Annette & Vernette from Wisconsin (2018 Week 7: Sweet Dough)

Baker

Annette & Vernette

Location

Wisconsin

Baking Challenge

Doughnuts and Sweet Buns

Give your creation a name – and tell us about your recipe.

Custard-Filled Powdered Sugar Doughnuts & Chelsea “Christmas Tree” Buns

Now that you’ve survived this challenge, what words of wisdom can you share?

Editor’s note: Annette and Vernette’s baking story is unique. Annette will be submitting two entries each week: One for her, and one for her 94-year-old mother, Vernette. Vernette’s arthritis prevents her from baking herself; Annette will be baking to Vernette's specifications. From Annette: "This week, I asked my mom what she would make and she decided she wanted to make doughnuts, but not jelly doughnuts. She wanted them custard-filled and topped with powdered sugar. I have never made doughnuts so this was a real challenge for me. I used a Taste of Home recipe that was really good, but I had a hard time judging when the doughnuts were cooked through. I actually cut a slit in each one just to make sure that the middle was done and then I filled them. I used a stirred custard recipe. Then I rolled them gently in powdered sugar, again. They were delicious.

I chose to make a holiday sweet dough. I fashioned the bake after Chelsea Buns and made the buns into a Christmas tree, as you can see. For the recipe, I used the sweet dough recipe from King Arthur flour and added mashed potato (I don’t know why, but it really makes the dough taste better). I got the idea from a woman who had a bakery. For the filling, I wanted to stay with the Christmas theme and wanted them to be red and green. I chose cherry and toasted pumpkin seeds. I was going to go with pistachios but we are trying to stay with a Wisconsin theme, hence the toasted pumpkin seeds. I rolled out the dough into two rectangles: on one I put butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground salted, toasted pumpkin seeds. Then I put the second rectangle of dough on top, spread it with cherry jam, rolled-up the whole thing, cut it into rolls and shaped it into the Christmas tree. When it was baked, I frosted it. The rolls were delicious."

Tell us about how you added a Wisconsin twist.

In my Christmas Tree buns, I used pumpkin seeds instead of pistachios to match a Wisconsin theme more closely.

How did you do?

Absolutely lovely.