Make the Bread, Buy the Butter - Jennifer Reese [52]
Fresher than Cracker Jack, plus you get to eat it by the greedy fistful from a bowl rather than fishing around in the cramped box with your fingertips.
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Easy
Cost comparison: $0.70 per ounce for Cracker Jack. $0.28 for ConAgra’s Crunch ’n Munch. $0.16 per ounce for homemade.
2½ quarts popcorn, freshly popped
2 cups skinned, salted, roasted peanuts
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
½ cup dark corn syrup
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon baking soda
1. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
2. In a wide pan with high sides, such as a turkey roaster, combine the popcorn and half the peanuts.
3. In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, corn syrup, butter, and salt and bring to a boil over medium heat. Continue to boil for 5 minutes. No need to stir. Remove from the heat and mix in the vanilla and baking soda.
4. While the glaze is still very hot, pour most of it over the popcorn and peanuts, tossing with a buttered spoon until well combined. Add the rest of the peanuts, then the rest of the syrup, and toss.
5. Put the roasting pan in the oven and bake for 1 hour. Cool. Break apart any big clumps. Store at room temperature in a tin or a large resealable plastic bag.
Makes 1½ pounds of caramel corn, about 3 quarts
GLAZED DONUTS
All day long Mother had been baking, and when Almanzo went into the kitchen for the milk-pails, she was still frying doughnuts. The place was full of their hot, brown smell, and the wheaty smell of new bread, the spicy smell of cakes, and the syrupy smell of pies.
Almanzo took the biggest doughnut from the pan and bit off its crisp end.
—Farmer Boy
Sometimes I wonder why those Little House books had such a powerful hold over me. Everything people did seemed vital and elemental and creative and everyone was all together doing it and when they were done, they sat down to these incredible meals. The books seemed to depict a deeper, richer domesticity than I was experiencing in my own 1970s home, pressed against the heater while my mother refinished a chair and my father watched Monday Night Football. Today, I would never turn down a donut from a donut shop, but homemade donuts—hot, yeasty, crispy, and light—are better. As Isabel said, “These take some of the fun out of Krispy Kreme.”
Make it or buy it? Make it.
Hassle: Rising. Cutting. Frying. Draining. Big hassle.
Cost comparison: Homemade: $0.10 per ounce. Entenmann’s: $0.20 per ounce.
2½ teaspoons instant yeast
1¼ cups warm milk
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, softened
3 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons sugar
1½ teaspoons kosher salt
Grated zest of half an orange
3 to 4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
Neutral vegetable oil, for deep-frying
GLAZE
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Milk
1. In a large bowl, preferably using an electric mixer, combine the yeast, milk, butter, egg yolks, sugar, salt, and orange zest with 1 cup of the flour. Add the remaining flour in ½-cup increments, stopping as soon as you get a soft but workable dough.
2. Knead for 3 minutes, using a dough hook. Scrape the dough down the sides of the bowl, cover with a clean, damp dish towel, and let rise until puffy, about 1 hour.
3. Turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out thin—to just under ½ inch. Cut as many rounds as possible with a 3-inch biscuit cutter. Then cut out the centers with a 1-inch cutter. Reroll scraps and continue cutting out donuts. Cover the donuts with the towel and let rise for 30 minutes.
4. Heat 3 inches of oil in a large heavy pot to 350 degrees F. When you drop in a pinch of dough it should sizzle immediately and rise to the surface, but not brown immediately. (If that happens, the donuts will emerge crispy on the outside and raw on the inside.) Line a baking sheet with paper towels.
5. Fry the donuts, four at a time, turning with a slotted spoon, until