Slumber Party Donuts

When I was a kid, we made these easy donuts every time we had a sleep-over! They are made from refrigerated biscuit dough.  My mom always cooked them in Crisco- right in the big metal Crisco can. We always coated them in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar.  I have made them from time to time, but lately they have been the go-to when we have a sleep-over.  We have been experimenting with different oil, temperature and toppings/glaze.  I have tried making the dough from scratch and have had more fails than successes.  

I was hoping to *perfect* simple donut-making before I posted them, but I decided to let go of perfection and post these.  The best part is that they are inexpensive, super easy and so fun to get the family (or friends) involved.  In a few minutes you can make dozens of donuts (and you never have to change out of your pajamas)!

Super Simple Homemade Donuts

4 pack of refrigerated biscuit dough

Coconut oil

Powdered Sugar

a little milk

Using a small circle cutter, cut out the middle of the biscuit (or a good cap to a bottle that has a nice clean edge).  Depending on the diameter of your biscuit and the size of your circle cutter, you might need to pat out the biscuit dough a little bit with your hand.  Set these aside, near the stove top.  

In a deep (but not large) bowl, combine 2 cups or so of powdered sugar in a bowl with drops of water, drizzles at a time, stirring between until the glaze is the consistency desired- liquid but not too thin.

In a medium sized pot, scoop in enough coconut oil to make a 3 inch (or so) deep bath.  Heat on medium high burner until simmering. (Don't let it get to a rolling boil.) 

With a platter lined with several paper towels and a large slotted spoon or tongs in hand, begin gently sliding the dough into the hot oil.  (You can put as many at a time in the oil as will fit, as long as they don't touch the sides of the pan or each other.) Let them cook a minute or two, but watch closely! Once you can tell that the underneath is becoming brown, it's time to flip.  The second side is usually faster. Once you have cooked on both sides and they have browned, carefully lift them out of the oil and tap to leave behind excess oil.  Then promptly place on the towel-lined plate.  

Continue to cook more dough, carefully watching, turning and draining.

Have another person be the "glazer", where they dredge the donut through the glaze and flip to coat. After tapping off excess glaze, place on a drying rack on top of a baking sheet (lined with parchment paper for easy clean up).   

OR you can shake in a paper sack filled with powdered sugar for Powdered Sugar donuts, or granulated sugar or cinnamon & sugar.  

Get creative and try different things! We have tried sprinkling glazed donuts with sprinkles.  We even used a syringe and piped them with raspberry jam.  

You really can't go wrong.  I just recommend you eat them immediately.  They really don't taste great the next day, sadly. 

These are not fancy (by any means) but they are fun and cheap and tasty.   

Nothing like THESE incredible creations! (Nashville/Franklin has a local donut chain that re-defines donuts.  Five Daughters Bakery serves the richest, most decadent, 100-layer croissant-donuts filled with amazingly buttery, sugary toppings.  If you are local, or visiting Nashville, you should make the stop.  I have only taken my kids one at a time because the cost is prohibitive and they are over the top.) 

And these are photos from my FAILED and messy attempt at Old Fashioned from-scratch donuts.  I am open to any tips you have to offer.  I want to find a way to make quick, yet tasty, dense from-scratch donuts but after several fails I have returned to using biscuit dough and letting the experts do the rest!

So next time you have a slumber party, or a vacation, or have a craving for donuts, buy some refrigerated biscuit dough and whip up some donuts... and life-long memories while you're at it. 

Lemon Berry Trifle: A Mother's Day Tribute

I have been baking and cooking a good bit lately and have had a hard time knowing what to post about this week.  I thought maybe a dessert, since it has been a few posts since I’ve written about sweet stuff.  I also thought I might write about something Mother-inspired.  Then it hit me – I have to write about the Lemon Berry Trifle! 

Trifles remind me of my mom.  And the making of this special trifle was done with a young friend who has a great mom.

Trifles are redemptive.  Trifles can be made out of broken brownies or torn apart cakes, or overdone cookies, or dry muffins, (or a freshly baked cake).  But when put in a pretty dish and layered with a little love and yumminess, something beautiful and delicious is created.  Mothers have the ability to do this too.

My mom has a trifle philosophy in life: When your cake sticks to the pan and falls apart, make a trifle; when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When you are feeling left out, include someone else. When you know how to do something, teach someone else (don’t keep it to yourself).

These philosophies have shaped me and on this day, I celebrate the impact that she has had on my life!

