Luke's Donuts 2.21 I can't Get Started
“Oh, good donut selection this morning, really. Good variety, good color, good goodness, good... Well, so the choices are there. It all comes down to what I’m in the mood for. Sprinkled or chocolate or jelly or glazed, maple or kiki or apple or, uh, raised. Little donut rhyme there. Never mind. Can I have a chocolate and a sprinkled please?”
*Note* I made 6 different types of donuts. To create the different flavors of donuts, I divided the dough and added flavorings (with the exception of the apple donuts because it’s a baked cake donut). Then, I divided the glaze and added flavorings. If you want to make just one donut flavor, you can either divide the donut dough and glaze recipes by five to make 3-4 donuts of that flavor OR you can multiply the flavorings by five to make 15-20 donuts of that flavor. The apple donut is the exception. The recipe makes 3-4 donuts as is.
Ingredients:
For the donut dough:
*I used the donut recipe from Immaculate Bites then added flavorings to create the different donut flavors*
2 packages of instant yeast
⅓ cup lukewarm water
1 ½ cups whole milk, room temperature
½ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
⅓ cup unsalted butter, softened
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 qt vegetable or canola oil for frying
For the donut glaze base:
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 tbsp evaporated milk
For the sprinkled donut:
4-5 drops of red food coloring
2-3 tbsp colorful sprinkles
For the chocolate donut:
1 tbsp cocoa powder
½ tbsp chocolate syrup
For the strawberry jelly donut:
¾ cup strawberry jelly
For the maple donut:
2 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp ground nutmeg
For the kiwi coconut donut:
2 tsp freshly squeezed kiwi juice
2 tsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tsp lime zest
1 cup shredded unsweetened coconut, toasted
1 kiwi peeled and thinly sliced
For the apple donut:
¼ cup apple cider
⅛ cup granulated sugar
⅛ cup packed brown sugar
1 ½ tbps unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
⅛ cup milk
¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 ⅛ cup all-purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ cup apple, peeled and grated (I used gala)
For the cinnamon sugar topping
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Directions:
Make the donut dough:
In a small bowl, mix together the water and yeast. Allow to sit for about 5 minutes, until the yeast becomes foam.
In a large mixing bowl, add the milk, sugar, salt, eggs, and butter. Mix until fully combined. Then add in the yeast and mix to combine.
Add in the flour one cup at a time, mixing to incorporate in between. It’s easiest to use a dough hook, but if you don’t have one, you can use beaters or mix by hand.
Remove the dough and divide into fifths. Place each fifth of dough into separate small bowls.
Cover 2 of the bowls with a clean cloth and leave as they are. These will become the sprinkled and jelly donuts.
Add the donut flavorings:
For the chocolate donut, add the cocoa powder to one of the small bowls. Fully incorporate into the dough with dough hook or by hand. Cover bowl and set aside.
For the maple donut, add 1 tbsp of the maple syrup, 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, 1 tsp of ground nutmeg to one of the small bowls. Fully incorporate into the dough with dough hook or by hand. Cover bowl and set aside.
For the kiwi donut, add 1 tsp of kiwi juice, 1 tsp of lime juice, 1 tsp lime zest to one of the small bowls. Fully incorporate into the dough with dough hook or by hand. Cover bowl and set aside.
Form the donuts:
Allow the dough to rise in the five small bowls for about 90 minutes or until doubled in size.
On a floured surface, roll out the dough. Make sure to keep the flavors separate because they will look pretty similar. The dough will be very sticky so keep your hands floured. Once the dough is about ¼-½ inch in thickness, use a cup or circular cookie cutter to cut out circles that are about 4 inches in diameter. Each dough flavor will make 3-4 circles.
Using a piping tip or small circular cookie cutter, cut out a hole in the center of each donut that’s about ½-1 inch in diameter. DO NOT do this to one set of donuts without any flavoring. These will be the donuts filled with jelly. You can save the centers to make donut holes if you wish.
Place the donuts on a dry surface to rise for an additional 10 minutes. Remember to keep separated by flavor.
Fry the donuts:
In a large saucepan, add the oil. It should reach at least 3 inches up the pan. Place over medium heat.
Allow the oil to reach 375 degrees F. If you don’t have a thermometer, drop in a small piece of the leftover donut dough into the oil. If it sizzles and starts to fry, the oil should be ready.
Gently add the donuts to the oil, working in batches, about 2-3 at a time. Let the donuts cook 1-2 minutes on one side, then use a large slotted spoon to flip over. Allow the donuts to cook 1-2 minutes on the other side.
Remove the donuts with the large slotted spoon and place on towels to dry and cool.
Make the glaze:
While the donuts are cooling, make the glaze by mixing together the melted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a medium bowl.
Add the evaporated milk one tablespoon at a time. If the glaze seems too thick, you can add more evaporated milk, but I prefer a thicker glaze.
Add the flavorings:
Separate the glaze into 5 small bowls. Leave one bowl as is. This will be the glaze for the jelly donut.
For the sprinkled donut, add the red food coloring to one of the small bowls. Fully combine to create a pink glaze.
For the chocolate donut, add the chocolate syrup to one of the small bowls. Fully combine to create a chocolate glaze.
For the maple donut, add the remaining 1 tbsp of the maple syrup, 1 tsp of ground cinnamon, and 1/2 tsp of nutmeg to one of the small bowls. Fully combine to create a maple glaze.
