Yum

It has been many, many years since I’ve walked the midway of the Red River Exhibition, and probably as long since I’ve made these donuts. But I have always loved them, the small bites of the soft pillowy dough inside a crispy outside… coated in sugar and cinnamon or even better, icing sugar… yummy…

These come from a cookbook I bought 25 years ago, Whole Foods for the Whole Family put out by La Leche League International.  For many years it was my ‘go to’ cookbook and the recipe for these egg-less milk-less donuts was handy when I took both my little ones to a play group and a couple of the kids had egg allergies.  I was definitely a hit when I showed up with these… and the kids were thrilled.

I still love them and swear I wouldn’t (or even my kids wouldn’t) be able to tell the difference between these and ones made with milk and eggs.  Seriously, I dare ya!

T came over earlier and we had fun making them… yes we had the music blasting good old 90’s tunes, we even danced in my tiny … really … tiny kitchen as we tripled the recipe and rolled… cut… fried and stuffed ourselves full of these before they even fully cooled down.

I often find myself doubling recipes, I don’t know why… and this time we tripled it… but we did it because I actually bought enough tofu to triple the recipe…. and really what else was I going to do with it?  This is what I bought it for. All I can say is thank goodness T had a party to go to tonight and took a whole bunch with her cause I’m not so sure I really wanted to have so many of these around…. I’m actually going to freeze a few to see how they hold up… I’ll let you know so stay tuned…   Really though, these are easy enough to make fresh whenever you’re in the mood!

Recipe

A pan of oil for frying (about 1/2 to 3/4 inch)

• 1 Cup water
• 1/4 Cup Oil
• 1/2 Cup Honey or Brown Sugar
• 6 oz Tofu
• 3 Cups whole wheat Flour (I used white)
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon fresh grated Nutmeg (this really is key!)

Stir together the water, oil and honey in a bowl and add in the tofu, then the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg all at once.  The dough will be pretty sticky but flour your work surface and fold into a nice dough.  Roll it out to about 3/4 inch thickness cut into rounds and fry in your pan of oil.  I have a vague recollection that I might have actually cut the holes out of the rounds at one point a long long time ago, but that was then, and now we’re all older and want something for bigger hands… and mouths… 🙂

We threw out the first batch because they just weren’t cooked inside (that’s probably where the holes would have made a difference). You really need to have the oil on halfway between low and medium or at least that’s what worked well for us.  Turn them over when the first side is nice and golden and let drain on paper towels.

Dust these with sugar and cinnamon or icing sugar (we could’t decide so we did both) and enjoy!

ADDITION……since these really are best when they are fresh, or at least the first day, I put some in the freezer to see if they would hold.  I just took the bag out (about 2 months later) and I have to say… they are just as good as the day I made them.  Also, when I froze them they were already covered in sugar but I’m guessing you could leave this for when you take them out.