Homemade Donut Holes

These are technically Muffin Tin Doughnuts (per Cooks Country), but when you make them in a mini-muffin tin, they're just like little donut holes. The first time, I made them as big muffins, and I thought the coating to crumb ratio was not as great as I'd like it to be. But now as minis, they're fabulous! Made about 55 minis and lasted less than 24 hours!

Doughnuts / Donuts
2 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup buttermilk
8 Tbs unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, plus 1 yolk

Coating
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
8 Tbs unsalted butter, melted

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Spray the mini-muffin tins with cooking spray. And combine the coating ingredients in a small bowl.

Whisk the dry ingredients (1st 6) in one bowl and the wet (next 3) in another. Add the wet to the dry and stir with a rubber spatula until just combined. Scoop into muffin tins. (I used my mini muffin scoop.) 

Bake 14 minutes, or until lightly browned and a toothpick comes out clean. 

Cool a few minutes in the pan, then working quickly, brush with melted butter, then roll in the sugar, and place on a wire rack.

Quick weeknight meal - Skillet Baked Ziti

I rarely post these days, because it's too hard to coordinate between my writing computer (laptop pc) and my photo computer (iMac). (I have to admit; there is a downside to having photos on iPhoto.) But I've made a couple of yummy things lately, so I just want to get them on here. This one my 12 year old daughter LOVED!

Skillet Baked Ziti (from Cooks Illustrated)

1 Tbs olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced (I use the microplane, and I only used 3 large ones)
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (luckily the girls didn't notice, but I could taste it)
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
3 cups water
12 ounces ziti (I use my awesome scale, but you could use 3/4 of a 1 lb box)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan (again, microplane)
1/4 cup minced fresh basil (didn't have this, still delicious)
1 cup shredded mozzarella (not the pre-shredded kind)

Heat the over to 475 degrees. (I was also heating Sister Schubert rolls, so I only heated it to 350.)

Combine oil, garlic, crushed red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp salt in a 12-inch oven-safe non-stick skillet. Saute over medium-high about 1 minute. Add tomatoes, water, ziti, and another 1/2 tsp salt. 

Cover and cook, stirring often and adjusting heat as needed to maintain a vigorous simmer, until ziti is almost tender, 15-18 minutes. 

Stir in the cream, parmesan, and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. (No salt was needed for mine. I always love a few fresh grinds of pepper.) Sprinkle the mozzarella evenly over the ziti and transfer the skillet to the oven to bake about 10 minutes. They like the cheese to be browned, but I know my kids wouldn't like that, so the lower temperature was just fine for us. 

Julia Child's Brownies

Oops! Sorry! If you saw this page looking blank earlier, it's because I didn't mean to hit publish. I was making a place holder of all the yummy stuff I've made recently and need to blog about. So, here goes!

This past week I pulled out my Baking with Julia cookbook. Frannie had been bugging me to make croissants because I refused to buy her the Pillsbury version in a can at the grocery. I wanted to see what it takes to make them from scratch. (Dang! A whole lot of time!) But somehow along the way, I looked to see if Julia had a brownie recipe. I sorta thought she might be above that, but I was pleased to see she wasn't.

This recipe was quite a bit unlike other brownie recipes I've made and everyone around here thinks it's to die for!