TWD: Mrs. Vogel’s Scherben - FAIL

This week’s Tuesdays With Dorie recipe is Mrs. Vogel’s Scherben, which is a deep-fried goody – a very bold selection for the second week of January when most people are attempting to eat healthy. I had never actually deep-fried anything until Sunday. I will happily scarf a side of French fries or crunch down crab wontons – actually, pretty much anything, as long as the frying is done by someone else and I don’t have to see all the oil. I wasn’t particularly excited about these cookies, but I figured deep-frying them might be the gateway to other fried treats. Like doughnuts. Josh gave me The Craft of Baking for Christmas, and there are several incredible-looking doughnut recipes in it calling my name. Anyway, it’s lucky that I tried these superfluous little snacks on a Sunday afternoon (my soon-to-be-posted birthday cake was made the same day), rather than attempted doughnuts for breakfast, because my first deep-fry experience was a disaster.



I totally burned the scherben! This week I really ate my words, rather than the TWD treat: just last week I was saying that my baked goods generally turn out nice and a few weeks before that I mentioned I had finally acquired a good candy/deep-fry thermometer. The oil was obviously way too hot when I threw the dough in, despite the fact the thermometer was not even at the prescribed 350 degrees. (If anyone out there can recommend a stellar thermometer, let me know. I’m sure it will pay given how many ingredients I’ve wasted in candy-making endeavors.) I turned down the heat and was going to fry up the rest of the scherben I’d cut, but the tray they were on fell off the counter and the dough landed on the floor. The good news? The frying part actually wasn’t scary, so there will be homemade doughnuts in my future. Many thanks to the uber-talented (not only is she a very ambitious cook/baker, her photos are stunning and she is a brilliant storyteller) Teanna of Spork or Foon for finally getting me to deep-fry something, even if it wasn’t very successful. The recipe can be found here on Teanna’s site and stop by the TWD blogroll to see some more attractive scherben.