Mouthwatering Lavender Sugar Ring Donuts Recipe
These unusual doughnuts are delicious
These donuts are extremely tasty and very easy to make. As a stand-by for the less adventurous family members you can easily substitute cinnamon or even plain or powdered if required!
If you try them you will enjoy the slightly perfumed sweet taste of these the lavender. The extra lavender sugar is heavenly on crepes with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Or can be used to dust Traditional Scottish Shortbread.
Sweet English Lavender for Baking
The sweetest mildest lavender for baking and sweet culinary use are the darker blue English lavenders or Lavandula angustifolia. There are many edible or culinary varieties with 'Provence Blue' being the most recognized for sweets. We use a 'Munstead' or 'Hidcote' which is cold hardy in Canada. A single mature plant can yield enough lavender buds for most cooking needs. Lavender buds can be used fresh in the summertime or the cut stems hung to dry in a warm dark dry place for a week or two and the buds stored til you need them.
You can easily buy both kinds of culinary lavender online. When cooking with lavender, a little goes a long way and it is not necessarily better to use more. It goes well with tea biscuits, chocolate and other bready type baking, and can be used in delicate jellies too.
The Herbes de Provence lavender is pale Lavandin hybrid 'Provence' and is too bitter for sweet cooking, but excellent in marinades for lamb, pork and chicken dishes on the barbecue.
Lavender Sugar Donut Ingredients
- 2 1/4 ounce envelopes active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 fresh eggs
- 1/3 cup shortening
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
Topping
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp English culinary lavender
Directions for Lavender Sugar Doughuts
- Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, and let stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy.
- In a large bowl, mix together the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix for a few minutes at low speed, or stirring with a wooden spoon. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl.
- Knead for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double. Dough is ready if you touch it, and the indention remains.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter.
- Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Cover loosely with a cloth.
- Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula. Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown.
- Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack or paper towel.
- Use a a clean tiny coffee or herb grinder to blend the lavender and sugar together
- While donuts still warm dip each side of donuts in lavender sugar mix
This recipe is inspired by and adapted from http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/crispy-and-creamy-doughnuts/Detail.aspx
We find this makes a large recipe. To to make things easier, and save work, we freeze the extra donuts on a tray with parchment paper after they have risen once and are shaped. On bringing them out of the freezer to use, they are set on a similar tray to thaw and proof in the oven with just the light on for 3-6 hours.