I hadn’t heard of “Those Little Donuts” until almost the end of my stay in Vancouver. I’m so glad my friend Don invited me to go out to the PNE because not only did I have a blast that day, but I got to have these little bites of heaven.
Sure, they may look like just little donuts and that’s really what I chalked them up to when they insisted I needed to get some. Hey, I’m not going to turn down donuts regardless, ya know?
But oh my god, these things are amazing. Their
website says “Often imitated, never duplicated” and I believe it. I can see how many places would want to make these, but wouldn’t be able to get it quite right.
I’m in love with their machines, too. They churn out dozens of fresh doughnuts within minutes, frying them quickly in a spiral setup that is mesmerizing to watch, before quickly dipping them into cinnamon and sugar. I know there was another flavor or two available, but I don’t even remember what they were. And I’ve been told that the shops outside the various fairs have a lot of quirky flavors available, too, like Oreo or graham cracker flavors.
I was quite content with just the basic kind, though. They’re still warm when they hit your hands and the texture is perfect. They’re the same doughnuts that they’ve been sending out since the 60s, with the only difference being that their oil used now is trans-fat free, which I think most of us can agree is an okay change to make.
Shockingly enough, this was on a Southwest flight where the attendants made more ‘gourmet’ style
food out of airplane snacks. I’m not a big fan of Southwest given several past experiences and I think this has way more to do with some quirky flight attendants wanting to experiment than it does with the company itself….but hey, at least they allowed something like this, so they get a few indirect points from me anyway. I’ll try to ignore that it took place while people were flying to SXSW, which is known for having a lot of bloggers who might be tempted to blog something like this… ;)
Some of the recipes that chosen passengers were taught to make were “Key Lime Cookie Dough Sort Of” (above) made of cookies, creamer, and lime and this
chocolate “mousse” (below) using hot chocolate mix and creamer, which does look like a nice dip for pretzels.
Unfortunately, you don’t usually get more than one snack offered during a flight, so making these snacks on a regular flight is unlikely. If you ever get access to multiple snacks, though, then make yourself a fun treat! I’m sure you could create more if you buy those ‘snack pack’ boxes they offer, but then you might as well bring your own snacks instead of paying for them anyway.
Also, I actually didn’t know you could get hot chocolate on a plane. I’ve only ever been offered sodas, alcohol, and coffee really. Hot chocolate would be quite delicious while flying, I think. Do any other airlines offer it? That might be enough to get me to try Southwest again, hehe.
Pretty cute, huh?
They didn’t start off that cute, though.
I tried several different styles of wrapping before I settled on one that worked.
The ones in the upper left hand corner are how they showed to do them in the tutorial I was looking at. They ended up looking more like Taliban mummies instead, though, and the dough kept slipping.
Actually, the biscuit dough kind of slips regardless. If you try to bundle it up on the bottom, then it ends up unraveling sometimes or just “falling off” entirely, which doesn’t really finish the look off very well, does it? Ultimately, I settled on just 2-3 strips for the cap and using the rest around the lower 2/3rds until it looked more like a coiled up snake than a turban.
I like the final results of them that way better, too. The bottom row looks much better than the top row does. The first three are a jumbled turban/diaper mess and the last one looks like a swaddled baby. Oops.
I ran into the issue of what to put the eyes on with, too, though. We eat pigs in the blanket with ketchup. It makes sense to dip hot dogs in that, right? So I wanted to use that as the decoration as well. I much prefer when my creations are actually edible as is, but ah well.
Turns out, the mustard works out a lot better because it shows up on the hot dog:
Too bad some of the mummy ‘butts’ kept falling off regardless of how I had wrapped them, though. Oops!
To make your own, cut hot dogs in half. Open a can of refrigerated biscuits. Roll each biscuit dough circle into a “snake” like you used to do with playdough. Wrap around the upper 1/4 and lower 2/3 of each hot dog half, using whatever wrapping technique works for you. Have the kids do it instead if you’re self-conscious about yours turning out funky. Cook based on your biscuit package directions and add eyes using whatever condiments you prefer.
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