Donuts at Mrs. Johnson's Bakery

Erik and I got kicked out of a bar on Monday night.

Were we drunk? No. Disorderly? Certainly not.

We had Eliza with us. Sweet, sleeping, three-months-old Eliza. Was she drunk and disorderly? Nah.

Apparently, some bars in Austin take the “no one under 21” law very literally. We went to Lavaca Street Bar to meet a couple of friends and were promptly told by a waitress, who apologized profusely, that we couldn’t have a baby in the bar. Bummed out and all dressed up with no where to go, Erik suggested we get dessert somewhere. I suggested donuts at Mrs. Johnson’s.

Mrs. Johnson’s Bakery is special. Oh, sure, the donuts are spectacular, but what really sets Mrs. Johnson’s apart from the rest is their hours of operation. I’ve never known of a bakery that opens at 7:30 p.m. and closes at noon the next day. What this means is that you can get a hot, fresh donut not only to go with your morning cuppa joe, but also late at night after binge drinking your way down Sixth Street (or after getting kicked out of a bar for having a baby). You don’t even have to get out of your car because Mrs. Johnson’s has a drive-through window (though I would hope that if you’ve been binge drinking on Sixth Street all night you’re not driving anywhere. Ask your friendly designated driver/cabbie to swing by on the way home).

Mrs. Johnson’s donuts are delish. You can tell how good a donut shop is by how good their old fashioned donut is. It is a simple donut, yes, but if a bakery can get it right, chances are the rest of their donuts will be stellar. Beware the bakery that dazzles with fruity fillings, crazy sprinkles, and silly names; they might not have what it takes to turn out a truly tasty creation.

We got six donuts to go (we actually went inside the bakery; I didn’t want to miss out on that warm, sticky bakery smell). Erik chose a cinnamon roll, a Bavarian cream filled, and a glazed cake, and I got an apple fritter, a chocolate cake, and, of course, a plain cake (a.k.a. an old fashioned). Our free donut to eat on the way home--a Mrs. Johnson’s tradition--was a glazed cake donut.

It took all my willpower to not eat my three donuts that night. I had the plain cake donut right away and it was still warm. The outer crust was perfect: crunchy, sweet, fried goodness. The inside was moist and perfectly cakey. I saved my other two for the next morning. The apple fritter was good, though it could have been more apple-y, and the chocolate cake donut was delicious.

Going to Mrs. Johnson’s got me thinking about donuts. I’ve always been fascinated by universal foods--you know, foods that have a variation in almost every culture, like donuts. Pretty much every country has a version of sweet, fried dough: beignets in France, oliebollen in Holland, facturas in Argentina...even Chinese red bean buns are reminiscent of a filled donut (and they happen to be one of my favorite things in the whole, wide world).

In my Googling I found a recipe for Pumpkin Doughnuts with Sugar Glaze that looks dreamy; I’ll definitely be trying it when the weather cools down a bit. More interestingly, though, is a recipe I found for Neighborhood Donuts. Now, I usually despise "semi-homemade" cooking (I’m looking at you, Sandra Lee), but these piqued my interest. It’s a creative use for a lot of ingredients most people have in their kitchens. There have been countless nights we’ve wanted something sweet and dessert-y but were too lazy to get our butts out of the house. Neighborhood Donuts sure would have done the trick.

Suffice it to say, I’ve got donuts on the brain. I’d better get over my fear of frying, and fast.

A Note About Cook's Illustrated

The links in the previous post are to recipes from Cook's Illustrated. In order to view the recipes, you need to register for either their 14-day trial subscription or their one-year paid subscription, for $34.95. In my opinion, the paid subscription is worth every penny. I could reprint the recipes here for you and probably not get sued, but I don't want to be shady and stick it to the fine folks at CI. If you want these recipes, shell out the $34.95. You will have access to 10 bajillion superbly developed recipes and you won't be disappointed.

My Cupcakes Bring All the Boys to the Yard

Remember when I said I was going to make more ginger cookies for Marcus’s party? Well, I changed my mind. Apparently, they are “too gingery” for some people, so I made vanilla cupcakes with orange buttercream frosting instead.

Cupcakes are everywhere, which is good because they serve a very important purpose for people, like me, who love cake. They make it possible for one to get one’s cake fix without consuming an entire cake. If you put a cake in front of me, I will eat an absurd amount of cake; if you put a cupcake in front of me, I will eat a cupcake (unless you let it slip where the other cupcakes are; then it’s all over). In the quest to maintain my girlish figure, I find cupcakes to be indispensable.

I used Cook’s Illustrated’s recipes for Yellow Cupcakes and Easy Orange Buttercream. This was my first time using these two recipes in particular, but I’ve made Cook’s Illustrated’s Dark Chocolate Cupcakes and Easy Vanilla Bean Buttercream several times with great results. The folks at CI really know what they’re doing, and it’s awesome to have a recipe resource you can actually trust to provide well-developed, delicious recipes. With very few exceptions (and those few owing, most likely, to error on my part), the Cook’s Illustrated recipes I’ve made have produced stellar baked goods.

The finished cupcakes are delicious. I piped the frosting instead of mounding it on with a spatula; I like the more polished look. I happen to think most cupcakes need an extra something on top--for my vanilla/orange ‘cakes I wedged one half of an orange wafer cookie in the frosting on each. I chose these cookies not only because they look pretty, but because they enhance the orangey-ness of the whole cupcake.

