Thursday, January 22, 2009

Sugar Noogies & No Knead Bread

Okay, let me start by saying that I sing the praises of no-knead bread! If you love the taste of good, artisan bread but hate all the work involved, then no-knead bread is your answer! Truly, it's easy enough for Ethan to make and comes out so wonderfully. It's like eating restaurant bread. I first learned about no-knead bread a couple of years ago from a New York Times article by Mark Bittman. I was so intrigued that I had to make it. I got my friend Kristi hooked on making it too. I've only made the plain variety, but Kristi spices hers up with herbs and kalamata olives and it gets rave reviews from those lucky enough to partake of its goodness.



The gentleman who wrote the article recently came up with a speedy method for making the bread. I thought I'd give it a try today. Unfortunately, my yeast was on its last breath and the dough didn't rise appropriately. Rather than toss the dough out, I opted to try and salvage it in the form of donuts. I had no idea if it would work, but figured I had nothing to lose. The worst that would happen is that I'd have to throw out the dough, which I was going to have to do anyway.

So I heated up some vegetable oil in a pot and broke off little golf-ball-sized pieces of dough and tossed them in the hot oil. I cooked them for about 7-10 minutes in batches of about ten. I think they made about 40 or 50 little donuts. I cooled them on paper towels, just enough to get the excess oil off and then rolled them in cinnamon sugar. To say they were hit would be an understatement! They are not like typical donuts. These are very, very dense... more dough and less air, unlike their store-bought counterparts. So just a few will fill you up quickly. But they are really good. Ethan affectionatly named them "Sugar Noogies". Mike and I liked it. I think we'll make them again... and I do believe we will continue to call them Sugar Noogies! They remind me of a cross between andagi and malasadas... either way you can't go wrong!

I give you... a plate of sugar noogies!!

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