I think I mentioned in my last post, that after a couple of months hiatus from doughtnuts everyday for the book, I have been a bit doughnut crazy once again. In addition to the vetkoek I posted about over the weekend, I made no fewer than 4 batches of doughnuts on Father’s day morning for a doughnut taste-off my friends Dawn and Eric blogged about (my cake doughnuts came in 3rd, beating out quite a few of the big-name doughnut shops in Seattle! Not bad for cooking in the groggy hours of the morning).

I also was excited to be asked by iVillage to share a recipe for the 4th of July. It won’t surprise you to find I made doughnuts. This time, Ricotta Drop Doughnuts with a fresh cherry sauce. These fritters are very quick to make and hold up quite well for an hour or two, so you can take them with you to a picnic (if you can resist eating them all while they are still warm).

If you are looking for more great recipes for the 4th, make sure you check out the other featured recipes from some of my favorite blogs, including a to-die for looking Smoked Tomato Salsa from Gluten Free Girl and the Chef, a tempting Raspberry, Honey and Black Tea Sorbet from Not Without Salt, and spicy Firecracker Chocolate Pudding from Not Martha!

June 5th was National Doughnut Day. Did you make doughnuts?

I was out of town, so I sadly missed it this year, but I’ve been making up for it since I’ve been home and getting very excited about the upcoming launch of Doughnuts! Did you know it comes out on October 1st? Did you know you can pre-order it on Amazon now?

Can I tempt you with a sneak peak of the book?

How about, to tide you over for a bit, you try making vetkoek (which translates to fat cake)?
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A good raised doughnut dough is a whole lot like a rich brioche dough. So, when I had a bit of dough left over from a shoot today (just a couple reshoots for the cookbook), I decided to use it. I’ve had brioche on the brain since yesterday, when I shot some from a local bakery for an upcoming magazine article (will let you know when it’s out and I can talk about it more), so I thought I’d give it a try. I’ve actually used the same dough to make little slider buns before (yum!), but this time, I just rolled up little balls and tossed them into a greased popover pan, so they’d have that cute mushroom shape. After a fairly quick rise (the dough had already been through a rise once for the doughnuts), about 10 minutes in a very hot oven (400F convection), I had the most glorious doughnut “brioche” rolls. This dough is really not all that sweet, so it can hold up to additions. Like, perhaps a nice little square of chocolate?

As for news on the book – if you didn’t see my tweet earlier today, I got the first PDF view of all the recipes and photos flowed together today! It’s incredible to see it almost done… I just keep paging through and giggling. Now, just one more round of edits, a few interior photo tweaks, and finalizing the cover and my part will be done… then begins the long wait to press and getting the hard copy in my hands. I simply cannot wait!

I thought up a lot of fun recipes for day-old doughnuts for the book, but this one by Jessie Oleson, the beloved CakeSpy, is simply fantastic: Doughnut Upside Down Cake! This is definitely a must try!

It’s Menu For Hope time, one of my favorite blogging times of the year. Menu for Hope raises money for those the World Food Program to help feed those who are hungry. You purchase raffle tickets, for $10 each, towards donated prizes. Each $10 you spend gets you another chance to win. There are so many great prizes this year, I know you will have fun browsing through them. For a full list, see Chez Pim’s site.

Usually, I post about my offering over on Cook & Eat. But this year, I’m offering up a package I’m calling “Time to Shoot the Doughnuts!” which seemed more fitting for this blog & my Still Life With blog.

My package, code UW32, is for a 1 on 1 day of food photography & styling workshop in my studio. We will tackle food styling, camera and light settings and spend the afternoon practicing! The winner is responsible for travel and lodging to Seattle, WA. Doughnuts, lunch and equipment will be provided.

OR If you’d rather (because maybe you can’t get to Seattle or you just LOVE doughnuts), you can choose a personalized doughnut kit instead. This kit will including a recipe of the winner’s choice from Doughnuts before it is published, a doughnut cutter and mini doughnut baking sheet, the dry ingredients for the doughnut recipe of the winner’s choice, and a signed copy of Doughnuts once it is released. I’ll also include some online photography mentoring for 1 month.

I hope this inspires you to get out there and bid! I know that we are all on tighter budgets these days, but hunger doesn’t go away because our own funds run low.

To Donate and Enter the Menu for Hope Raffle

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Choose a bid item or bid items of your choice from our Menu for Hope main bid item list. (mine is UW32)

2. Go to the donation site at Firstgiving and make a donation.

3. Please specify which bid item you’d like in the ‘Personal Message’ section in the donation form when confirming your donation. You must write-in how many tickets per bid item, and please use the bid item code.

Each $10 you donate will give you one raffle ticket toward a bid item of your choice. For example, a donation of $50 can be 2 tickets for EU01 and 3 tickets for EU02 – 2xEU01, 3xEU02.

4. If your company matches your charity donation, please check the box and fill in the information so we could claim the corporate match.

5. Please check the box to allow us to see your email address so that we can contact you in case you win. Your email address will not be shared with anyone.

Check back on Chez Pim on Monday, January 18 for the results of the raffle.

Thanks for your participation, and good luck in the raffle!