I was brainstorming with my friend Amy G. a couple of months ago about how I might could earn some extra money for my upcoming trip to India.  (I am preparing to go see some friends who live there with a small team from my church).  As we were brainstorming she asked if I would be willing to do a private baking lesson with her 10 year old daughter, Mary Grace, as a fundraiser.  I said I would love to do that.  I told her to talk to M.G. about what she might like to bake and to have her email me.  She is very into baking and watching cooking shows on TV (especially the cupcake ones).  When I got her email I was tickled and amazed at her culinary ambition.  She wanted to make red velvet equestrian cupcakes and a fruit trifle with a berry compote, “whatever that is”, she said. 

It was a good thing we had several hours, because we got serious.  We made both of these requested desserts and had a grand time.  Mary Grace is a great cook and was excited to try some new techniques.  (I think zesting was her favorite.  We zested the lemon for the pound cake and she enjoyed it so much she wanted to zest other things.  We ended up using it to shave chocolate for top of the cupcakes. She called it chocolate zest).

For the trifle, I suggested we make a pound cake and flavor it lemon.  She agreed.  So, we used my standard sour cream poundcake recipe and substituted a carton of lemon lowfat yogurt for some of the sour cream, and added the shaved zest of one lemon.  The cake was DELICIOUS! M. G. had seen her mom slice open the cake horizontally when making a shortcake, so we did that, and then broke the cake into pieces.

 

Meanwhile, we made a compote.  We did some researching about compotes and which would be good with this combination of flavors.  We decided on a blend of blueberries, strawberries and lemon. (P.S. it's strawberry season, make the most of it).

Then we made some fresh whipped cream and sliced some strawberries. 

And then we worked together to layer. 

It was a lovely trifle.

My mom’s trifles usually have a layer of pudding.

I have made trifles with a layer of yogurt blended with sweetened condensed milk.  You really can’t go wrong.  You just need some kind of bready/cakey layer, some kind of gooey layer and some whipped cream. It is versatile and beautiful and can be decadent (with chocolate and candy bars) or light (with fruit).  It has lots of textures and its own kind of serving dish.  What’s not to love about a trifle?

When I was talking to M.G.’s mom about this experience, she said as much as she likes to cook and contribute to her daughter’s cooking skills, M.G.  sometimes wants to go “beyond her ”.  She said, that’s where she benefits from having others get involved who enjoy this more and are skilled in a different way than her.  I so appreciate that and agree.  There are times you need another personality or skill-set to come in and invest in your child.  I believe that is a great strength in parenting – when you can see the gaps you have and seek others to supplement.

I am thankful to those women who have done this for me with my kids and continue to do so.  I believe it takes a village.

Happy Mother’s Day! Today I am thankful for my mom, who poured her life out for my sister and me, and continues to generously give us so much of herself.  I am thankful for my grandmothers from whom I learned much about loving and serving people.  I am thankful for Dave’s late mother who taught him how to love and serve – for that my children, I and so many others are blessed. And I am thankful for all the other women who have filled in the gaps and have invested in my life and the lives of my children... even with our broken pieces.

Anticipating Easter: Lent and Sweet Potato Biscuits

This wednesday is Ash Wednesday in the Christian calendar. It marks the beginning of the 40 days of Lent, which end with Easter.  I didn’t grow up in a denomination that celebrated or honored Lent. We just by-passed all of that and focused on Easter.  We bought new, fancy, spring dresses and white shoes (or sandals) to wear on Easter Sunday when people came out of the woodwork to join us at church.  During college I became aware of Lent and the season of anticipation of the days leading up to Christ’s trial, death, burial and then resurrection!   After college I began attending a church that had a Good Friday service.  This was insightful, in that it was a somber (uncomfortably so) service where we pondered – through song and word– the weight of the death of Jesus.

Easter had never felt so anticipated, relieving, and celebratory. 

So, when I began to consider participating in Lenten practices, I started with daily readings leading up to Easter and attempting to fast, or "give up something” during these days.  I used to say, jokingly, that I would give up smoking…(because I’m not a smoker)! I have had varying success/revelation/failure/struggle throughout the years with “giving up” things for Lent.  I have fasted from chocolate, coffee, caffeine, dessert (the hardest by far), and a “words fast” – fasting from gossip, complaining, judging, etc. 

Some of the past few years, I have felt like my life has been one big LENTEN FAST- with young children and an intense job, and a household to keep.  I feel that my every day life is a sacrifice!

Therefore, it's hard to feel inspired to fast from yet another comfort.

