Blood Orange Mochi Donuts
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 30 minutes cooling time
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Degree of difficulty: easy
Makes 18 donuts
- 220g/7.8ozs. caster or superfine sugar
- 2 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons finely grated blood orange zest*
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 250g/8.8ozs. glutinous rice flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 360ml/12.1flozs. coconut milk
- 50g/1.7ozs butter substitute, melted plus extra for buttering the tin
Blood Orange icing
- 3 tablespoons blood orange juice*
- 1.5 cups icing or powdered sugar, sifted
To decorate
- small segments of blood orange*
- Pink cachou balls
- Gold leaf
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease a donut pan very well with the butter substitute. In a large bowl whisk the sugar, eggs, zest and vanilla together for 1 minute. Whisk the rice flour, baking powder and salt together in a small bowl and add the flour to the egg mixture with the coconut milk and melted butter in 2-3 lots and mix until smooth. Whisk to get rid of any lumps.
Step 2 - Place the batter in a jug and pour into the prepared tin just a little smidgen under the top and bake for 25-30 minutes or until lightly golden. Cool in the tin for 30 minutes. Use a butter knife to pry the edges from the tin and the use a teaspoon to lift the donut-it may be a little bit stubborn but it should come out in one piece and not break. Cool on a cooling rack set on top of a baking tray (to catch any icing drips later).
Step 3 - Mix the icing sugar and blood orange juice together in a bowl to form an icing and use a teaspoon to spread the icing on top of the donuts. Place them back on the rack. Add a tiny slice of blood orange, cachou and gold leaf before the icing sets hard.
Personal Note
Normally Mr NQN can be a bit funny about donuts as he doesn't like deep fried food. I mean he wolfed down the loukoumades but normally I have to convince him to eat deep fried food. I left these for him as I was going on a staycation and he wolfed them down in no time. I think it was a combination of the chewy moreish texture and the sweetness that he loved. I came back from one night away and the entire lot was gone, an empty box with crumbs remained.
That day was also time for Mr NQN's first haircut since late last year. Our normal hairdresser and friend Elly has now moved to the Central Coast and no longer comes into Sydney to work so he found a place nearby. The only place that was open was a hipster hairdresser. He was a bit concerned because Elly knows what sort of haircut he wants and he knows I don't like super short hair or a shaved head but he didn't know how to express what he wanted and didn't really have a photo because he loathes photos of himself.
He picked me up after his haircut and was very excited. "I've discovered what I need to ask for!".
"It's a Keanu haircut!" he said.
Keanu Reeves has had quite few haircuts over the years but it turns out that Mr NQN's go-to haircut is Keanu on the cover of Point Break. "I know what to ask for now!" he said excitedly showing me a picture of Keanu.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried mochi donuts? Whose haircut do you have?