For the kiwi donut, add the remaining 1 tsp of kiwi juice, 1 tsp of lime juice, and 1 tsp of lime zest to one of the small bowls to create a kiwi glaze.
Glaze the donuts:
Once the donuts have cooled, fill a piping bag with the strawberry jelly. Use a small tip to fill the donuts without holes with jelly. You’ll know the donut is full when you feel it start to give. If you don’t have a piping tip, use a knife to create a small hole to inject the jelly.
Dip the respective donut into its glaze (i.e. chocolate donut into the chocolate glaze and the maple donut in the maple glaze.
For the sprinkled donut, top with your favorite colorful sprinkles after glazing.
For the kiwi lime donut, sprinkle toasted coconut after glazing and add two slices of kiwi to the top (To toast coconut, spread evenly on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 7-8 minutes).
For the apple cake donut:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine all the wet ingredients: apple cider, sugars, butter, milk, egg, and vanilla.
Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Mix until fully combined.
Fold in the grated apple.
Follow the steps above to shape the donuts.
Place donuts on a lined baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 8-10 minutes or until darkened.
Allow the donuts to cool slightly enough to handle then brush with the melted butter for the topping.
On a plate, mix the sugar and cinnamon for the topping. Roll the donuts into the cinnamon sugar topping.
Whew, that was a lot of donuts! Originally, when I planned out my dishes for this season, I was just going to make chocolate and sprinkled donuts because that’s what Lorelai ends up ordering. However, when I was re-watching the episode to take notes and I heard her little donut rhyme, I convinced myself that I needed to make all of them! Luke’s donuts are one of his most iconic foods, so if I was going to make donuts, I needed to go all in (pun intended).
The two donuts that rhyme are glazed and raised which most of the donuts are both glazed and raised, so I didn’t make separate donuts for that. The sprinkled, chocolate, jelly, maple, and apple donuts were pretty self-explanatory. I still had some fancy sprinkles from when I made homemade pop-tarts for season one. You can also make my strawberry jam from that episode for the jelly donuts. Just add about 1 tbsp of water to thin slightly. I used store-bought strawberry jelly because I was already making 6 different types of donuts. I’m extra, but I have my limits too.
The donut from her rhyme that stumped me was the kiki. I tried researching what a kiki donut was and I couldn’t find anything. If you happen to know, please share! I decided to make a kiwi donut because that was close enough! I decided to add lime to that one because I’m also a fan of the show F.R.I.E.N.Ds and I was reminded of when Monica makes the kiwi lime pie and Ross has an allergic reaction. The toasted coconut was just to give it an extra tropical flair!
There’s a lot to talk about with this episode. Sookie and Jackson get married, Chris and Lorelai hook up, Chris finds out Sherry’s pregnant and leaves Lorelai, and Rory kisses Jess when he comes back to Stars Hollow. All in all, a much better season finale than the season one finale. In terms of season finales, it’s somewhat low on my list, but I do think it’s overall a really good episode. There are just other finales that I think are better- some of my favorite episodes are season finales. Most of them end on some sort of sad note: Rory realizing she was part of an affair, Rory deciding to drop out of Yale, Luke and Lorelai breaking up, and this finale is no exception.
But let’s talk about some of the happier parts of this episode first. Sookie and Jackson’s wedding is so cute and sweet. I love how she’s determined to walk down the aisle to the somber Ella Fitzgerald song that’s the namesake of this episode. And even though Lorelai and Rory try to talk her out of it, she ends up walking down the aisle to it anyway. I think there’s some homophobia with Jackson’s kilt, but I’m glad he ends up wearing it anyway. As Lorelai mentions in this episode, we’ve gotten to see Sookie and Jackson’s relationship evolve over the show ever since their first date. And now they’re married!
Getting into the Chris and Lorelai plot of this episode...there’s quite a bit to unpack here. Some people think that it’s very black and white, they clearly had an affair and cheated on Sherry. Other people think that Chris and Sherry were completely broken up and this wasn’t an affair. To me, it’s not completely one or the other. Chris paints the picture to Lorelai that he and Sherry are broken up. While Lorelai should have been more cautious, I don’t necessarily think she’s in the wrong here. She’s under the impression that they aren’t together anymore. This hookup is often compared to Rory and Dean’s affair, but I think it’s a little different. Rory very clearly knew Dean was still married, but Lorelai believes Chris is a free agent. This is just my opinion and it’s definitely murky waters.
The episode ends with Rory realizing that Jess is back in Stars Hollow and she kisses him. Whatever your thoughts are on Jess, you can’t deny that Milo and Alexis have incredible chemistry, and I always love this scene (really any scene) between them because they act so well together. I don’t necessarily think Rory is wrong for kissing Jess here, but I think this should be the last straw of her relationship with Dean. It annoys me that she strings Dean along through the latter half of this season and 7 episodes of three. It’s so unfair to him.
And that’s a wrap on season 2! I can’t believe I’m done with another season of this project! I’m excited to start cooking my dishes for season 3; I have some fun ones planned. I’ve decided, though, that I’m going to move to one post per week. I don’t want this project to end too soon because I’ve had a lot of fun so far. I’m also fully vaccinated now, and I want to spend some much-needed time with friends and not spend all my weekends cooking Gilmore food! I’ll be sharing on Fridays starting on May 14th just in time for Friday night dinner! See you soon, friends!
Happy Cooking!
If you missed what I made last episode, catch up here!
