A couple of weeks ago, I attended a class called “Crullers and Cameras” hosted by Lara Ferroni. I was very impressed by how down to earth Lara is. We first started the class by learning about the process of making the donuts and the the publishing of her book Doughnuts. While most of us can just pick up the book and start creating, watching Lara work and offering suggestions was well worth the afternoon. The best part of the process for me was actually piping the dough on the parchment paper. Trust me, it is a lot harder to do than it looks. After making and glazing the doughnuts, the class took pictures of our creations.

While it felt like Christmas time being able to play with all of Lara’s props and equipment, I really enjoyed the fact that she was so willing to share some of her photography and design techniques with me and the class. I really want that studio!! I can tell you that my food photography skills has improved a lot since that class. The bad news, my wallet is still smarting after buying that 105mm Nikon macro lens. If you ever get a chance to take any of Lara’s classes, take them. If you want a wonderful cookbook dedicated to Doughnuts, buy this book.

I am going to leave you with my take on Lara’s basic cake doughnut recipe.

Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups (240 grams) organic whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup (100 grams) of organic sugar
2 tablespoons of butter
1 egg
1/2 cup half and half
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 teaspoon of Bailey’s Irish Cream
Peanut oil for frying

Application:
In a stand mixer, combine all of the dry ingredients and blend on low speed. Add butter and continue blending until the mixture looks like coarse sand. In another bowl, add your wet ingredients and whisk together until fully blended. With the mixer running, slowly add the wet mixture to the dry mixture until the batter is smooth and thick. Let the batter rest for 15 minutes

In a electric fryer, heat the peanut oil to 370 degrees. (Lara recommends 2 inches of oil in a heavy bottomed pan at 360 degrees)

Add batter into a piping bag and pipe the batter in a circle on squares of lightly greased parchment paper. Then CAREFULLY place the batter and parchment paper into the oil (while holding on to a corner of the paper) and slide the batter into the oil. Fair Warning: This is going to take practice and I often had to resort to using a chopstick in order to keep the hole open and circular. By the end of the process, I was getting pretty good at it. Fry for 30-45 seconds on each side and remove from the oil. Place the donuts on a cooling rack and let cool before glazing or eating. Enjoy.

My doughnuts with Lara’s Basic glaze.