Goodbye, 2017. Hello, 2018. (Featuring: midnight small batch baked yeasted doughnuts yeah!)

This morning had me welcoming the 2018 by humming Con Te Partiro* whilst scooping into the trash the last of the lebkuchen, panforte, and fruit cake. Including this most recent decorating practice using my new cutters. I had some difficulties with the fondant: air bubbles, because my kneading technique leaves to be desired -- that's what I get for typically offloading this task. In the end, I prevailed, but this left me with limited stamina to plan out and execute the design. It was 2AM Baking Syndrome, when you're up later than you wanted, fussing over something that should not have taken this much time... and the longer you persevere, the worse things get. Picture overly soft shapes sliding off the cake, bleeding and leaving a trail of garish colors as they went. I started spot-retouching the picture below (not something I've ever bothered with) but promptly decided you should see all the ways decorating went awry... If you dim the lights and step back a bit, it's still an adorable cake. I think. (But most mothers don't think their baby is ugly, either.)

As indestructible and enduring as my Christmas bakes have been, it didn't seem right to carry them into 2018. I did, however, ring in the new year with some impulse baking. I had been fighting off the urge for some sweet, yeasted dough (because of all the above-mentioned leftovers still around) until I could no longer do so. I couldn't really justify making a whole batch of doughnuts when Nate already had not one, but two, batches of chocolate whoopie pies all for himself**. Dessert for Two to the rescue! She had a small batch of baked king cake-inspired doughnuts that was perfect for my cravings. I think I will be perusing her website more often to get a handle on the proportions of ingredients for smaller bakes!

Pictures are little white lies. I used a lot more glaze than this when I dug in.

Maple Cardamom Impulse Doughnuts

Total time: 1h15 (1h30 if you're a cheapskate and try to use the old jar of yeast at the back of the cupboard instead of using a packet of fresh stuff, only to realize it is of course dead) Makes: 6 doughnuts (picture shows 5 because I tested one in our new air fryer -- good idea in theory, but it runs much hotter than it should so that thing was BROWN after five minutes)

30 ml hot tap water

1 1/2 t active dry yeast (not instant)

pinch white sugar

125g AP flour

30g maple sugar (mine was quite coarse, so I ran it through the spice grinder first)

1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t baking soda

1/8 t salt (increase to 1/4 t if using unsalted butter)

1/8 t ground cardamom

2 T salted butter, cold, chopped finely

60 ml soymilk

42g egg whites (1 large egg white)

Extra maple sugar + soymilk for brushing

For the glaze: I made half of this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction and it was perfect. Had I planned for this a bit better, I would have reduced some maple syrup to make a maple cream, instead (ask me about my accidental and wonderful tahini maple cream...)

Test the yeast to make sure it is alive and bubbly by performing a small-scale version of this test. (Assuming you have *some* yeast that will prove itself alive, you can start prepping the rest of the stuff).

Combine all the dry ingredients (including the sugar) and cut/rub the butter into the dry ingredients until no large bits remain. This is almost like making shortcrust or biscuits, but with a much lower fat-to-flour ratio (so don't really expect the dough to come together when pressed between your fingers). Whisk the egg white into the milk and pour into the flour mix.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead. The dough will be sticky and, at least for me, will require lots more flour -- I needed to knead it with a bench scraper, and even called in Nate to ask him if I was doing something wrong. (He took over.) When the dough is no longer excessively sticky and feels supple, cover with plastic film and let rest for 15 minutes.

Roll out the dough to form a roughly 8 x 8" square (I was shooting for a rectangle, but that didn't quite work out). Cut in half along whatever dimension ended up the longest, and each half into thirds. Try to shape them into pretty bars and realize it is futile. THE GLUTEN REMEMBERS. (Can you tell I'm not the bread person in this house?) Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment, cover with a lightly oiled plastic film, and let rise for 45 minutes to one hour. If you're planning on making the glaze, start this now so it has time to cool and thicken. At some point, preheat the oven to 400F. The doughnuts will be puffy and should have almost doubled in size by the time they are ready. Brush with soymilk, sprinkle on some bonus maple sugar, and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the all edges appear golden brown. (I peeked 8 minutes in and rotated the pan for an extra 2 minutes they may not have needed.)

Allow to cool slightly on the pan and transfer to a cooling rack atop a baking sheet to glaze. Eat while still slightly warm * If you know what this is, I have absolutely no need to be embarrassed by this admission. Mutually assured destruction, if you will. If you don't know the song, then there's nothing to be embarrassed about, either. ** I owed him cookies because it turns out he's not into lebkuchen, so he had no cookies come Christmas Eve. Boo. Two batches because my first one spread too much and I could not abide by chocolate pancakes larger than my hands.