donut pan idea no. 17: teething rings

They ain't pretty, but they are mother and baby approved. For real. 

Teething rings (the ideas are coming to me in my sleep now). These are fantastic. They are ROCK HARD right out of the oven. The first baby I gave one to put it directly into her mouth and never looked back, so I think they are a winner (see photographic proof below)! They are a little like a baby themselves, in that they have a face only a mother could love. They look unappetizing enough, but everyone in our family has enjoyed gnawing on them regardless.

I found a recipe on this forum online, it's about halfway down the page. I tried to track the author to give more credit, but no such luck. Kudos to her for coming up with this simple four-ingredient recipe, which contains no eggs, by the way!

This recipe made eleven perfect teething rings. Preheat your oven to 300º. Mix 1 1/2 cups unbleached flour, 1/2 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup blackstrap molasses and 3 tbsp. canola oil in a medium bowl. 

Simple ingredients.

Molasses is as slow as people say it is.

Ready to mix.

Mixed.

Turn the crumbly mixed dough out onto a flat surface. Knead for three minutes. I counted to 180 while I was kneading and it did need all that work, it's a very dry dough.

Pre-knead.

Post-knead.

Brush the pans lightly with canola oil. Place 1.5 oz. of dough measured on a kitchen scale inside each pan. Since these are for babies, I think it is important that they all bake equally, thus the more exact measurements.  

I've got a variation on this shot for each of the donut pan ideas.

1.5 oz. ball of dough. Blurry shot, I was in a hurry.

This gets tricky and takes a minute of patience. The dough is very dry and the pans oily.

The dough will slip and move around a lot while you're packing it tightly into the pans. I

used just a drop of water with each one (just one!) to help me form continuous smooth rings.

Wedge your nail down in around the center and perimeter edges to reduce sharpness.

Bake for 30 minutes at 300º, then set pan to cool on a rack. When completely cool, give one to a baby! This is a vegan teething ring, so hopefully there is nothing for a baby to be allergic to in here. Always check first, of course.

Cooling in pans. 

When cool enough to handle, pluck out of the pans with a toothpick. They come right out, and are rock solid.

Although the flat sides are somewhat craggy, and the dough is hard, they are surprisingly not sharp.

I threw these in a waxed paper bag so I could deliver them to a baby I know, but they are
so ugly I am sure no amount of photo styling could make them look more appetizing!

This is Bouthayna, one of the only teething babies I know right now. Her mom is Anna of Dutch Door Press, which I have mentioned several times here in this blog, because I adore all of their work. That's one of their pink bird tea towels in the shots above. Bouthayna is teething big time right now. I handed her a teething ring on the playground and within a minute had gone to work on it. In the Ergo. In five minutes she had decimated the Ergo, her sweater, and her mom's shirt. She loved it, but as with all teething biscuits, there was a drooly mess. I suggest you take your child out of your baby carrier (sorry, Anna!) and possibly out of their shirt before letting them gnaw on a teething ring (Anna told me the next day that the molasses washed right out of their clothes, by the way). The great news is that she really did love it, and I'm bringing more to my friend Windy's little Gemma next weekend for her first birthday party. I bet she will love them!