Want to make a glazed donut like Krispy Kreme’s?  You don’t have to be a professional baker or pastry chef to make this one. I have discovered a simple recipe you can do at home and ingredients can be found at supermarkets. You can give it a try if you want something sweet this weekend. Let me know how it worked for you. I will be glad if you send me pictures of your work. 

ENJOY making your own original glazed like krispy kreme donut.

Dough ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour

3 tsp yeast

1 cup lukewarm water

4 tbsp  white sugar

¼ cup shortening (Crisco or butter)

Preparing the dough:

• Mix yeast, water, sugar and shortening. Then add in the flour.
• Knead the mixture until smooth. Let the dough rise for 1 hour.
• Flatten the dough to ½ inch using rolling pin.
• Cut shape of donut using a cookie cutter. (or if you don’t have a cookie cutter, you can use a cup or glass to cut a circular shape dough, then afterwards put hole in the center). Set aside for 30 minutes.
  

• Fry donuts over medium-heat vegetable oil. Flip it when it floats or until golden brown. Put it in serving trays.
• Dip donuts in glazing mixture or pour in the glazing mixture over the donuts! 

Creamy Glaze Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter

2 cups powdered sugar (confectioners’ sugar)

1 tsp vanilla

4-6 tbsp hot water

Creamy Glaze Preparation

• Melt butter in pan.
• Mix in powdered sugar  and vanilla.
• Add water gradually. Stir mixture until all ingredients are blended.
• Transfer glazing mixture in a bowl

I also prepared a share-able recipe in jpeg format. Just in case you want to let your friends know about your weekend project. Simply right click on the image, save image to your device. Then upload the image to your facebook, twitter or instagram.

P.S. I also discovered that you can use the same dough recipe for making siopao.

My previous work in an organization, requires me to research and teach micro-entrepreneurs strategies to increase their household income. Based on a survey that I conducted to all of the organization's branches, I have seen significant of micro-entrepreneurs would want to learn how to make empanada.

That time, I can't find a resource person to conduct an "Empanada-making Livelihood Seminar". So I did it on my own. I researched for the most effective and most basic recipe I can find online and offline. 

Below is the recipe I used and taught several microentrepreneurs during my "empanada making livelihood seminars" . This recipe will yield a tasty-crispy empanada. 

 I hope this recipe will work for you too.  

Filling Ingredients:

½ kg pork, minced

1 pc onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 tbsp oil

1/8 cup water

½ cup carrots, diced

½ cup potato, diced

¼ cup raisins

¼ cup frozen peas,thawed

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp paprika powder

 Pastry Ingredients:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp baking powder

6 tbsp vegetable shortening or (butter/margarine/oil)

1 egg, beaten

1-2 tbsp water

Preparing the Empanada Filling: 

1. Saute onion and garlic. Add in meat, pork broth cubes (meat enhancer), salt and pepper. Mix well all ingredients.  Stir and cook for 10 minutes.

2. Add carrots, potato and water. Bring water to boil and simmer for 5 minutes.

3. Add sugar, paprika powder, raisins and peas. Mix all ingredients well and adjust taste as desired. Simmer for 10 minutes or until sauce almost dry.  Set aside and let it cool down.

Preparing the pastry:

1. Mix flour, salt, sugar and baking powder together. Afterwards, incorporate shortening until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

2. Add egg and water to the flour mixture. ( Note: Add water gradually to the mixture, about  ½ tbsp at a time.) Mix all ingredients until you attain soft and smooth dough. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Molding the Empanada

1. Divide dough to 12 pcs and make dough balls. Flatten dough to 0.5cm using rolling pin .

2. Put 2-3 tbsp fillings on the flatten dough then fold by half. Merge and press edges using fingers or a fork.  

3. Fry empanada in medium heat vegetable oil. Fry until golden brown and serve empanada in a tray lined with kitchen paper towel.

*****
One year after posting this empanada recipe. I used it again to make some merienda  for my friends, who visited our house. 
This time, I made a short cut on preparing the fillings. I wanted to make empanada as quick as possible so, I prepared only two flavors using canned goods--- tuna and corned beef as empanada fillings. 

Preparing the Filling
I sauteed  onion, garlic and tuna/corned beef. Then add carrots, potato, raisins and peas. Simmer for 5 minutes or until sauce almost dry.  Set aside and let it cool down.

Processes of preparing the pastry, molding and cooking the empanada is still the same.

Siopao is the Filipino version of the Chinese steamed buns. There are a lot of siopao recipes available online and I have tried several of those recipes. Some of it worked well while others did not. Hence, I thought of making  my own recipe to share. If this is your first time making siopao, don’t worry, I provided photos of the process, so you’ll be guided. 

Moreover, if you’re interested to turning this into business, I will also share some ideas and tips that I’ve learned and collected while researching for the perfect siopao recipe.

So Let’s get ninja.

Siopao dough ingredients are easy to find - so you don’t have any excuse not to try this recipe.

Ingredients:

3 cups All purpose flour

3 tsp yeast
1 cup luke warm water
4 tbsp sugar
¼ cup shortening (Crisco or Purico)
1 tsp salt

Preparing the siopao dough
1. Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water.
2. When dissolve, add sugar, salt and shortening. Mix thoroughly. 

3. In a separate bowl, combine the mixture and the flour. Mix thoroughly and knead until smooth. 

4. Cover with cheese cloth and set aside. Let dough rise for 1 hour or until double in size. 

5. Divide dough into 12-24 pieces or depending on desired size.
6. Form into balls, and then flatten to create disc shape dough. Set aside for another 30-40 minutes.










Here’s the part where I made a little trick. During my first trials in siopao making I used to use siomai as my bola-bola filling (No sweat in preparation). While for the asado filling, I use an instant asado mix (McCormick's tangy stew seasoning mix) to simplify the process.But if in case, this instant mix isn’t available in your area or store, here’s the basic recipe for asado and bola-bola filling.

Preparing the siopao filling: 

1 kilo meat (sliced thinly)
1 pack McCormick Asado Mix, 60g
2 ½ cup water

1. Dissolve 1 pack Asado mix in water. 

2. Add in meat slices.
3. Boil until meat is tender and sauce thickens. Much better if you cook until almost dries up.

(Note: You can use beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, and tuna meat as filling.
You can also incorporate sliced hard boiled eggs or salted duck eggs to make it extra special)


Filling the Dough:
1. Put 1 tbsp of meat filling in center of the siopao dough.

2. Bring edges of dough up surrounding the filling. Then press and pinch edges of the dough together. Make sure to seal all the edges to prevent the filling from oozing out during cooking.

3. Place siopao on slightly oiled wax paper ( about 4 square inch size).

4. Steam siopao for 20-30 minutes or until done. Line steamer with cheesecloth to prevent droplets from dropping onto siopao’s surface. Refrain from reopening the lid during the steaming process, as it might affect the siopao’s softness, texture and color.