Glorious Doughnuts! Blackberry & White Chocolate Long Johns

Rise and shine! It's time to make the doughnuts!

This is my submission to Tartlette and Peabody's Time to Make the Doughnuts blogging event.
I've made doughnuts maybe twice? in my life, so I was excited to give this a try.

Ok, now it's time for my thoughts on doughnuts. I hardly ever eat doughnuts. I never go to Krispy Kreme or Dunkin' Donuts, or even buy them from the grocery store. I just get a little nauseous when I think of them being deep fried. Don't get me wrong-I like deep fried stuff, but I try and avoid it.
I thought about baking the doughnuts, but I really wanted to go for this one. So I threw my hat in the ring and decided to deep fry them in oil.


So this is how it went down. First attempt: I was feeling lazy this time, and I wanted to avoid a yeast-raised doughnut. I decided to make a doughnut on Epicurious with booze in it, that was leavened with baking powder and baking soda.
I fried those puppies up, and....oooh. So gross. They tasted like a grease trap. The doughnuts were dripping with oil. Don't tell me my oil wasn't hot enough, because it was. My sister actually liked them, but I didn't. They were more like a fritter, and not what I consider a doughnut.


Second attempt: A yeast raised doughnut. I found a baked doughnut recipe from Heidi Swanson, and thought it looked pretty good. I changed up her recipe, baked half of them, and fried the other half.
I cut the dough into "long john" shapes (sorta)-(I also cut out some traditional shapes) before I fried the dough, piped blackberry preserves into them, lightly glazed them with white chocolate ganache, then piped more ganache on top.
Result? GOOD!
The fried long johns were excellent; nice and fluffy. Too bad the house smells like Long John Silvers now.
The baked doughnuts were good, but not what I consider to be a doughnut. More like a bagel or a roll.
Also, be sure to check out Tartlette and Peabody's blogs on February 15th, for all of the entries.

Geeze this post was long. Sorry about that. I'm a little too chatty today. What can I say? I guess doughnuts light a fire in me. Or something.

Blackberry & White Chocolate Long Johns (Recipe adapted from Heidi Swanson)

Ingredients:
2/3 cup warm (not hot) buttermilk
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Oil, for frying

Seedless blackberry preserves-Around 1/2 cup

6 ounces white chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:
Place the warm buttermilk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and 1 tablespoon sugar, and set aside for eight minutes. Add the additional sugar, butter, egg, flour, and salt. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer, beat the dough on low, until just combined. Increase mixer speed to medium, and beat for 8 minutes. This is where you are going to need to make adjustments - if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. (I did) You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth.

Turn dough out onto a floured countertop, knead a few times, and shape into a ball.
Transfer the dough to a buttered (or oiled) bowl, cover, put in a warm place, and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and roll out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. Using a sharp knife, being careful not to knick your countertop, cut dough into rectangles. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes. I actually let it rise for several hours, which made these even fluffier.

Heat a large saucepan of oil (you don't need a whole lot-maybe 2-3 inches high) over medium low to medium heat. When hot, fry 2 long johns at a time, flipping after about 30 seconds. Adjust heat as needed.
Drain doughnuts on paper towels on wire racks.

*If you want to bake your doughnuts, brush a little melted butter on them, and bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes; cool on a wire rack.

Place blackberry preserves into a piping bag. Stick a wooden skewer through each long john, and wiggle a bit, to form a tunnel. Pipe blackberry preserves into long johns. (I had a little trouble with this. I could only get the preserves halfway through the long john. I don't know what the solution to this is, though.)

To make the white chocolate ganache, place white chocolate chips in a small bowl. Heat the cream in a small saucepan, over medium heat, until hot, but not boiling. Pour cream over chocolate, and stir until mixture is starting to melt and come together. Place bowl in the microwave, and microwave at 10 second intervals, stirring each time, until white chocolate is melted.
Dip, spread, or pipe ganache onto doughnuts.

Yield: 1 dozen