Donut Day

Any man rolling dough is a treasure in my eyes!

Treasure has a craving for donuts. Most normal people would just drive to their neighbourhood donut shop and buy some. Not Treasure. He decides that he will make some and invites me to help. I jump at the chance. Who ever heard of actually making your own donuts?! It's an experience I can't pass up.

In the final rising stage

Apparently doing things like making donuts is not an unusual idea for Treasure. His wife's family are farmers and from the sounds of it they are extremely hard working, very competent and self reliant, and they do things in a big way. Treasure's mother-in-law bakes a dozen pies, all different kinds, all at once. Every year they roast a whole pig, for dinner, just like that. Treasure's brother-in-law makes gallons of ice cream, just for the fun of it. Treasure made his own dining table from wood from his in-laws' old barn. So, to Treasure, making your own donuts is nothing out of the ordinary.

Frying

In case you were wondering, Treasure is not his real name. The 3 year old girl who lives next door calls him this. It's probably because 3 year olds have trouble pronouncing certain sounds. But maybe it's a proclamation of what she knows to be true, as little kids and really old people can do.  All the little girl knows is that one night she gave Treasure 11 raspberries that she picked herself and the next morning he gave her back a raspberry pie.

Glazing

In case Treasure sounds like the Perfect Man I want to be clear that he, as all men, has significant flaws. He is generally risk averse although today is surprising me with his risk taking. Making donuts for the first time knowing that they will end up on my blog is pretty risky. He also makes lunch for us. He skims the August issue of Food & Wine magazine and decides on Zucchini - Ricotta Fritters. He makes those for the first time, with me watching, and he doesn't even like vegetables! He does peel all the green off the zucchini to perhaps trick himself into believing he is not actually eating vegetables. But still...going outside his comfort zone.

Finished donuts

Treasure is also a bit of a control freak. But so am I. So although I understand and respect this quality I also wonder how we'll do in the kitchen together. Surprisingly, all goes pretty smoothly. Control freakishness is held in check by both of us. 

And one last, but significant, flaw is in the area of expression of feelings, which is a major criteria in my definition of the Perfect Man. The word "feelings" is like a swear word to Treasure. His own personal F-word.

Freaky beans

My faithful readers may be wondering how the Hubby feels about me making donuts with a man called Treasure. Now the expression of feelings IS a strength of the Hubby's. Usually the Hubby really likes Treasure but the donut making is a little hard for him to stomach. It must be the manly competitive thing. He puts on a brave face and a big fake smile. He's almost fooled me. Until I come home with all these gorgeous donuts, regale him with stories from the day, and then pull out a jar of pickled beans that Treasure made last summer with his friend. It's just too much for the Hubby. All he can mutter is "Freak!".









The recipe for the Donuts is Treasure's mother-in-law's. She knows it so well by heart that it's a little tricky getting the details necessary for neophyte donut makers like me and Treasure. Treasure has previously been involved only in the glazing stage of donut making. The ingredients are clear; it's the technique that requires some guesswork on our part. We decide that next time we will make our donut holes smaller and roll the dough out thicker.



In the end, it was relatively easy to make donuts although it took us all day. There are many steps. There's the mixing, the rising, the punching down, the rising again, the rolling, the cutting of shapes, the rising yet again, the frying, and the glazing. The last stage, the eating, is the easiest and fastest of them all.

I would highly recommend donut making for those of you with a lot of patience and a Treasure to work with.