One note: I doubled both the recipes, hoping for two dozen finished cupcakes, but the doubled buttercream only yielded enough to frost 13 cupcakes. I was fairly conservative with my piping, too, as I don’t like to have to bite through inches of think frosting before getting to the cake. When I make the Easy Orange Buttercream again--and I probably will because it’s really tasty--I will remember to make more. I have nearly a dozen sad little unfrosted cupcakes sitting in my kitchen right now...luckily I also happen to have a jar of Nutella, which I think will make a superb frosting substitute!

B is for Breakfast

I made some buttercream frosting last night. The recipe called for a bunch of orange zest. Now that we are a single-income family, I have become acutely aware of food waste. Those two little zestless oranges were weighing on my conscience all night.

I’ve never been good at using leftovers. Lying in bed last night, thinking about those oranges, I also guiltily remembered the stale loaf of sourdough bread we never even opened, and the half-pint-minus-two-tablespoons of heavy cream in the fridge, also left over from the buttercream recipe.

Then it clicked. Eggs? Check. Butter? Check. Cinnamon, vanilla, and sugar? Check, check, and check.

French toast.

Then I remembered a crucial piece of information: I am terrible at pan frying. Horrendous. Any french toast I attempt to make will leave me frustrated and teary and my husband hungry and disappointed.

So I decided to bake it, sort of like a french toast/bread pudding hybrid. I call it French Pudding.

This stuff is incredible! The hubs and I ate nearly the whole thing. The pudding itself is not very sweet, which is good because a generous pour of maple syrup over the top is the perfect final touch. I worried whether the use of sourdough bread would result in a tangy pudding, but it didn’t. In fact, the extra-thick crust of the bread softened a bit with the liquid, but still retained its chewiness. This dish has a lot of textures going on--the chewy crust of the bread, the crunchy cinnamon and sugar topping, the warm, eggy custard center--that work together brilliantly.

I added the slivered almonds at the end as sort of an afterthought, but their addition made me think that almond extract might be pretty good instead of the vanilla extract. And the orange juice didn’t add much of a noticeable flavor, so the addition of some zest to the liquid ingredients could be good. Maybe next time...

Here is my recipe, adapted from a recipe for French Toast Casserole. I think I will be working on this one and tweaking it as I go.


French Pudding

4 cups stale bread cubes
4 eggs
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons cinnamon
4 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup slivered almonds

Preheat the oven to 350. Spray an 8” x 8” pan with nonstick spray. Add the bread cubes to the pan. Combine the eggs, cream, orange juice, vanilla, two tablespoons of sugar, and salt in a separate bowl, then pour over the bread. Let the mixture stand for about ten minutes. In a separate bowl, combine the cinnamon, remaining sugar, and almonds; sprinkle over the top of the bread mixture. Bake for 45 minutes or until the top is brown and crunchy. Serve warm with maple syrup.

Party Time

My friend Marcus is throwing a big party next weekend and I offered to bring a dessert. After hemming and hawing about what type of dessert would be best, taking into account the current heat wave and the type of party it will be, I settled on ginger cookies.

The smell of ginger, nutmeg, and cloves reminds me of winters growing up in Western New York. Emanating from the oven, the spices are warm and inviting, promising a delicious baked treat with a savory bite. But there is no reason these flavors can’t work equally well in a summer recipe, especially paired with fresh seasonal fruit. A plate of chewy cookies makes a great casual dessert for a warm-weather party.

Because I’d never made this particular recipe before, and because they were for “others” (that is, not to shovel in my own gob), I decided to make a tester batch first. I was skeptical of how the finished cookies would turn out, mostly because I accidentally added the crystallized ginger to the mix before the dry ingredients. The little ginger nuggets clogged up my KitchenAid mixer, which is already on its last legs, so I had to do the final mixing by hand. The dough was thicker and drier than I expected, so I was a little worried about the consistency of the final product. I chose to ignore the little voice of negativity in my head, however, and formed the sugar-crusted cookies as directed.

I baked the cookies for only 12 minutes, as my scoop makes cookies slightly smaller than those in the recipe. I let the cookies cool a bit before digging in. They are delicious--chewy and spicy, with the perfect burst of extra flavor from the chunks of crystallized ginger. I will definitely make more of these for Marcus’s party next weekend.

The recipe I used can be found here.

Welcome!

I love dessert and I love to bake. Someday I will go to pastry school, but until that’s feasible I’m going to learn everything I can about the pastry arts on my own. My goal in creating this blog is simple: to celebrate and document all things dessert. I’d like to bake at least one new item each week, and post about the result, whether it is a success or a failure.

Another of my goals is to get out and experience all the desserts that Austin has to offer. I’ve lived here for two years and I have no idea where to get the best chocolate chip cookie, or fresh baguette, or pumpkin pie. I know that Austin has a lot of unique resources and I’m ready to hit the mean streets looking for the best of the best.

I hope, above all else, that D is for Dessert is entertaining. I warmly welcome any suggestions for topics to cover or restaurants to visit, so please don’t hesitate to share. I’m always open to new ideas.

Thanks for reading, and welcome to D is for Dessert!