SOUPS, SALADS & S TARTERS

Mushroom, Leek & Potato Soup

Yield: about 16 doughnuts the heat to maintain a steady -tempera ture. Check it periodically with the thermometer. Transfer the cooked doughnuts to paper towels to drain. If desired, toss them in cinnamon sugar when they’re cool enough to handle. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Gather the scraps and gently press out again as needed to use up all the dough. Fill a Dutch oven with oil or -short ening to a depth of 2½ inches. Set over medium heat and bring the -tempera ture to 375° (check with a -thermom eter). Working in small batches, cook the doughnuts in the oil, turning once, until puffed and golden brown on both sides, 2 to 4 minutes per side. As you fry, you may need to reduce or increase

With your hands, gently press the dough out to a ½-inch thickness and cut into rounds using a doughnut cutter or two biscuit cutters (a large and a small).

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar with a standing or handheld mixer until fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until glossy and pale yellow. Add the potato and buttermilk and beat until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg and beat just until evenly -com bined. The dough should now be fairly easy to handle, but still a bit sticky.

Cinnamon sugar, for dusting (optional)

Vegetable shortening or vegetable oil for frying (see “Note,” left)

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

Generously dust your counter with flour (the recipe is calibrated so that the dough can absorb this flour without getting dry). Turn the dough out onto the counter and flip to coat with flour.

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature

1 cup lightly packed mashed russet or Yukon Gold potatoes (see “Note,” above)

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 large egg, at room temperature

3/4 cup granulated sugar

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened in Bethel, Maine.”

Feel free to just use leftover mashed potatoes, though, provided they aren’t flavored with garlic, chives, etc.

Note: The drier your potatoes are, the lighter your doughnuts will be, so we bake or microwave them, rather than boil them. Running the cooked spuds through a potato ricer gives a fluffier texture. When it comes to frying doughnuts, we find that melted vegetable shortening produces a crisper crust.

Among them: Puff Balls, Fried Shoestrings, and Maine Chowder. But those doughnuts tempted us across the generations and stand the test of time.

“the busy wife of a very busy country doctor

In May 1937, two years after Yankee’s founding, we ran a story called “Aroostook’s Hundred Recipes,” which offered a full century of dishes from Pearl Ashby Tibbetts,

TOTAL TIME : 1 HOUR 20 MINUTES ;

Maine Potato Doughnuts

Yield: 8 servings

20 minutes. Remove from the oven and let the eggs sit 10 minutes; then remove them from the pan and serve warm.

Add the mushrooms and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until the -mush rooms give up their liquid and begin to brown. Remove from the heat. Crack an egg into each of the bread cups and add a teaspoon of cream to each. Divide the mushrooms evenly among the cups. Top each with a -tea spoonful of grated Parmesan and bake

Meanwhile, set a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil.

6 to 8 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Preheat your oven to 350° and set a rack to the middle position. Cut the crusts off each slice of bread; then use a rolling pin to lightly flatten each slice. Take a standard muffin tin and brush 8 of the cups with some of the butter. Gently press a slice of bread into each of the buttered cups, draping the corners as needed. Brush the bread with the remaining butter. Transfer to the oven and bake until lightly toasted,

Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons (approx.) freshly grated

3 tablespoons (approx.) heavy cream

8 medium-size eggs

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

12 ounces sliced button mushrooms

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons salted butter, melted

8 slices soft white or whole-wheat bread and pretty, a great meatless brunch staple.

TOTAL TIME : 1 HOUR ; -HANDS ON TIME : 30 MINUTES

BAKED EGGS & MUSHROOMS IN TOAST CUPS

Yield: 12 servings

Transfer the buns to the prepared baking pan, leaving space between them. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled, about 45 minutes. Heat your oven to 350°. Bake the buns until golden brown, 30 to 35 -min utes. Cool in the pan 20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the glaze: Whisk together the powdered sugar and halfand-half. Set up two cooling racks with waxed paper beneath. Transfer the buns to the racks. When lukewarm, drizzle the buns with glaze. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Ruth Stocks of Atlanta, Georgia, won $1 for this recipe in Yankee’s June 1954 reader recipe contest. Her version called for cooked eggs in a cream sauce; we prefer them baked in toast “shells.” They’re rustic the cylinder crosswise with a sharp knife to make 12 buns.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Lightly grease the -mix ing bowl with butter; then return the dough to the bowl, turn it to coat it with butter, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled in bulk, 1 to 1½ hours. Meanwhile, prepare the filling: In a medium-size bowl, stir together the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon with a fork. Set aside. Butter a 9x13-inch baking pan. Punch down the risen dough and turn it back out onto the floured surface. Roll the dough out into a 12x15-inch rectangle, with the long side facing you. Spread the filling over the dough, -leav ing a 1-inch border at the top. Roll the dough up from the bottom to make a cylinder, pinching the top to seal. Slice still feels sticky, add more flour, 2 tablespoons at a time. the dough becomes cohesive and smooth, 4 to 5 minutes. If the dough medium and continue kneading until

In the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk together the flour, the -remain ing 4 tablespoons of sugar, and the salt. Replace the whisk with a dough hook and add the liquid ingredients. Mix on low speed until the dough comes together; then increase the speed to

Make the dough: In a medium-size bowl, stir 1 tablespoon of sugar into the warm milk. Sprinkle the yeast over the milk (don’t stir) and let it sit 5 minutes to activate yeast (it should look foamy). Whisk in the butter and egg.

2–3 tablespoons half-and-half

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

2 cup firmly packed light-brown sugar

4 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature

1/

FOR THE ILLINGF AND GLAZE:

1 teaspoon table salt

4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface and as needed

1 large egg, at room temperature

6 tablespoons salted butter, melted, plus more for bowl and baking pan

1 packet (2¼ teaspoons) dry yeast

1 1/3 cups warm milk

1 tablespoon plus 4 tablespoons granulated sugar

FOR THE UNS:B

Over the decades, Yankee has featured hundreds of recipes from talented New England home cooks. These delicious buns are one example, adapted from an April 1980 recipe by Mabel Gray of Putney, Vermont. We streamlined the original, but the result is true to Mabel’s tender, easy-to-work dough, stuffed with plenty of cinnamon and brown sugar.

-HANDS ON TIME : 35 MINUTES

TOTAL TIME : 3½ HOURS ;

CINNAMON BUNS