Bacon Doughnuts with Lori Baker

September 4, 2012

I was thrilled to host Pastry Chef Lori Baker for a demonstration at Williams-Sonoma Union Square this past weekend. She and her husband, Jeff Banker own a restaurant in Pacific Heights, aptly named Baker & Banker. While Jeff manages the savory menu, New American cuisine with an emphasis on seasonal and local ingredients, Lori handles the dessert menu and the pastries for their bakery located next door.

When Lori asked for demonstration suggestions, I wanted to recommend something that really showcased the comforting, classic American-style sweets that she is known for. The french toast bread pudding on the Brunch menu is my favorite. Lori came back with something even better. Candied bacon doughnuts with bourbon cheesecake filling and maple dipping sauce. For the next week I described it to everyone I knew, not leaving one ingredient out because it all sounded so good. When it came time to taste, dipping into the maple sauce seemed too dainty and I went for the full on pour right onto my doughnut. Not to worry if you missed out, the doughnuts are currently on Baker & Banker’s dessert menu.

Chef Lori stresses the importance of not over mixing the dough so that it stays tender. If mixed too long, the doughnut can be chewy. An interesting thing about Lori’s dough is it is fried after being refrigerated and rolled out. There isn’t a wait time to allow for the dough to get to room temperature. The frying time is a bit longer because of this.

Here Chef Lori uses a deBuyer 2″ round cutter to cut out her doughnuts.

Bacon doughnuts ready for frying.

A little or a lot of bourbon? Try 1/2 cup in this cheesecake filling. She used Jim Beam.

The doughnuts in the fryer at 340 degrees Fahrenheit. As mentioned before, because the dough is still cold, the doughnuts need to fry longer to make sure they cook all the way through. When they are done, they will be a dark golden brown.