Inspiration Challenge: October {Junk Food} Oh- And A Giveaway!

****Giveaway is closed, winner has been notified by email******

We’re baaaaaack! (It’s almost Halloween so it’s expected that you read that in little Carol Anne’s voice.)

I’m not actually talking about classic horror movies, though. I’m talking about those inspiration challenges that Melissa from Simply Sweets by Honeybee and I used to do. It turns out that exes may be exes for a reason, but fun projects that you did with your friends can be revisited over and over.

We changed the rules a little this time around. When it comes to our monthly topics, we’re not limiting our projects to cookies. We will be doing cookies, cakes, cupcakes, recipes, or crafts. Anything we want as long as it is inspired by the topic of the month.

This month, we’re talking about “junk food.” You know- since Halloween is coming up and all.

I tried to gear my project to the junk food that may actually be LEFT in your kids’ trick or treat bags after a few weeks. It’s all well and good to come up with a recipe using peanut butter cups or Skittles. But good luck finding those, even the next day. If the kids didn’t get to them, I guarantee the husband did. But potato chips? Yeah. They’ll still be there.

And what is more “junk food” then putting junk food on top of junk food?

So, I made these donuts from scratch. Yeast dough, pot of very hot oil, glaze bath and all. I wanted to push myself a little. If you want to make them, you certainly can. I’ll tell you how I did it at the end of this post. If you don’t want to fry them yourself, I won’t judge you. Just pick up some plain glazed donuts from the bakery and read on!

You will need: Plain glazed donuts, chocolate ganache glaze, and chocolate covered potato chips.

First, make your chocolate covered potato chips.

• A small bag of chips. I couldn’t find a small bag with ruffles although they would be ideal. I used Kettle Cooked chips with sea salt. Just make sure you are using a chip with some substance to it. I don’t recommend baked chips. And I certainly don’t recommend sour cream and onion flavored.
• 4 ounces dark or bittersweet chocolate.

1. Break chips into small pieces and spread in a single layer on parchment.
2. Melt chocolate in a clean, dry, microwave safe bowl. (Try microwaving it at half power for one minute then stirring it, then half power for 30 second increments, stirring in between) Do this until the chocolate is smooth.
3. Use a fork or spoon to drizzle the chocolate over the potato chips. Let them sit until the chocolate is set.

Make your chocolate ganache.

• 4 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate
• 4 ounces heavy cream

1. Heat cream in a microwave safe bowl until it is hot to the touch.
2. Chop chocolate into small pieces and place in a small bowl (make sure the bowl is wide enough to fit your donuts).
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit for at least 10 minutes.
4. Whisk together the cream and chocolate until it’s smooth.

Assemble your treat.

1. Dip the top of your donut into the chocolate glaze.
2. Sprinkle the chocolate covered potato chips on top.
3. Let the glaze set then enjoy!

And now a little thank you for being such a good friend! First, head on over to my Facebook page. There, right under the cover photo, you’ll see an icon that looks like a present. Click on that and follow the instructions. That is good for the chance to win these little goodies I picked up at Sur La Table. (Sorry for the cheesy cell phone picture!)

****Giveaway is closed, winner has been notified by email******

Then go over to Simply Sweets by Honeybee to see what junk food she came up with ( I don’t even know. We decided with this round of challenges, no sneak peeks!) While you are there, you can enter to win another prize! Also, she just did a major page overhaul, so make sure you take some time to look around.  At some point this month, you can link up your own junk food inspired project!

Keep an eye out for our November challenge! The inspiration is “Lazy Sunday Mornings”. Don’t forget, you can come up with a cookie, a cake, a recipe, or even a craft.

You can find the recipe I used to make the donuts here. They are, for lack of better words to describe them, OMFG good (drool).