Pumpkin Doughnuts

September 16, 2015

This morning is an early one! A bunch of us from work are jetting off to New York on the first flight out to celebrate the marriage of one of our co-workers and I can’t wait to see her walk down the aisle! It also doesn’t hurt that the wedding is in NY being that I’ve been dying to get back there – it’s been over a year! I was hoping for a super brisk, fall week, but the forecast is unfortunately showing 80+ every day we’re there, so I’ll just have to deal with my overwhelming #basic fall nostalgia and pumpkin cravings. In yearning for all things fall, I thought I’d pass along one of my favorite recipe finds from last year – Pumpkin Doughnuts! I can’t wait to make these again when I’m back from NY. I made a few of my own adjustments (below), but find the original recipe here. It’s ~~almost~~ fall, y’all!

PS: Proof that Americans Love Pumpkin Flavored Everything & An In-Depth Analysis of Pumpkin Spice’s World Domination – two good reads on America’s obsession with fall pumpkins.

Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 12 doughnuts

I N G R E D I E N T S

2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Coating
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon

D I R E C T I O N S

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease/butter doughnut wells and set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined. Add your wet ingredients (oil, eggs, pumpkin puree and vanilla extract. Using a mixer, blend until mixture is well combined.
Spoon mixture into your doughnut baking pan. Each well should be filled about 1/2 of the way. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until doughnut is firm, but not cooked all of the way through (toothpick should not come out clean).
Remove from oven and gently remove each doughnut from individual wells. Grease/butter each well again and fill wells with more batter about 1/2 of the way. Place your partially cooked doughnuts on top of the new batter and bake for 7-10 more minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Because the batter is quite heavy, these doughnuts won’t puff up like you’re used to traditionally. The first time I made these, I skipped adding more batter and flipping the first set of doughnuts over – my doughnuts were flat on the bottom 😉
Once doughnuts are baked all the way through, let them cool slightly and remove from the pan. While doughnuts are cooling combine coating sugar and cinnamon in a ziplock bag. Add one doughnut at a time and shake until completely coated. Enjoy while warm with your favorite coffee or hot apple cider. YUM!

Apple Cider Mimosa

September 26, 2014

Happy, happy Friday! I hope you had a wonderful first week of fall – yay! After a long weekend in Michigan and then a short week of playing catchup from being gone for a few days, I’m more than ready for a weekend at home to do a few projects and test out some new recipes 🙂

One of the major things I was hoping to do while visiting the family was to take a trip to the cider mill because those just don’t exist in California. Unfortunately, while enroute to the mill, it started POURING and we had to turn around and call it a day. We picked up some fresh apple cider from the market the following morning and whipped these up to sort of ease the blow of not being able to partake in one of my favorite midwestern traditions. Just in time for the weekend, I wanted to pass along a super fun fall spin on the classic mimosa 🙂 They are SO good! I promise you will love them!

Apple Cider Mimosa

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total: 10
Serves: 1

Ingredients

1 tsp brown sugar
1 ounce scotch (optional)
2 ounces fresh apple cider
4 ounces ONEHOPE Sparkling Wine
Apple slices for garnish
Caramel sauce & brown sugar for rimming (optional)

Directions

1. If rimming your flutes, dip the rim of the glass into caramel. Using a small plate or bowl works best for this. After coating the rim, dip your glass into brown sugar.
2. Combine brown sugar, scotch and apple cider in a flute.
3. Top with ONEHOPE Sparkling wine and garnish with fresh apple slices.

Recipe adapted from here.

Apple Cider & Thyme Sparkling Cocktail

December 17, 2013

Whew! What a week already! We’re cranking out so many packages at work (several thousand since black Friday) and I’m dying for some downtime, a cocktail and a lots of Christmas baking. Last year the holidays were here and gone in the blink of an eye so I’m hanging on to them with all my might and I’m making sure I don’t miss out on my favorite part of the year. On the topic of all things festive, I created an Apple Cider & Thyme cocktail for work as a part of our Fall/Winter cocktail shoot and this one was one of my favorites from a taste profile perspective as well as aesthetically. I love the added layer of complexity the Thyme makes (I’m huge on herbs in cocktails) and the Sparkling Brut combined with fresh apple cider keeps things just slightly sweet without going overboard. We only have a few weeks left of fresh cider so make sure you’re taking full advantage of it now 🙂 Cheers!

Prep time: 10 minutes
Total: 2 hours
Serves: 6

Ingredients
8 ounces dark rum
1.5 ounces lemon juice
4 ounces thyme simple syrup (2 cups sugar, 1.5 cups water, 10 thyme sprigs)
12 ounces apple cider
8 ounces ONEHOPE Sparkling Wine
4 dashes Angostura Bitters
Sprigs of thyme for garnish
Apple wheels for garnish

Directions
1. Combine sugar, water and 10 sprigs of thyme. Heat in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for 5 minutes or until sugar is completely dissolved. Place in the fridge to cool (1-2 hours).
2. Combine all ingredients (except sparkling) into a carafe and stir.
3. Fill glasses with crushed ice and fill half with mixture.
4. Top with ONEHOPE Sparkling and garnish with sprigs of thyme and sliced apple.

Cheers!

Recipe adapted from here.

Cinnamon Orange Mulled Wine and Cocktail

December 9, 2013

It seems so silly to me to be SO unbearably cold in 40-50 degree temperatures after growing up in the midwest, but almost at 5 years removed from frigid Michigan, my skin has become impossibly thin. Mulled wines are a favorite of mine when the weather is cold and I’m looking forward to sipping on one of these tonight. The amazing thing about this recipe however (aside from the fact that it is so delicious) is that it can be cooled and refrigerated to create a “syrup” if you will, to combine with champagne, creating an absolutely divine sparkling cocktail. If you’re looking for a cocktail with the complexity of a mulled wine at lower temperatures, this is a wonderful option. I recently served this at a party in both forms – warm for people looking to escape cool, fall temperatures as well as chilled and topped with sparkling for guests looking for something refreshing yet still festive.

Cinnamon Orange Mulled Wine

Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total: 20 minutes (if serving warm) / 3 hours (if serving cold)
Serves: 8 (if serving warm) / 12 (if serving with champagne as cocktail)

Ingredients

4 cups apple cider
1 (750 ml) bottle ONEHOPE Cabernet
1/4 cup honey
1 orange zested and juiced
10 cinnamon sticks
4 cloves
3 star anise
2 oranges peeled for garnish

Additional Ingredients for Cocktail

1 (750 ml) bottle ONEHOPE Sparkling Wine
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon orange zest or rind

Directions for Mulled Wine

1. Combine the cider, wine, honey, orange juice, zest, 2 cinnamon sticks, cloves and star anise in a large sauce pan.
2. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Pour into mugs and garnish with orange peels and cinnamon sticks.

Directions for Cocktail

1. Follow steps 1 and 2 above, but put aside 1 teaspoon of orange zest or a small piece of rind for your rimming sugar.
2. Remove pan from heat and set aside for 15 minutes.
3. Using a strainer, remove the excess orange rind and cinnamon sticks from your mixture and transfer into a carafe or bottle to cool. I like to funnel them into these with a fun and festive label or tag.
4. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until cold. (Can store refrigerated for up to one week).
5. While mixture is cooling, create your rimming sugar by combining sugar, cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of orange zest/rind in a food processor and blend until thoroughly mixed.
6. Rim glasses in sugar, pour glass half full with cooled mulled wine mixture and top with Sparkling.

CHEERS!

*Warm mulled wine recipe inspired by Ina Garten from here. Sparkling cocktail twist is my own 🙂

Recipe adapted from here.

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