When it's too cold to cook outside ... What You Cooked Last Night Discuss When it's too cold to cook outside ... in the Brick Oven Cooking forums; ... like it is here ... and besides, my oven door's frozen in place ... here's a different way of ...

[sarah h]

... like it is here ... and besides, my oven door's frozen in place ... here's a different way of cooking with dough. I made some of these tonight - delicious, even though I can feel the pounds packing on and the arteries clogging up.

Commercially sold BeaverTails originated in Ottawa in the mid-1970’s and sales are huge in winter along the Rideau Canal skateway, especially during Winterlude. They are deep-fried dough, shaped like a beaver's tail, commonly topped with granulated sugar and cinnamon, but also various other sweet toppings.

The cinnamon & sugar version, with a Nutella “O” on it, will be served to guests at the Canadian Embassy in Washington during Obama's inauguration this week!

Beaver Tails (makes 20 to 30)

1/2 cup warm water
5 teaspoons dry yeast
1 pinch sugar
1 cup warm milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/3 cup canola or soya oil
4 1/4-5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

oil (for frying)

granulated sugar (for dusting)
powdered cinnamon
lemon (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the yeast, warm water and pinch of sugar.
Let stand a couple of minutes to allow yeast to swell or dissolve.
Stir in remaining sugar, milk, vanilla, eggs, oil, salt, and most of flour to make soft dough.

Knead 5-8 minutes, adding flour as needed to form a firm, smooth, elastic dough.

Place in a greased bowl.
Place bowl in a plastic bag and seal.
Let rise in a covered, lightly greased bowl; about 30-40 minutes.

Gently deflate dough.
Pinch off a golf ball-sized piece of dough.
Roll out into an oval and let rest, covered with a tea towel, while you repeat this process with the remaining dough.

Heat about 4 inches of oil to about 385°F in fryer (a wok works well).
Stretch the ovals into a long, flat “beavertail” - thinning them out and enlarging them as you do. (This took some practice, and the thinner, the better.) Add the beaver tails to the hot oil, 1 or 2 at a time.

Fry until golden on the first side, then flip and brown the other side, turning only once. Lift beaver tails out with tongs and drain on paper towels.

Fill a large bowl with a cup of white sugar and a teaspoon or two of cinnamon, mixed together. Dredge the still-warm beaver tails in the sugar & cinnamon mixture (one side only).

For even more of a treat (IMHO), add a liberal squeeze of fresh lemon on top. Now you’ve got a Beavertail that’s called a Killaloe Sunrise - the best! Now eat up while it's still hot.

You could also try adding real maple syrup, jam, Nutella & banana or apple pie filling.

[Frances]

Oooh, those look good!

Seems like a very good recipe for those of us who are trying to put on more weight rather than trying to loose some (any takers...?). I'll bet its really good comfort food!

[Archena]

They do look good - but if I'm deep frying dough it's gonna be a funnel cake!


I bet they'd be good with cinnamon sugar, too...

[rockman]

Here's something different from Aus..................BUSH DONUTS . For those drooling on their keyboards here a recipe. I made a mistake on my first attempt as I should have actually cut the bread not folded it over.
6-8 slices white bread.
Raspberry or strawberry jam.
Vegetable oil for shallow frying.
Sugar and cinamon for coating.

Batter.
1 egg.
1/4 cup sugar.
1 cup self raising flour.
3/4 cup milk.

Cut crusts from the bread and cut each slice in half diagonally. Spread each piece with jam and fold over and press together to make a sandwich.
To make batter, mix egg and sugar together then add flour and milk gradually.
Take a deep sided frypan and add enough oil to allow the donuts to shallow fry. Make sure the oil is hot before adding the sandwiches (you can test with a small amount of batter to be sure). Take each jam sandwich and dip into batter, shallow fry in hot oil and remove when golden.
Drain on kitchen paper and then roll in sugar and cinamon. Serve hot.
Found this little ripper recipe for easy to make donuts in the latest camper trailer mag. Cut the crusts off some bread, spread a bit of strawberry or raspberry jam, mix up a bit of batter, chuck them in a shallow bit of cooking oil for a minute or two, dry on a bit of paper and add sugar or cinamon. They taste just like the real thing. It must be easy as even I didn't stuff them up.