Walnut Crunch

Steps

1. Part A: Melt butter on the stove in a small pan, cook with walnuts, chopped until brown. Set aside to cool.
2. Part B: Using the Kitchenaid whip, whip whole eggs (large) and white sugar until pale and thickened. Should take 2-3 minutes.
3. Part C: Add buttermilk and vanilla flavouring to the eggs and sugar mixture. Stir to combine well.
4. Change out the mixer whip for the paddle. Add: Part A and all purpose flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, dry instant coffee grounds, crushed. Mix to a semi stiff dough for about 20 seconds on medium speed.
5. If the dough appears a bit soft on the bottom, use a plastic scraper to fold it while still in the bowl. Then turn out onto a flour surface on the counter top. Knead about 6 times using a little more flour if necessary. Remember that the more flour you use, the more dry the donut will become.
6. Set the kneaded dough on a plate in the fridge for about 20 minutes. It will be soft and slightly sticky.
7. While dough is setting in the fridge, make the glaze. Use the paddle in the mixer add the icing sugar. In a separate container, blend the boiling water, corn syrup, salt and another ½ tsp of vanilla together then add to the icing sugar. Stir slowly. Add more hot water to suit the thickness of glaze you want. When making glaze, less is better when adding extra water. So once you have the walnut crunch ready to dip in glaze, do a test and if the glaze is too thick, blend in a wee bit more hot water.

8. Prepare the dough. Either cut them evenly and pre-shape individually, or roll out to a rectangular shape on a floured surface countertop. I generally like the individual pieces to be 5-6 inches long and 2 inches wide. Sometimes I like to make 12, sometimes 16 from a batch.
9. Cut out the shapes. Pick up each one and brush off the excess flour, I use a natural bristle BBQ brush. Then set the pieces aside to sit while you prep the fryer. This sitting time will allow the baking power to work some.
10. Plug in your fryer to bring it up to temperature. Our fryer maxes out at 374°F on the dial. The true temp is likely 350° to 360°. Usually takes about 15 minutes to warm up. The oil I use is generally canola oil, sometimes its vegetable oil. Sometimes it’s a mix of both. You will want some means to flip the donuts, I use two forks. And you will want some means to extract the donuts from the hot oil, I use the basket that comes with the fryer.
11. Fry for 1 min 15 seconds per side. You may have to adjust that frying time depending on your method. It definitely should not take any longer than 1 min 30 seconds per side.
12. As soon as those 3 or 4 donuts come out of the fryer, dip them in glaze and set them on a rack for cooling.