There's nothing better than a little aloha in the morning. I made some malasadas, Portuguese style donuts, the kind I grew up eating on Hawaii, for a coffee morning and for my mother's daycare center, Inana. In Hawaiian, inana means "to come to life or to become healthy again" and is such a fitting name for an elder care center, whose primary utilizers are seniors with some form of dementia or Alzheimer's. The manager of Inana loves Hawaii and constantly plays Hawaiian music at the facility. One staff member regularly visits Hawaii and plays the ukulele for the seniors every so often. My mother truly enjoys her days there and to show our appreciation, I made some malasadas for them.
I used an online recipe that claims it's the Punahou recipe, but the dough was very, very wet, and I couldn't shape them at all.
I used a small ice cream scoop to dollop balls of dough into the oil so the donuts looked more like round Okinawan donuts, sata andagi.
However, they tasted pretty good, and if you closed your eyes, they could be the real thing. Next time, I will decrease the amount of liquid and see if I can get a better shaped malasada. But for today, I hope they enjoyed my misshapen but heartfelt aloha. Mahalo Inana!
Adapted from a recipe by Nan Ellen Ah You, BYU
Makes about 60 small donuts
1 tablespoon yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup warm water
6 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
57 grams butter, melted
1 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup water
6 eggs
1 quart vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar for dusting
In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in the warm water and set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour and add in the yeast mixture, beaten eggs, butter, evaporated milk and water. You may want to hold back on the last bit of water to see how stiff the dough becomes. Stir in a circular motion until the dough is soft. Cover and let rise until doubled. Turn dough over but do not punch the dough down. Cover and let rise again. At this point, I put the covered bowl in the refrigerator to let rise overnight.
Heat oil to 375F/190C and using a small ice cream scoop or regular teaspoon, drop dough into the oil and fry. The donuts actually turn themselves over and fry until brown all over. Drain the malasadas on a rack or on paper towels. Then immediately, shake in brown bag with sugar or roll the hot malasadas in a bowl or shallow pan with sugar.
Serve immediately. Malasadas are the best eaten the day they are made.
