprisingly awesome. 125 g of smooth peanut butter, same amount of mascarpone, 100 ml of double cream, 50 g of icing sugar( the recipe suggested 80 g, I thought it was far too much and I was right) and a splash of vodka. All beaten with my birthday present- a hand mixer from Kitchen Aid.  It turned out good enough to actually dip the doughnuts filled with it in it, that’s what I was doing, that’s Andy was doing.

Finished with a drizzle of chocolate and a few chopped nuts. Really yummy.

Santa’s brought me a book, a super posh, velvet covered book with recipes from Laduree. I’ve been to Laduree once, back in the times when I thought that making macarons requires a PhD in pastry and nobody as amateur as myself will ever be able to make them.  That was a good 4-5 years ago, with Moka, who took us there and treated us to some superb pieces of patisserie   I’d love to do that tour again, now that I’m so much more confident. Might need someone to restrain me from licking the shop windows though.

I’ve marked a couple of must- do recipes from that book. Last night I asked Lisa if they fancied a pizza and beer sort of evening with Andy, they did, so obviously we needed a dessert.  Chocolate mousse was made, easy, delicious and quick.  If all the recipes work the way the mousse did, £17 well spent by Santa.

150 g of good quality dark chocolate was chopped and melted with 40 g of butter, then cooled to room temperature. 4 eggs separated, the whites whipped with 40 g of sugar, the yolks gently beaten. That was a new and different thing to do for me- beaten yolks went in bit by bit to the whipped whites, then  about 1/4 of those went into the chocolate and butter mixture to loosen it. Having done that all of the chocolate got chucked into the whites, gently incorporated  with a whisk. Then into the pipping bag with a star tip, 30 mins on the fridge and then ready to pipe into the serving dishes. It’s been enjoyed. And will be made again. 🙂

Inspired by the current series of Masterchef.  One of my favourite flavour combinations, a must try! I looked for a recipe online, found a few, didn’t completely follow any. Followed my gut and my taste. For 4 panna cottas I used 250 ml of double cream and 150 ml of milk, which I heated up with a tsp of vanilla sugar and about 3 heaped tsps of nutella. Possibly a bit more, as I kept on adding and tasting, but roughly that. 1,5 leaf of gelatine managed to set it just right. Chilled in the fridge since last night, to be enjoyed this evening after sushi. Very good, potential for a Christmas dessert.