Homemade Donuts

Happy Day After Christmas!

Last Friday night, hubby and I tested out a chocolate donut recipe that I was thinking of making for Christmas morning breakfast when the in-laws came over. The taste was okay (not great), but the frosting was terrible: it hardened too quickly and wouldn't spread over the top of the donuts. In addition to the terrible frosting, it turns out hubby was allergic to something in them so I picked out another donut recipe from my Pinterest boards and resolved to try this one out the next morning. They turned out PERFECT! 

The link to the original recipe can be found HERE at Camille Styles.

I adapted it a bit for our household using this recipe:

• 5 tablespoons lite margarine
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk

• 3 tablespoons lite margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat two donut pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg; mix well.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk.
4. Fill donut tins half full. Bake 15-20 minutes. Take out of pan and immediately and dip tops into melted margarine, then sugar and cinnamon mixture. Makes 12 donuts.

A few tips and tricks:

1. The original recipe calls for 6 big donuts. Mine easily made 12 regular sized donuts so the number you get will depend on the size of your donut pan.
2. I used my stand mixer for everything. I did not beat my egg first nor did I add the dry ingredients alternately with milk. I threw my egg in whole (minus the shell obviously...) and mixed it up, sifted my dry ingredients right into the mixer's bowl, poured the milk in right after, and turned her on. I imagine if you do not use a stand mixer you will probably want to follow all of the steps in the recipe.
3. To easily fill the donut pan, pour your batter into cupcake decorating bags (Pastry bags? Piping bags? I don't know what they are called) and squeeze the batter into the tins. WAY easier than trying to spoon it in and hope to not make a mess.
4.  Camille Styles says these also work great as muffins. 

Enjoy!

BzzAgent: Burt's Bees Intense Hydration

BzzAgent

Over the recent years I have become rather fond of freebie, social marketing, and survey companies. What better way to discover a new product than to receive a product and try it out? BzzAgent is a Word of Mouth social marketing company that sends it's members campaign invitations if their survey results and profile information fit the criteria for that campaign. I have only been a member of BzzAgent since 6/28/2012 and have already been selected for five campaigns. It took about two months to get in on my first, but the small amount of time it takes to fill out the surveys is totally worth it. 

My first campaign was a trial and review of Glade Oil Diffusers and Glade Fragrance Mists. I was sent a campaign package that included coupons for a free oil diffuser starter kit, a free fragrance mist starter kit, and a coupon book full of coupons to share. The goal of the campaigns are to get members to try the product and share their reviews and thoughts through facebook, twitter, blogs, the bzzagent website, and face-to-face to bring awareness about the products. 

My other campaigns: 

Burt's Bees Intense Hydration (which I will review in this post)

Claritin-D - If I come down with a cold this winter, hopefully it will be within the next 40 days so I can post my review of this product

Afrin Stick Up For Yourself - Same as above. At least if I get a cold I will be well prepared!

Stella Artois - My BzzKit should show up in the mail any day with my Stella Artois Chalice. I am not normally a beer drinker but I will give it a try in my new chalice so I can post a good review.

If you are interested in trying new products and have a small amount of spare time to stay up to date with your surveys (they are quick and not that often after the first batch) and participate in the campaigns and share your reviews, this is a great company to try out. 

** Bonus: I literally just this second discovered that they have an App in the iTunes App Store for easier Bzz Reporting! 

Burt's Bee Intense Hydration

So first let me give you a little bit of background on my skin care routine prior to this campaign: pretty much non-existent. I have been blessed with clear skin that is generally easy to maintain. I wash my face with an exfoliating face wash in the shower in the morning and that is about it. I rarely use moisturizers because when I do for more than a day I will normally break out even with oil free moisturizers. I never take my makeup off before bed due to pure laziness and the desire to get to bed as quickly as possible. 

The Colorado dry weather was already starting to wreak havoc on my skin right around when my BzzKit was due to show up. I was anxiously watching the mail waiting for my package to arrive so I was ecstatic when it did. My kit came with a full size Intense Hydration Cream Cleanser, a full size Intense Hydration Night Cream, a full size Intense Hydration Treatment Mask, and samples of Intense Hydration Day Lotion and Night Creams with $3 off coupons on the back.

After receiving my package I immediately tried out the cream cleanser followed by the treatment mask. I absolutely love the cream cleanser and have permanently switched out my old face wash for this. It is hydrating, leaves my skin feeling clean and soft, and does a great job removing makeup. The treatment mask was not my cup of tea. I didn't particularly like how my skin felt after using the mask. I'm sure it works great but I would rather just use the cleanser and lotions. When I do manage to wash my face in the evening (not often enough) I use the cleanser followed by the night cream. As I mentioned before, I now use the cream cleanser every morning in the shower followed by the day lotion. Since I first started using the products about a month ago I have not seen a single blemish on my skin! I give this line a giant gold star!

