Strawberry Shortcake “Doughnuts”

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE “DOUGHNUTS”

Yes, Yes you heard right… is your mouth-watering yet? It should be.

My garden was producing a plethora of Strawberries last season so I decided to make these orgasmic, heaven-in-one-bite {or two} miniature “doughnuts”. They are extremely easy to consume and you will most surely be eating more than you thought possible. Yes. They will. Blow. Your. Mind. End of story, carry on….

“Doughnut” Ingredients:

1 ½ sticks of real butter, softened
¾ cup sugar
2 eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk
½ tablespoon ground cinnamon

Browned Butter and Sugar Coat Ingredients:

2 sticks of butter
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of ground cinnamon

Homemade Strawberry Whipped Cream Ingredients:

2 cups {1 pint} heavy whipping cream
4 tablespoons of sugar
dash or two of vanilla extract
¼ cup + some of mashed up strawberry.
Strawberries sliced for garnish.

Doughnuts:

Coat a mini muffin tin with a non-stick cooking spray or coat with a bit of flour.

Beat butter in mixer for 1 minute, add sugar. Beat until light in color and smooth and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time just until mixed in.

Don’t over mix batter, just until eggs are mixed in!

Set aside.

In separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together until blended well.

Add a fourth of the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir. Add a third of the milk and stir. Repeat alternating back and forth from dry ingredients to milk, ending with the dry. Mix JUST until batter is smooth, do not over mix! Fill mini muffin tins ¾ full.

Filling my mini-muffin pan 3/4 full of batter

Bake at 350° for 15 minutes

Remove “doughnuts” from pan once cooled enough. Let cool on cooling rack.

Browned Butter and Sugar Coat:

Melt butter in a sauce pan on medium/high heat until it starts to boil, bubble then foam a bit. Let the butter foam up for a bit, then whisk butter and continue to cook/boil.

Whisk constantly until it starts to brown, you should start to see the butter almost looking like it’s burning, black specks will start to turn it darker. Once you see dark specks on bottom of pan, remove from heat and pour into a heat-safe bowl. You have now just created “Brown Butter”.

Butter is dark in color and has black specks

In a separate bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon.

Dip doughnut into butter on all sides.

Let excess butter drip off before rolling in sugar mixture.

Dipping and rolling on all sides, letting excess drip off

Immediately roll doughnut in sugar/cinnamon.

Less is more. But hey, it’s to your taste and desire. So a heavy coat, or a light coat, it’s up to you! I, however, prefer a lighter sugar/cinnamon coat. A light coat helps to minimize a sugary mess. Especially with the kids 😉

Once rolled in sugar/cinnamon mixture goodness, place back on cooling rack.

Now, all joking aside, I won’t blame you if you just want to stop right here. It’s orgasmic just how it is, go ahead and try one. I’ll wait… or continue to maximize these little fellas!

Strawberry Whipped Cream:

*So here’s the thing about home-made whipped cream: It just tastes better. End of story.

Beat heavy whipping cream just until soft peaks form.

If you are using a KitchenAid mixer, don’t surpass speed 6 when whipping. If you are using a hand-held mixer, try not to go over medium speed. Why? You ask. Well, let’s get technical and use some science. When you are whipping something you are adding air into your ingredient, yes? You knew that, so lets continue. If you choose to whip air into your heavy cream too quickly (over speed 6), yes, you will have saved yourself some time… but you will have created bigger air bubbles that are being whipped into the cream. Bigger bubbles mean bigger air pockets that collapse when you’re done whipping. Collapsed air pockets is the devilish reason your whipped cream becomes less “fluffy” and becomes flat. Definitely not what we think of when we think of whipped cream. So take your time. Whip those air pockets more slowly, thus creating smaller pockets and less droopy-ness. You will thank me.

Once soft peaks form, beat in sugar one tablespoon at a time on low. Beat in vanilla and mix until STIFF PEAKS form.
BE SURE NOT TO OVER WHIP.

Gently fold in mashed up strawberries.

NOTE: 2 cups of whipping cream will make 4 cups of whipped cream. 1 cup of cream will make 2 cups after whipping. The ratio should always be 2 tablespoons of sugar to one cup of heavy whipping cream. Make what you will use.

If you need to make this ahead of time, whip in 1 tablespoon of instant vanilla pudding mix to each 1 cup of cream. This will help the cream stabilize and won’t “weep” in the fridge. Cover with Saran Wrap and you can keep it in fridge for up to 2 days. Have left over whipped cream? You can freeze remaining whipped cream in dollops on wax paper, freeze laying flat and not touching anything. Once frozen you can remove dollops from wax paper and place all in a freezer bag for later use.

Place in a piping bag, or in a Ziploc and cut off tip.

Once doughnuts are cooled, cut in halves. Pipe a layer of whipped cream on bottom half and place top half back on. Pipe some whipped cream on top and garnish with a few slices of strawberries!

Serve, and relish in all the moans and groans of enjoyment!

….Oh… hey, you got a little sugar on the side of your mouth… 😛

Happy Baking!

Recipe Inspiration by http://www.kevinandamanda.com