Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Baker

When I visited Seattle I ended up at Top Pot donuts on several occasions. When I saw they had a cookbook I was excited to buy it. However, the recipes do not have any pictures of the techniques only pictures of completed donuts. The pictures look nice but pictures of the techniques would be much more useful. The fritter recipe for example, has a complicated cutting technique that's hard to imagine. A picture showing the process would be tremendously helpful.

You may have seen Top Pot donuts at one of those corporate coffee shops found nearly everywhere these days. Top Pot started as a single bakery. Today, you can take advantage of the extensive experience and make donuts yourself at home. If you’re interested in taking a home-donut journey, this cookbook could be just the guide book you need. Do consider a couple of factors. For those who are new to the kitchen, donuts may not be the place to start. Some of the recipes are a bit complicated. If you’re not sure, start with a couple recipes for cake donuts. They are easier to master and get good results. Cooks with more experience with breads may very well want to tackle some raised donuts. Be sure to use your instincts when making the recipes at home. In some cases, I found making some adjustments based on my experience with yeast breads made a big difference in the results. The recipes and instructions for apple fritters were new to me. How fun to have a technique for making this family favorite in my house. I know we will want to repeat the experience. Surprisingly, the standout recipe is for a glaze. All my testers ended up putting it on every donut that came out of my kitchen on test day. I believe I heard the words evil, amazing, and lots of munching in response. Simplest Vanilla Glaze (small batch) 3 ½ cups confections’/icing sugar, sifted 1 ½ tsp light corn/golden syrup ¼ tsp iodized salt ½ tsp vanilla extract 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp hot water, plus more if needed Place the sugar, syrup, salt, vanilla and hot water in a large mixing bowl or in the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Using the whisk, or with the machines on low speed, blend until the mixture smooth and all of the sugar has been incorporated, scraping the sides of the blow with a rubber spatula if necessary. If the glaze seems too thick, add more hot water, a teaspoon at a time. You may look at this recipe and wonder if we really loved it that much. The answer is Yes! We really did—it didn’t matter what glaze was intended for any donut, after one taste this is what everyone wanted on all of their donuts. With that sort of group endorsement it was clear which one I had to share here with all readers. For those who are confident in their kitchens and are ready to take their donuts to the next level, Hand-Forged Donuts is a great resource. A well-prepared book that is surprisingly easy to use in the kitchen, you won’t go wrong if you’re interested in serious recipes for donut-lovers.

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