Then I begin to ponder what the point of Lent really is.   In my “researching” I have found that the answer to that can really vary.  Some people seek, through observing Lent, to align with Christ, who sacrificed his very life.  Some people use it as a time to cleanse their lives physically, mentally and spiritually.  Some people use it as a time to LEAN on God in a greater way by making sacrifices personally and meditating on Christ's life. Some people use it as a time to meditate and reflect on their own life in relation to Jesus and the gift of His death.

Fredrick Buechner, a favorite author of mine, beautifully explains the season of Lent from his perspective in his book, Whistling in the Dark:

In many cultures there is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of each year’s income to some holy use.  For Christians, to observe forty days of Lent is to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year’s days.  After being baptized by John in the river Jordan, Jesus went off alone into the wilderness where he spent forty days asking himself the question what it meant to be Jesus. During Lent, Christians are supposed to ask one way or another what it means to be themselves.

If you had to bet everything you have on whether there is a God or whether there isn’t, which side would get your money and why?

When you look at your face in the mirror, what do you see in it that you most like and what do you most deplore?

If you had only one last message to leave to the handful of people who are most important to you, what would it be in twenty-five words or less?

Of all the things you have done in your life, which is the one you would most like to undo?  Which is the one that makes you happiest to remember?

Is there any person in the world, or any cause, that, if circumstances called for it, you would be willing to die for?

If this were the last day of your life, what would you do with it?

To hear yourself try to answer questions like these is to begin to hear something not only of who you are but of both what you are becoming and what you are failing to become.  It can be a pretty depressing business all in all, but if sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end.

Last year, I wanted to involve my children in the season of Lent without legalistically requiring them to fast from something, when it’s not their choice. (I really don’t want to turn them off from this sacred season).   I contacted my friend Emily, who is always brimming with creative ideas for intentional parenting and celebrating.  She immediately sent me photos and reflections from this crown of thorns ritual they practice in their home.  We did it last year and it was profound.  I expect that the second time around it will be as well. (A little different, but equally stunning).

We placed a styrofoam wreath on the table, to be kept during the 40 days of Lent, with a cup of toothpicks nearby.  Each night at dinner, those at the table had the chance to confess sin from the day.  When they did so, they placed a toothpick in the wreath, symbolizing the thorns in the crown of Jesus on the cross.  It was uncomfortable to do this – on many levels– (being aware of the sin in our hearts, the physical placing of the thorns in the crown, and the admitting of sin out loud).

This is an especially vulnerable feeling when done with guests at the table.  (We warned them that we would be sharing and invited them to participate in whatever way they felt most comfortable…we didn’t want to impose this radical ritual on our guests)!

Last year when we did this we found that as the days progressed, we became increasingly more aware of our sin throughout the day and even began to see patterns of our repeated sins. 

The glorious part of this ritual is that on Easter morning, before the children awoke, I removed all of the thorns and replaced them with spring flowers!  When they came down to breakfast, they found that the thorns of our 40 days of sin had been replaced with beautiful, vibrant flowers!

  

Lucy was so excited she stuck the wreath on her head as a crown!
At first I told her to take it off, and then I realized that she was
embracing the joy of this beautiful redemption.

Another beautiful gift last Easter was that my friend Blair, introduced these lovely sweet potato biscuits to us, at our Easter feast! We host an Easter dinner/lunch each year for people who are in town and need a place to go.  It's a fun and unpredictable event.  I will go into the details more in the coming weeks, and share some of our favorite food traditions of Easter! But as I was reflecting on last year's Easter Season, the wreath of toothpick thorns and the sweet potato biscuits are the two new traditions that were introduced, that we are excited to repeat this year.

In case you came here today looking for a recipe, rather than a spiritual guide, here is a winner of a recipe!  The recipe is from Blair, via her mom, via Southern Living Magazine (always a good sign).

Sweet Potato Biscuits

1 large sweet potato

2 cups self-rising flour

1/4 cup sugar

3 Tbsp shortening

2 Tbsp butter, cut up

1/3 cup milk

Bake sweet potato at 350 for 1 hour or until tender; cool slightly. 

Peel and mash; cool.

Combine flour and sugar in a medium bowl. 

Cut shortening and butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender or a fork until crumbly; add mashed sweet potato and milk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead 3-4 times.  

Pat dough out into a rectangle 1/2 inch thick; cut into 12 pieces, then gently shape them into a circle with your hand, (or cut with a 2 inch round cutter). 

Place on a baking stone or a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.


Makes 1 dozen

This week, the season of Lent begins, and I am excited to have a focus during these days of winter. Communal confession and sweet potato biscuits are part of what I anticipate might make this season special to me.  What about you??