This month’s cooking with the Choc-a-holics group: Chocolate With Francois we had an excellent opportunity to create little fried donuts. The name “Pets De Nonne” literally means “nun’s fart”. That really doesn’t sound very good to me but ignore the name, take a bite and all skepticism melts away. The pick was by Maggie of “The Other Side of 50”. Great pick Maggie!
I don’t like to fry. I don’t have a deep fryer and I am afraid of hot oil. The result of my fears was a very ugly looking fried lump of very dark (some might say black) dough. I thought…”who the heck is going to eat these”.
The only major change to the recipe, other than not deep frying, was my use of Schokinag Drinking Chocolate instead of cocoa.
After cooking, I sprinkled on the confectioners sugar. That made them look a little better. Then I approached my resident guinea pig taste tester, Ted, and he said “Sure! I’ll try one”. He bit in and mumbled something. I said “Pardon? – is it ok?” He said “Yeah. It’s good. I just can’t tell what it is”.
At that point I didn’t declare “It’s a Nuns Fart!” Since on a previous day I had baked a carob-honey sponge for diarrhea and he was certain to begin wondering where my baking was going. Ted came in the kitchen, hovered over the brown-black lumps of fried dough and said “I want another”. I pointed out a smaller one and he said “too small”. He went for a bigger one, sprinkled on the sugar and said “It’s a good thing we have the gym or you’d be looking at Two Ton Tony!” I guess if he gained an exorbitant amount of weight, he’d change his name to Tony.
My Pets De Nonne are not pretty as they flattened out because I didn’t deep fry. In fact I initially had the oil too hot (suppose to be 350F). But the taste….the taste IS feather light and they are sinfully delicious. A nun would NEVER indulge in such an extravagance. Or…would she?
Wonderful recipe by Francois Payard from his book “Chocolate Epiphany”.
Joanne
Flat nun farts are as tasty as round ones, and don’t let anyone tell you differently…LOL
These needed lots of powdered sugar, didn’t you think?
Yours look pretty in the picture, even though they are flat. Mine were also flat, but they were very greasy too. Not pretty at all. I ended up trashing the whole thing. Maybe I will try again one day.
Gorgeous picture, Joanne! Sounds like a very nice recipe to try out. Saving it up for later use. Thanks & have a great weekend. Cheers.
Mags: Too funny! 😀
Susan: Sorry to hear that. It wasn’t an easy recipe.
Kristy: Thanks 🙂
Great job with the changes! Sounds like these were wonderful, even if they weren’t round. i am hoping to make mine this week.
I realized the month is over but I am going to see if I can make these tomorrow. I put it off because of the oil. I try to bake rather than fry or if I fry, it is usually with a bit of oil.
This is not the best book for me and I am thinking, I may not continue. There are recipes I do want to make but many have more steps that I have the time to give to them.
I think this group is such a great one and don’t want to leave. I think I will see if I can make these and then decide.