OH HAI! And so the countdown is on! This Thursday, the 3rd of March February (heh thanks guys), marks the beginning of the lunar new year aka Chinese new year aka time for delicious biscuits and tarts, the colour red everywhere and the hypnotic sound of drums as troupes of shiny lions dance for red packets and leave in a shower of spluttering fire crackers.


The city of Sydney held their annual Chinese New Year Markets at Belmore Park over the weekend (ended yesterday) and there were plenty of stalls selling asian groceries and random knick knacks but luckily for Helen and I there was quite a few food stalls.

Mmm donuts is there anything more delightful than a bucket of fresh donuts? What if the donuts were filled with Nutella? Oh yes much deliciousness! This recipe is pretty straightforward but I had issues with the amount of washing I had to do. And the smell of yeast. And the waiting time for the dough to rise. And the smell of oil after I deep fried the donuts. But hey don’t let me put you off making these donuts cos these babies are awesome especially the Nutella filled ones!

I spotted some super delicious looking donuts using a recipe from Honey and Butter which had been adapted from Gourmet. Also you know what you should do before starting a recipe? Checking to make sure you have all the ingredients! Hah I managed to run out of flour and then realised I only had about 3cm of oil to fry the whole batch of dough rofl good times! Ok ready? Here we go!


Ingredients: 2 ½ tsp dry yeast
2 Tbsp warm water (not shown cos it was in kettle)
3 ¼ cups plain flour plus additional for sprinkling and rolling out dough
1 cup whole milk at room temperature
55g unsalted butter, softened
3 large egg yolks
2 Tbsp sugar
1 ½ tsp salt (not shown cos I also ran out of salt and had to use a random sachet!)
About 5 cups vegetable oil for frying
Nutella (or jam if you plan on filling donuts)


Stir together 2 ½ tsp yeast and 2 Tbsp warm water in a non metal bowl until yeast is dissolved. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If yeast doesn’t foam, discard and start over with new yeast.)


Mix together 3 ¼ cups flour, 1 cup milk, 55g butter, 3 egg yolks, 2 Tbsp sugar, 1 ½ tsp salt, and the yeast mixture in mixer at low speed with a dough hook until a soft dough forms. You see how my mixer bowl looks quite full? That’s cos I was being a smartarse and thought I’d double the recipe. BAD IDEA cos my mixer nearly had a heart attack trying to mix everything together!


Increase speed to medium-high and beat 3 minutes more. Scrape dough down side of bowl (all around) into center, then sprinkle lightly with flour (to keep a crust from forming).


Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 ½ to 2 hours.


Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out with a lightly floured rolling pin about ½ inch thick. Cut out as many rounds as possible with cutter, then cut a hole in center of each round with cutter if you want normal holey donuts


Transfer doughnuts to a lightly floured baking sheet or chopping board. The donut holes made me laugh every time I looked at them haha


Heat 2 ½ inches oil in a deep pot until it registers 350°F on thermometer or test by placing a tiny ball of dough in oil, if it floats and turns golden you’re all set. Fry donuts, turning occasionally with a wire or mesh skimmer or a slotted spoon, until puffed and golden brown, about 2 minutes per batch


Transfer to paper towels to drain


Roll holey donuts in caster sugar and cinnamon for some sexy time


For the filled donuts, shove a chopstick into the center and wiggle around, hollowing the inside


Insert pastry bag filled with filling of choice and fill donut. Be careful to not overfill or the filling will ooze out and/or explode


Mmm ooze baby yeah!


Bucket of deliciousness 😀 Not too sure I would ever make donuts from scratch again but it was great to know that I could! It was my first time using yeast and I guess it’s time to make some kind of bread soon hey? Also managed to overcome fear of deep frying to fry these babies and was super glad the oil didn’t splutter. Tip to get rid of oil smell- pour white vinegar in a bowl and leave for a while, it’ll absorb the smell! Anywhos have an awesome weekend dudes!

So anyways thought I’d show you what we had for dinner yesterday. And yes I can’t plate for peanuts I know I know! So hey I’ll chuck a Sam Kekovich and say lamb is awesome sorry vegos! The crazy hot weather we’ve been having lately means the last thing I want to do when I get home is cook so whack in some rosemary lamb and butter brushed zucchini in the oven, slice up some tomato and an avocado or two, cube a mango cheek, squeeze some lemon juice and voila super easy random salad!

Happy birthday Australia and hope you guys have an awesome day off! And now I’ll leave you with one of my favourite clips of the week from the movie Despicable Me teehee bah nah nah!

HAI GUYS! Hope you all had an awesome weekend! So any chance you picked up the Daily Telegraph? Tee hee my first time in the papers yo! I can’t tell you how super excited I was to see my wedding pic as the main banner pic nawww just in time too cos our anniversary is coming up lols. The article ended on a bit of a bitter note but hey at least there weren’t any weird food psychologists haha anywhos click the pic or click here to read the full article! Also featured: Grab Your Fork, Lemonpi, Not Quite Nigella and Fooderati