“I don’t sleep. I spend all day making them. I put all my hopes and dreams into them. And I wait until someone on the other side of the black wish hole wants one. And sometimes they give me a thank you gift. And sometimes they don’t.”
(This post is not affiliated with the creators of Bee and Puppycat, Cartoon Hangover, or Netflix. I’m just a big fan of the show!)
Bee and Puppycat is a marvel of a cartoon. Following the tales of a girl named bee and her pet puppy… or is it a cat? Nobody, not even the show itself, really knows. Nevertheless, the series tells of their escapades through temp jobs in several alternate sci-fi worlds. These unique endeavors hold plenty of charm and humor, but I personally find that the most heartfelt moments of the series are when we delve more into the day-to-day life of Bee as herself. Especially because I personally can relate to what Bee is going through, and I’m almost positive anyone my age feels the same given current events. At its core, it’s a show of a girl who can’t find a job, struggles to make ends meet, lets her pet practically run her life, and oh yeah, loves to eat more than anything. It's essentially a dramatization of anyone currently in their 20s, need I say more?
Whilst I’ll refrain from giving out any spoilers, the final episode of Bee and Puppycat really left me questioning. One of those questions was, “by god, what do those donuts taste like?” If you thought Bee was relatable, wait till you meet the unnamed baker employee who never sleeps, makes donuts 24/7, is under constant supervision, hardly ever gets a “thanks” for their work, and can be just a little on the clumsy side. Yeah, that hit pretty close to home as a baker myself.
I couldn’t stop thinking about those donuts. So, I decided to recreate them! The animated version is an incredibly puffy, white, cloudlike consistency with little blue crystals dotted through. Of course, these aren’t just any donut (they’re from ~*animated space*~, duh) but I wanted to not just decorate them the same, but also somewhat replicate the dough from start to finish. I ended up coming across spudnuts- fried donuts made with mashed potatoes. Whelp, there’s the cloud part! What about the blue gems? I went with 2 types, first adding blueberries (wild Maine blueberries to be exact!) and homemade hard candy. The wild blueberries were perfect because they air on the smaller side and I used frozen berries, which I saved the juice after dethawing for some additional glaze colors. The candy is just a simple poured sugar recipe that I also flavored blueberry. It was great to tie everything together, but I suggest skipping the blueberry flavoring to help get a more precise shade of blue (mine ended up more royal than teal). You could also make life easier on yourself and either (a) crush up hard candy like jolly ranchers, or (b) just use sprinkles like a sane person (aka not me).
And I HAVE to mention this one little detail that probably only I care about, but these are not entirely accurate. At one point, the worker says, “A perfect jam-filled donut!”. Jam-filled donuts typically lack the hole as most of you already know, and I wanted mine to look as similar as I could possibly get them. If you wish to, try frying some without the hole and piping in a jam of your choosing!
Try making these to celebrate the new Bee and Puppycat show coming this month! And though I’m saddened to hear that the new Netflix series may be a reboot for the story, I’m excited to see where it will go from here.
Space Donuts
Dough
213 g frozen wild blueberries, defrosted
227 g buttermilk
315 g plain mashed potatoes (no milk or seasoning)
3 large eggs
73 g unsalted butter, melted
396 g sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tap salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
800 g all-purpose flour (+ more)
Instructions:
1. Bring the buttermilk to a lukewarm temperature and add it to a large mixing bowl. To the same bowl add the eggs, melted butter, and yeast and whisk to distribute. Add the sugar and mashed potatoes and once again stir to make a smooth mixture.
2. To the potato mix, add the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and flour and mix to create a smooth and sticky dough. If your dough seems unworkably sticky, feel free to add some more flour to help stiffen it up slightly.
3. Strain the excess blueberry juice from the defrosted berries and set aside the juice for later. Gently fold the berries into the dough to distribute.
4. Cover the dough and proof for approx. 1 hour or until nearly doubled. Then refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours or overnight.
5. Once the dough is chilled and more easily workable, turn out the dough onto a generously floured surface. Roll the dough to roughly ½” thickness and cut using a floured donut or 2 circle cutters to your desired donut size. This dough will still be fairly sticky during this process, so it helps to use plenty of flour and even placing the cut donuts on individual parchment squares for easy transferring.
6. In a deep fat fryer or a wide pot, heat vegetable oil (or your preferred oil) to 375 F. Gently drop in your donuts and donut holes, frying a few at a time. Flip when the dough puffs up and turns a deep golden shade on both sides.
7. Drain the donuts on a wire rack of with paper towels and glaze when still warm.
Baking Crystals
198 g granulated sugar
113 g water
78 g corn syrup
½ tsp blueberry flavoring oil (optional)
Blue/teal food coloring
Instructions:
1. Grease a large sheet pan with oil or cooking spray and set aside.
2. Add the sugar, water, and corn syrup to a small saucepan. Gently mix to combine and cook over medium-high heat. Add a thermometer to the bowl and bring to a boil. Refrain from stirring and brush down the sides of the pot with water to avoid crystallization. Continue to cook the mixture to 310 F (hard crack) or until a small amount of syrup dropped in cold water forms hard and brittle candy.
3. Promptly remove from the heat, quickly stir in your flavoring and food coloring. Pour the candy onto the prepared sheet pan, tilting the pan to help thin out the candy if needed. Let cool somewhere free of moisture to solidify.
4. Using a rolling pin or heavy tool, break the hard candy into small shards and set aside until needed.
White Glaze
60 g milk
58 g corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
454 g confectioner’s sugar
Instructions:
1. Heat the milk and corn syrup until it is just hot to the touch.
2. Add the liquids to a bowl followed by the vanilla and confectioner’s sugar, whisking to combine. The sugar does not need to be sifted if the ingredients are warm enough, if there are any lumps, warm the glaze and whisk again.
Blueberry Glaze
60 g blueberry juice
58 g corn syrup
½ tsp blueberry flavoring oil/extract (optional)
350-450 g confectioners sugar
Instructions:
1. Heat the juice and corn syrup until it is just hot to the touch. If you happened to not have enough juice from earlier, replace what’s missing with water.
2. Add the liquids to a bowl followed by the vanilla and confectioner’s sugar, whisking to combine. The sugar does not need to be sifted if the ingredients are warm enough, if there are any lumps, warm the glaze and whisk again.
3. My blueberry glaze thickened much more easily than the white glaze, so start with less confectioner's sugar and add more if needed to make a somewhat thick but pourable opaque glaze.
Assembly
1. While the donuts are still warm, dip each donut in glaze, coating both the top and bottom to surround the whole ring. It’s best to do this with warm glaze as well, so rewarm that if necessary. Set the donuts on a wire rack with a pan or parchment underneath to catch the excess and place the crystals on top while the glaze is still tacky.
2. Here you can have a lot of fun with the decorating. Try dipping the donuts half in each glaze, marbling the two colors, dipping in one and drizzling on the other, and so on. It's also fun to strategically place the crystals, like in a symmetrical pattern or even a smiley face like from the show!
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