A few random facts about the Intense Hydration line:

These products contain Clary Sage which is a plant that has the ability to "trap and retain moisture" (from http://www.burtsbees.com/natural-products/face-care-intense-hydration/).

These products have a nice, light smell that reminds me a bit of watermelon.

They are Burt's Bees products so they are Natural Products! No need to worry about saturating your skin with harsh, synthetic chemicals!

If you have any questions about my campaign or about BzzAgent, ask away!

Freeviews

Welcome to my new blog, Freeviews from a Blonde! Interpret the ambiguous name as you'd like.

Free Views from a Blonde - Free Reviews from a Blonde. 

If you have been following my Day Zero Project blog you know that one of my goals is to try a new recipe every month. After starting our project in June I quickly began to realize that one recipe a month was a silly goal because I try new recipes all the time thanks to my Pinterest addiction. Every once in a while I will discover a real gem of a recipe after already posting a new recipe for the month. This is the place I will review those recipes that I just HAVE to share with you because they are so great. Some other views or reviews you may find include Pinterest successes or failures, reviews of freebie companies that I am involved with and/or the products that the companies provide me with, or anything at all that I feel like providing insight about. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy!

My first post will be a double bread review.

Baguettes

This bread recipe review is a request from one of my friends and an attendee of my Marzetti Simply Dressed House Party that I hosted at the beginning of the month (be on the look-out for a House Party review in the near future). The main dish at the party was a shredded rotisserie chicken sandwich made by taking a loaf of bread, brushing it with margarine/garlic mixture, and filling it with shredded chicken tossed in dressing. I chose to use this Baguette recipe from The Sisters Cafe blog that I had previously discovered on Pinterest.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 1/2 Tbs (2 packages) dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
3 1/4 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp. salt (** the original recipe uses 2 tsp. but I think it's a bit too salty)

In a small bowl mix the warm water with the yeast and sugar. Let it sit for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes there should be a "foam" layer on the top.

In a large mixing bowl combine the flour and salt. Gradually add the yeast mixture. Mix until the dough becomes a smooth ball and knead for 5 minutes. **The first few times I made the recipe I used my hand mixer with dough hooks. I have since purchase my super-duper fancy-shmancy mixer which makes everything even easier! Of course, if you enjoy kneading dough by hand go for it! I personally am way too weak and lazy.

Cut the dough in half and then shape into 2 baguettes. Roll each half into a rectangle and roll up lengthwise to make them smooth and pretty (this part I have not yet mastered). Pinch the edges to seal and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet with seam down. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. With a very sharp knife (I use my serrated bread knife) gently make a slash down the length of each baguette to give it the authentic baguette look. Pour water in a separate cookie sheet and place in on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake the bread for 15 minutes, brushing the bread with melted margarine (or butter if no one in your family has a milk allergy) halfway through.

When the bread is done baking, ENJOY but beware: you will probably eat a whole loaf on the spot.

Super-duper fancy-shmancy mixer!!

Homemade Sandwich Bread

Another Pinterest bread recipe that I discovered and tried was this sandwich bread recipe from Daily Dish Recipes. After acquiring my super-duper mixer, I just had to give it some work and tried out this recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups warm water
2 Tbs. sugar
1 packet dry active yeast
1 Tbs. salt
5 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/12 Tbs. margarine (** The original recipe uses butter and claims to have better results with butter but it turned out great with margarine in my opinion)

In a bowl mix the water and sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add the yeast and mix. Let it sit for 10 minutes. the top should be covered in "foam" after 10 minutes.

Add the flour and salt, then add the margarine. Knead the ingredients together for about 10 minutes by hand or 5 minutes with a mixer. Knead the dough into a ball and place it in a clean bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and set it in a warm place to rise. Allow it to rise for one hour.

After an hour uncover the dough. It should be big and poofy at this point. Take your hand and punch it once or twice to push all the air out of it. Knead it again in the bowl for about a minute of so, forming it into a ball.

Sprinkle flour onto a work surface and place the dough onto the surface. Cut the dough into two equal pieces. Taking one half of the dough, knead it a little folding it over itself over and over. Create an ovalish shape with it and place it into your lightly greased bread pan. Repeat with the second dough half.

Put both pans back to rise but leave them uncovered. Allow to rise for one hour.

Preheat your over to 350 degrees. When the dough has risen and doubled in size again, it's time to put them in the oven.  Bake for 35-40 minutes. When they are done, pull the loaves out of the oven and allow them to sit in the pans for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes turn the bread out onto a cooling rack using a kitchen towel or potholder and allow them to cool the rest of the way.

** Do not cut them until they are completely cooled, otherwise they get a little crumbly.

We went to the grocery store yesterday and their bread supply was ridiculously sad and sparse and they didn't even have hubby's favorite bread so I made another two loaves last night. This bread makes great toast!

*** Another note: I was running low on all purpose flour this time around so I actually used 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour and 2 cups of whole wheat flour and still got great results.