My grandma and aunt started a family tradition that has involved going through and creating EVERY recipe in the Magnolia Table cookbook. I was assigned two recipes and the one at the top of my two item “to cook” list was inevitably donuts… my greatest obsession. These donuts were drastically different from other’s I’ve tried, partially because of the inclusion of aniseed (what gives licorice its flavor). I was a bit skeptical of that addition since I don’t particularly like aniseed, but I decided to give it a try for the mere fact it contained the word “donut” in the title (always a selling factor for me).
As you may know, my blog is dedicated to simple and healthy (mostly vegan or dairy free) recipes. This particular recipe happens to be neither of those things, but I am perfectly ok with making an exception for the involvement of donuts (can you tell I like donuts lol). I also thought this would be a great chance do a recipe REVIEW since I have never done one before.
Getting Started…
When I discovered this recipe required at least 3 hours and 45 minutes to complete, I got a bit worried since I usually take even longer than recipes recommend. However, It truly wasn’t bad at all since a majority of the time (two hours) was simply waiting on the dough to rise. Still, making these donuts wasn’t exactly a breeze. The first dilemma arose when I discovered we were out of parchment paper. I was not about to stop the baking process because of this small hiccup and opted by using cooking spray (not my favorite option but it worked in a pinch). I also couldn’t find ground aniseed at any grocery store and ended up having to blend whole aniseed to grind it. As mentioned above, I’m not the hugest fan of aniseed and added the lesser recommended amount of it (2 teaspoons) to the dough. It was very subtle but added a lovely kick.
This recipe involved mixing chopped nuts INTO the dough which created a crunch I have never experienced in a donut. I ended up slightly pulsing the nuts in a blender rather than chopping them because I would rather there be too small of chunks than too big. I feel that was a good decision because the end result yielded a consistent nutty flavor in each bite.
The book mentioned how the dough should be dense… and it certainly fit that description. It was also super dry and crumbly so I had to add an extra 1/4 cup of water. That small addition helped the dough immensely. Still, the dough remained dense. It didn’t even rise during the two hour dedicated rising time (this, however, could have been a mistake caused by the yeast I used).
The last change I made was substituting whole milk for almond milk. I made this change since I hardly consume any dairy if I can control it.
In Conclusion:
If I were to try to describe these donuts to you, I would say “imagine a traditional donut and…. throw that image in the trash because they are nothing alike.”😂 Truly, the only similarity the two share is a center hole. The texture of these “donuts” are dense, crumbly, and firm. They are more comparable to a bagel with glaze. The flavor is unique, but if I’m speaking honestly, I was slightly disappointed with the results because it was no where near what I was expecting. This could very well just be because of personal errors, but I followed the instructions closely. I probably wouldn’t try these again if they turned out this way every time, but I truly believe that, with more practice, they could turn out wonderfully. This would also be a fun recipe to take on if you are feeling adventurous and want to complete a more difficult baking task. If you do plan on trying this recipe, I highly recommend doing so during the fall time because the flavors and spices are practically an epitome of the fall season.
Alternations I Made:
- 1 cup sugar was added to the dough instead of 2 cups
- 2 teaspoons of aniseed was used in the dough instead of 3 teaspoons
- regular milk was replaced with almond milk
- An extra 1/4 cup of water was added to the dough to help with dryness
Tip:
A small tip I’ve acquired from baking more difficult recipes (or really anything at all) is to gather all the ingredients and measuring cups and spoons needed BEFORE beginning the baking process. It seems like the simplest thing but it really does make the baking process go much smoother.
