marital disputes & jelly doughnuts

i'm not gonna lie, the biggest thing josh and i fight about is food. it's sad, i know. like, knock-down, drag-out, i'm-giving-you-the-silent-treatment-for-the-rest-of-the-night, over a choco taco. if you've never had one, you might not understand.

do any of you grocery shop with your husband? josh often asks if he can accompany me to the store, and how am i going to decline such a sweet request? also, i can get out of there in half the time with his help. but an ongoing dispute of ours has been josh's never ending grocery store requests for doughnuts. if he just wanted one solitary glazed doughnut out of the glass case, we'd be fine. but he wants the bags, rather, boxes of doughnut holes. herein lies the problem: we are terrible at sharing food. junk food, that is. we could share a salad all day long. either he will eat them all and then i'll be mad that i didn't get any (this is typically the case, ie: choco taco), or i'll take three-quarters the bag/box/whatever the case may be and hoard it at work.

I can hear all of your great resolutions now, "Just buy more", "Split it evenly right off the bat", "Don't buy junk food"(ha). Those are all good thoughts, my friends. But it's not that easy. Part of the problem is that we truly do try to eat healthy for the most part, so when we do succumb to buying junk food, like doughnuts, it's a battle.

So, when I saw this recipe for jelly doughnut holes in my eat well magazine, I decided it was high time I made up for all the times his box of doughnuts request was denied. how can it be bad for you if it's in eat well magazine? it's an oxymoron, right? plus there's something about making doughnuts yourself that makes them not feel as bad for you. well, that's what i'm telling myself. please don't try to convince me otherwise.

jelly doughnut holes
all you need for this recipe is 1/2 C sugar, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 can pillsbury grands, 2 C canola oil, and jelly.


Prep: In a bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon; set aside. Heat the oil in a 10 in. skillet over medium-low heat.

While oil is heating, form the doughnuts. Separate dough into 8 biscuits and flatten them into 3 1/4 in. rounds. Using a 1 1/2 in. round cookie cutter*, cut 3 circles from each round.
*We didn't have this kind of cookie cutter, so I just used the top of the cinnamon jar. Worked fine.


With a sharp knife, slice horizontally (parallel to cutting board) through centers - do not cut all the way through - and open like a book. Spoon 1/4 tsp. jelly onto one side, fold dough over and pinch edges to seal.


As you can see above, I tried following the recipe's instructions, but have you ever tried to cut dough in a parallel motion and open it like a book? Not the easiest task. Plus, the jelly got everywhere. So, I decided to take matters into my own hands, and make the job much easier. All I did was stretch out the cutout round even more, and then put a dab of jelly in the center and fold all the sides up to meet in the center, forming a perfect ball. Do your best to press the dough together so the jelly doesn't leak out.


Makes 24 dough balls.


After assembling holes, test the oil with a scrap of dough. When the oil is hot enough, bubbles will appear around the dough's edge.

Working in batches (we did three batches of 8), fry holes until golden brown, about 1 minute per side; transfer to a paper towel-lined plate.


While doughnuts are still warm, toss them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.





Serve warm or at room temperature.


Indulge in the sugary goodness.
We were so proud of ourselves, because honestly, the doughnuts were phenomenal. Way better than store-bought.



we made these on sunday morning, today is monday, and there are no more doughnuts. Shelby = 8, Josh=16. we only had a small tiff about who ate the last of them. i think we're gaining ground here.

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