Yesterday morning I was tinkering around the kitchen trying to decide what to make for breakfast while Jeremy took Freyja for her morning walk. I was seriously considering making the chocolate donuts from the King Arthur cookbook, but the dough needed to rest before shaping, and I didn’t think Jeremy could wait that long once he came back home. In the Sweet Kitchen, I found a recipe for buttermilk nutmeg drop donuts that were basically like fritters, and that sounded more doable, but I had no buttermilk. I decided to improvise and use up the coconut milk in the fridge left over from the piña colada sherbet; it was supplemented with some plain yogurt, natural cocoa powder, and white vinegar to boost the acidity needed to activate the baking powder. I also made coconut and cocoa nib sugar to roll the fritters in and further emphasize their chocolate-coconut flavoring.

I’ve never made donuts or fritters before, and I don’t have a deep fat fryer or fry thermometer, but I made do with shallow frying in my cast-iron skillet and frequent checks of temp with my digital thermometer. I scooped mounds of dough into the fat with my cookie scoop, and as long as I kept them fairly small, they seemed to do pretty well, although many of them were a little overdone on the outside because of contact with the bottom of the skillet.

I don’t know that the recipe is worth posting on this one, but I’ll definitely keep experimenting with donuts from time to time. I still want to try making ricotta, yogurt and apple fritters, and of course those chocolate donuts, so watch this space!