Food and drinks are some of the easiest ways — and the most fun— to vicariously experience another culture. When you add a great book to the mix, you've got the makings of a perfect evening. In Food+Fiction, we recommend a delicious read and a related recipe so you can try the taste of different destinations in your own kitchen.
This post is part of our Food+Fiction series.
If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter or worked like the devil to meet a tight deadline, you know that snacks can be the key to success. A little fat, a little sugar, perhaps some caffeine to keep the engine stoked. No one knows these truths better than the crews that put out newspapers, news shows, and magazines for our consumption.
The characters working the floor of the KCN newsroom in Anna Pitoniak’s twisty thriller Necessary People are hard-working pros. They (mostly) pursue stories with determination and good intentions. The higher-ups? They’re a slightly different story: greedy, plotting, duplicitous. The reporters and editors who work to produce their nightly news show play as hard as they work. Forget donuts; they drink their sustenance in the form of cocktails at their favorite after-work bar.
When professional rivalry turns into a personal vendetta, workplace alliances and romantic relationships take a bullet train into Toxic Town. It’s all a lot of can’t-look-away fun on the page but you wouldn’t really want to work there.
Happily, we have a journalist amongst our audience who tells a very different tale about working as a newsroom producer. She sent us an email about how much she loves her job and the camaraderie she’s found in the newsroom trenches.
She wrote: ‘As fun and energetic as working in a newsroom is, there’s also a powerful protection in it. I’ve covered some really traumatic stuff – but whenever I’ve reached a breaking point, I’ve been surrounded by colleagues who completely understand what I’m going through and are more than ready to crack a bad joke or get stale donuts/pizza or a twelfth cup of coffee with me.’
To honor her and all journalists everywhere, we’re sharing a recipe for easy donuts you can bake in the oven.
Note: You are not required to break a big story nor stay up until the wee hours to enjoy these sweet treats. But as you take a bite, please do say a silent thank you to the journalists out there fighting for the truth on our behalf.
Makes 12 donuts. Total time 25 minutes.
Donuts:
Chocolate Glaze:
Cinnamon Sugar:
Powdered Sugar:
Gluten- & dairy-free: To make gluten-free donuts, replace the all-purpose flour with your favorite gluten-free blend, then add 1 1/2 teaspoons arrowroot powder or potato starch. To make them dairy-free, use your favorite alternative milk.
Heads up! This recipe works if you cut it in half and the donuts freeze well. Follow the decorating instructions and let the donuts cool completely, then place them in an airtight container and pop ‘em into the freezer. They defrost at room temperature in about 15 minutes.
Prep. Preheat the oven to 425F/220C. Lightly grease a 12-count doughnut pan.
Make the batter base. In a medium-sized mixing bowl, beat together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars until smooth. Add the eggs, beating to combine. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla.
Add the flour and milk. Add about 1/3 of the flour to the mixing bowl, followed by 1/2 of the milk. Stir until combined. Repeat with another 1/3 of the flour and the remainder of the milk; stir. Add the remaining flour and stir to combine. Scrape the bowl with a rubber spatula to ensure the batter is smooth, and there are no flour lumps. The batter will be pretty thick — when you pull a spatula through the batter, it will leave a furrow.
Put ‘em in the pan. Spoon the batter into the prepped doughnut pans, filling the wells to about 1/4 inch (.5 cm) below the rim.
Bake. Bake the doughnuts for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven and wait 5-7 minutes before turning them out of the pans onto a cooling rack.
For chocolate glazed. Melt all of the ingredients together over low heat or in the microwave, stirring often. When the donuts are completely cooled, dip each donut into the glaze face-down, then return to the wire rack. If you’re using sprinkles or other fun toppings, sprinkle them on top while the glaze is warm, then let the glaze set, about 30 minutes.
For cinnamon-dusted. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a large ziplock bag. Add WARM donuts one at a time and tumble gently until they’re pleasantly coated.
For powdered sugar. Place the confectioner’s sugar in a large ziplock bag. Add WARM donuts one at a time and tumble gently until they’re pleasantly coated. Allow to cool on wire rack. When they’re completely cool, toss in the confectioner’s sugar again.
Devour while contemplating the state of the world and the awesomeness of good journalists.
The demands were obvious to us — we knew exactly what people liked to watch, and what they didn’t. The ratings bore that out, every single week. The audience liked clean takeaways. They liked black-and-white, heroes and villains. They liked the truth, but only kind of; they liked the truth packaged in a way to make them feel better about their own lives. Too much murkiness, and they are reminded of their own murk: their own mistakes, their own shortcomings, the times they, too, misbehaved and mistreated others. Those stories didn’t rate well. If you wanted people to watch, if you wanted to win the demo and get the blockbuster numbers that your bosses demanded, you needed a story with a good ending. — Anna Pitoniak
This unputdownable novel is a twisty workplace thriller set in KCN, a New York City cable news network. There’s a thoughtful examination of classism, ambition, and female competition tucked into this BFFs-to-frenemies tale — and it’s whoop-out-loud bananas in a very satisfying way. The story swirls around two young upstarts: Stella and Violet. Opposites attract, and the two become fast friends at college. Stella is rich, blonde, and beautiful; she does as she pleases all the time. Her privilege and wealth have eliminated any need for thinking about consequences or other people. Empathy, shmempathy. So obvs, Violet is hardworking and determined, an escapee from a background of poverty and abuse. She has her eyes on the prize: She will earn good grades, land a great job, and leave her crappy past behind. {more}
This thriller (352 pages) was published in May of 2019 by Little, Brown. The book takes you to a cable TV newsroom. Melissa read Necessary People and loved it; it wouldn't be on our site if she didn't recommend it.
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