Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

 

So, it has been a busy time, and I haven’t had much time to develop or practice any hobbies. My interests in smoking meats have waned and it has become difficult to find the time to spend hours preparing and cooking the meat. I have to say that while smoked meat is delicious, I honestly don’t have the time to pursue it.  As time has passed, my interests and needs have changed. While I still desire to find a good hobby for my spare time, I must change my focus. So, I’ve started to look into hobbies that I can pick up and put down as I can. The other issue is my family had some life changes come up and we now pursue a completely gluten free lifestyle.

                Now, I know there are tons of gluten free options offered out there. The problem really is cross contamination. You would be surprised by how places say their chips or fries are gluten free when they are cooked in the same oil as breaded food like chicken tenders or nuggets. Now, while that wouldn’t bother some people, it does for us. So, it really restricts what and where we can eat.

                One of the things that I have missed most from this change is donuts. Without wheat flour, it is hard to make a nice fluffy yeast donut. So, I have been focusing on making a nice cake donut. If you look at it, it is easy to do but getting the texture right has been difficult. I started attempting to make two types of donuts, a gluten-free cinnamon sugar donut and a chocolate ganache donut. Right now, I prefer to focus on the cinnamon sugar donut to go with the apple cider available this fall.

Ingredients

For the donuts:

• 1 cup gluten-free flour blend (I use King Arthur Gluten free flour)
• ⅓ cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 teaspoon gluten-free baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon gluten-free vanilla
• 4 tablespoons butter
• ¼ cup dairy-free milk (or regular milk)

For the coating:

·      ¼ cup granulated sugar

·      1 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

1. For the donuts: Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease one six-serving donut pan; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
3. Add the egg, vanilla, oil, dairy-free milk, and vinegar and stir until combined.
4. Optional-Spray the donut baking pan with oil. It will allow for easier removal of the donuts.
5. Spoon the batter into the prepared donut pan (Or use a piping bag for a smoother finish - filling each donut until the top of the center. The batter should not cover the center of the donut well where the hole will go.
6. Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the donuts rise and set.
7. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
8. Place a wire rack over a cookie sheet or piece of parchment paper.
9. Carefully remove the donut from the pan. You may need to use a spoon or a rubber spatula to loosen them if they stick. The other option is hit the back of the pan to remove the donut.
10. For the coating: In a separate small mixing bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon. One at a time, dip the tops of your donuts into the coating, then flip them to coat the bottoms.
11. Place your cinnamon sugar donut on the rack and repeat until all donuts have been coated.

Now, as for the results, the donuts didn’t get burnt and for me, the donut was pretty good. My wife on the other hand thought it could use more cinnamon. 

However, the biggest issue I discovered is have the donut didn’t get a firm crust. Without the firm crust, it made it difficult to coat the donut evenly. I think the next time, I may cook it at a higher temperature or finish it in the air fryer for a few minutes before coating it.

I think next time I will try cooking at 425°F and using two teaspoon in the donut. I'll update the results the next time I make some. Till next time.

Masterbuilt Smoker

 

So, I’m back. It has been a long while, but we all had some tough times. Now, I wanted to tell you about another hobby I like to do and that is cooking with a smoker. I started smoking meats in 2019 with a Masterbuilt 30in electric smoker.

 

It has a smoker dimensions of 20.47" W x 19.88" L x 33.26" H with a max temperature setting of 275° F. The manufacturer claims that it could smoke 2 turkeys, 4 pork butts, 4 rack of ribs or 6 chickens at once. I have yet to max out the smoking capacity of the smoker but it is more then capable of smoking enough meat for a family or small gathering.

Now, there are some pretty good pros for the smoker. One it is very easy to use and setup. It really didn’t take long to get the smoker assembly and seasoned. Next, it is easy to set the temperature of the smoker and it will hold a constant temperature with barely any assistance required. Now, the side loading chip system clear makes it easy to maintain a high level of smoke for you cooking needs.

The only real negative that I’ve experience is that with just using wood chips, the meat doesn’t develop the traditional smoke ring. Other than that, I’ve been enjoying my smoker.

Over the summer, one of my favorite dishes to smoke is a pork roast. I’ve love trying out different types of rubs. One rub that I particular like is the following:

• 3 Tablespoons brown sugar

• 1 tablespoon of kosher salt

• 1 tablespoon paprika

• 2 teaspoons onion powder

• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper

• 2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon cumin

Now, some people might like a little more spice/heat to their rub. You could replace the cumin with a ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes. Since I have two young children, I try to not to make it as spicy as I can. Otherwise, they won’t eat.

As for the pork roast, I smoked the meat using applewood at 225°F until the internal temperature reach 205°F. I used the ThermoPro wireless thermometer to keep track of the temperature and several hours later, my family enjoyed our dinner.  

Review of Cosori Air Fryer Max XL

 

So, if you haven’t noticed that one of my favorite things to do is cooking. This year for my birthday, I received a Cosori Air Frey Max XL.

 

I never had an Air Fryer before this I got my Cosori. I had no idea what to expect. One of the best features is the size of the air fryer basket. It can hold over 5.8 quarts. Now, what does that roughly mean. I have been able to put in a whole bag of frozen French fries and cook them. It also comes with a lot of preset cooking settings that enables to be pretty user friendly. I also like how easy it is to create custom cook times.

When I used it for the first time, I cooked a bag of popcorn chicken Aldi and used the chicken cooking setting. The setting did have a notification to let me know when I needed to turn the food. However, It definitely cooked the chicken too long and burnt some of the edges on the breading. The good news is the insides were still moist and juicy.

The second attempt at Frying was a bag of Frozen French fries. I used the French fries option on the menu and cooked the fries. While, the setting cooked the fries, most of the fries were extra crispy or burnt. As of right now, these two default settings burn the food that I’ve tried. I honestly had more luck with picking cook times and temperatures. The manual process seems to work better and has resulted in perfectly delicious cooking.

 

Now we need to discuss the worse and most dreaded part of any meal, the cleanup. I have to say that the clean up has been the easier that I’ve ever seen. It was extremely easy to wipe both pans clean with a wet soap dish towel. I didn’t have issues with the clean at all.

 

Now, I still haven’t had a chance to review or use any of the 100 included recipes. I also received the Cosori Accessories XL. I have yet to use any of the accessories, but I can see how it could be quite useful.

Overall, I would rate the Air Fryer 4 out of 5 stars. My biggest issue is the default settings over cook the food but with manual settings can fix that issue. Other than that, I haven’t experience any problems such as 1 star reviews on amazon.