Have you heard!? Two feet of snow fell on New York City this weekend! It's pretty bonkers. My poor little corgi was not built for this kind of snowfall. He keeps trying to scale the snowbanks like his Labrador brother, only to sink like a little hot dog into the snow pile--then I have to dig him out.

While most folks hunkered down and didn't leave the house while the snow fell for a day straight, me and Iris were determined to make it to Donut Fest. And we did! But not without a freakin' trek. Iris was traveling for over two hours. My journey wasn't quite so long, but it did involve very frozen toes, snow up to my knees at points, and gusts of snowy wind that nearly knocked us over on Metropolitan Avenue.

In hindsight, it probably was a somewhat risky decision, but it was also very worth it. Donut Fest rocked. We chowed down on nine donuts from incredible purveyors from New York and New Jersey. There were some great coffee sellers too. Old favorites (Cafe Grumpy and Dough) were joined by a few folks I'm now PSYCHED to know about (Mike's Donuts, Glaze, Gorilla Coffee). There was a disco ball and a DJ spinning lots of Michael Jackson. Like, the only thing missing, according to Hill's checklist for the perfect party was the karaoke machine. Well done, donut fest. 4/5 ain't bad.

After eating so many 'nuts, I figured I wouldn't want to eat them again for months. Oh boy, quite the opposite. I woke up this morning and had a pretty gross relapse... I whipped up something like 15 donuts and 18 holes?? Luckily, Can & Rich took most of them off my hands. I put together a banana bread doughnut dough and ended up topping them with a few different things, but the recipe below is for the most banana bread-y version (chocolate + pecans), a la my mom's crazy, fillings-packed quick bread!

Enjoy & stay cozy, East Coasters!!

Banana Bread Donuts

1/2 cup overripe bananas
4 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
pinch grated nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup milk

For the Chocolate Glaze

1/4 cup chocolate chips
1 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp water
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 cups vegetable oil

Cooking Directions

Peel bananas and pack into your measuring cup. Set aside. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon) into a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, beat sugars and butter on high speed until creamy. Add in eggs one at a time, beating each in fully. Add in buttermilk and milk. Beat on slow until incorporated. Add in bananas and beat in. Finally, add in dry ingredients one third at at time, beating in each third until *just* incorporated.
Once all dry ingredients are mixed into dough, scrape down sides of bowl, cover dough with plastic and let rest in refrigerator for about 2 hours.
After two hours, flip out dough onto a floured surface. Heat vegetable oil over medium heat in a cast iron pan. Keep an eye on the temperature of the oil--you want to keep it at 350 degrees.
Roll out dough until about 2 inches thick. Then, cut out donuts and holes using cookie cutters (or a cup and a bottle cap!). Set holes asides and fry larger donuts in batches. Fry for about 3 minutes on each side. Remove with a spider or slotted spoon and let drain on paper towels.
Meanwhile, continue to gather up dough scraps, rolling out dough, and cutting out donuts until all is used up. Roll up leftover scraps into more donut holes.
Let larger donuts cool and then fry donut holes. (Toss holes in a combination of sugar, brown sugar, and cinnamon while they're still hot!)
Set a ceramic bowl over a small pot with 1 inch of water in it. Heat over low heat. Add chocolate, butter, and water to the bowl and warm until chocolate begins to melt. Stir with a rubber spatula until fully melted. Then, dip donuts in chocolate and sprinkle with pecan pieces. Set on a rack to set and eat soon after!