One of the first things that came to my mind was rhubarb doughnuts! Someone at my work had actually tried to make rhubarb and custard doughnuts before, but the acidity in the rhubarb jam he made caused the cream to curdle. Ever since then, I’ve always thought that if I were to do it, I would turn the rhubarb into a curd instead, as it would prevent any curdling. After all, you can mix lemon curd with cream and it’s fine – and lemon is even more acidic!

So I went back to my tried and true recipe for crème patissière, which is the same recipe I use for making lemon curd! I simply swap the milk amount for lemon juice and add as much zest as the amount of lemons I juice. I figured I could do the same with rhubarb purée! However, once I had stewed the rhubarb, and blitzed it – it wouldn’t press through a sieve like raspberry or some other kind of puree. Too much fibre. In the end, I didn’t see it and simply reduced the amount of cornstarch in the recipe to account for how thick the puree is to start with. I figured that the rhubarb purée was about halfway between how thin milk is, and how thick I wanted the final curd – so I halved the amount of thickener (cornstarch) to just 10g.

The rhubarb taste is there, but subtler than I was expecting. I’m debating trying to make these without the custard next time. I would double the amount of rhubarb puree, and just flavour the whipping cream with vanilla and fold them together. I think the flavour would be amazing – but then I love rhubarb, and it might be too strong for some. But even without the strong rhubarb flavour – these still taste great!

For the doughnut itself, I used the same recipe from Justin Gellatly’s book Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding, that I used in the paska doughnuts. Except, as these weren’t paska doughnuts, I used his traditional recipe with water instead of citrus juice. If you want a few tips on how to fry them, check out the paska recipe! My key tip is always to prove the doughnuts on parchment paper, rather than trying to lift them off a floured surface. You can even pre-cut the squares before shaping so that you don’t have to try and cut around the doughnuts once proven.

When I was trying to decide how to garnish these (all doughnuts need a garnish, IMHO), I was torn between poached rhubarb and rhubarb curls! In the end, I think the poached stuff works better, as it looks more like rhubarb at first glance. It is a better colour. However, the fact that you can make ribbons out of rhubarb is always fun. I used this recipe to make them.

Which garnish do you think looks better?

Either way, if you happen to have a glut of rhubarb from your garden or just love doughnuts, why not try these? You could even try reducing the amount of creme patisserie in the recipe to see if the stronger flavour is better? Taste is always a personal preference. Or, you can just eat the rhubarb curd straight – ha! Pipe it into tart shells, or make a rhubarb meringue pie! Enjoy!

Well, it’s officially 2018! And why not start the new year with some good old-fashioned doughnuts? My grandma always called these New Year’s Küken (or “cookies”) but you may also know them as Portzelky. They are a German Mennonite favorite, always made for New Year’s Day.

When I was a kid, these weren’t my favorite things because they contained a dreaded ingredient – raisins. Not sure why, but I have always disliked raisins, especially in baked goods. You know when you pick up a cookie, thinking it’s a chocolate chip, only to eat a raisin?! Worst thing ever… I can remember eating raisins out of those little red boxes as a child and enjoying it. But now, despite my best efforts to get used to those shriveled little pockets of sadness… I just don’t like ’em.

Now that I am making my own New Year’s cookies, I can use whatever fruit I want! (Eat that, raisins!) I have always wanted to experiment with these little doughnuts and decided to try three different flavors this year.

The first uses raisins, but I soaked them with some alcohol for flavor (sloe gin to be exact). The second was candied citrus zest, and the third was apple and stem ginger, with a hint of cinnamon. All three also have some fresh orange zest and vanilla in the dough… because apparently, I cannot leave anything alone. When I told Richard I wanted to make these but add/change things, his response was “Of course”.

(You may wonder why I am bothering to make raisins, but I want Richard to be able to try them, and he likes them.)

Now, my grandma always waited for these to cool a bit, and then dusted with icing sugar, but I decided to mix that up too. For the candied citrus zest ones, I rolled them in a bit of caster (berry) sugar after letting them drain off the oil. You need to do it while they are still warm (like the paska doughnuts I made last year) so that it stick properly.

As for our opinions on which flavor is the best? Well, Richard and I both liked the candied zest and apple ones, but he also liked the raisin ones. He preferred the icing to caster sugar, but I can go both ways. Caster looks prettier than icing sugar, but it’s really a personal choice. As always, they taste best warm, so invite a few people over while you make them! Who would say no to warm, sugary doughnuts on New Year?

For those of you who don’t know what paska is, it’s a yeasted Ukrainian Easter bread, flavored with lemon and orange. It’s usually served with sweetened cream cheese – or at least that’s what my grandma always made with it. And if you grew up in a Mennonite family, then you’re probably used to seeing paska with some simple icing on top, sprinkled with rainbow sprinkles… like this!

paska photo via Natasha’s Kitchen

But I wanted to make something different this year! So with those doughnuts as my inspiration, I decided to make paska-flavoured doughnuts! Using a recipe from Justin Gellatly’s cookbook Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding – I adapted it to include the paska flavor. All it took was increasing the amount of citrus zest exponentially, and changing the water to citrus juice. (I also used active dry yeast instead of fresh, as it’s kind of hard to find.)

These doughnuts aren’t too hard to make, but as with most good things, they do take time. The dough needs to rest overnight before you can work with it, so plan ahead! As it’s an enriched dough, the amount of butter and egg makes it quite sticky to work with, which is why overnight is best.

The original recipe said to shape the dough on a really floured tray, but I learned a trick in baking school! If you place the doughnut rounds on trays covered in parchment paper, simply cut the paper around each one! When you fry them, you use the paper to lift the doughnut into the oil, which prevents you from accidentally deflating them. Then, when you flip them over, the oil allows the paper to simply slide off.

doughnut rounds before proving, and after

fry doughnuts paper side up, then flip to remove

For the doughnut filling, I wanted to include the cream cheese flavor of the spread my grandma made. So I made a simple pastry cream and folded in cream cheese and whipped cream. I included some vanilla bean, for flavor, but it’s just optional. It’s a pretty subtle cream cheese flavor, so feel free to increase the amount if you wish, or even add some mascarpone for additional zing!

To finish these off, I decided to pay homage to the old-school paska of my youth, and topped them with sprinkles!

Of course, if you wanted these to look more grown up, you could always top them with some finely sliced citrus zest!

So what do you think? Will you ditch the traditional Easter bread in favor of something a bit adventurous this year? If not, and you’re still wanting to make a traditional bread, I’ve got some recipes coming up later this week… but for now, doughnuts!