Glazed Doughnuts

This recipe may be late by a few days.  I realize that National Donut Day was on Friday.  But, my love for doughnuts should not be dismissed.  I have been known to coerce my friends into walking miles for doughnuts, 2.6 miles each way to be exact one time in Brooklyn.  (yes, it was worth it….).

I love doughnuts, specifically yeast doughnuts.  In case you didn’t know, there are 2 types of doughnuts, cake doughnuts and yeast doughnuts.  Yeast doughnuts are fluffy, light and and just a little bit chewy.  Think Dunkin’ Donuts or Krumpe’s.  Cake doughnuts are moist and crumbly and dense like a muffin or cake.  Think The Doh-Nuh T Co. or Fractured Prune.

You can debate the qualities of each, but it comes down to personal preference.

So put me on Team Yeast.

Making doughnuts takes time.  There’s a lot of waiting for the dough to rise, then a long period of refrigeration before the doughnuts must rise again.  The process is not complicated, but it does take patience.  But I promise you it is worth the wait to make homemade doughnuts.

Glazed Doughnuts

• 1-1/8 cup milk, warmed (around 100 degrees)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2-1/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1-1/4 stick butter, melted (or 10 Tablespoons)
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• vegetable oil

GLAZE

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup cold milk

To Make the Dough:

1. Make sure milk is nice and warm, but not overly hot. (around 100 degrees)
2. Add sugar to milk. Stir to dissolve.
3. Add yeast into a small bowl.
4. Pour milk/sugar mixture over yeast. Stir gently, then let sit for 10 minutes.
5. Melt butter in separate bowl until butter is almost melted. Stir to finish melting so butter won’t be overly hot.
6. Add beaten eggs to melted butter, stirring constantly to make sure the butter’s not too hot for the eggs.
7. Add the egg/butter mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook.
8. With the mixer on 3 or medium-low speed, pour in the yeast mixture.
9. Allow the dough hook to stir this mixture for a couple of minutes, making sure it’s thoroughly combined.
10. With the mixer still going, add the flour mixture in 1/4 to 1/2 cup increments until all the flour is gone.
11. Stop the mixer, scrape the bowl, then turn the mixer on the same speed for five whole minutes.
12. After five minutes, stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl.
13. Turn on the mixer for 30 seconds.
14. Turn off the mixer and allow the dough to sit in the bowl undisturbed for 10 minutes.
15. After 10 minutes, transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Toss the dough to coat, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place straight in the fridge.
16. Refrigerate dough for at least 8 hours, or overnight.  I refrigerated it overnight.

To Make the Doughnuts:

1. Remove bowl from fridge and turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.
2. Roll out to 1/4 to 1/3-inch thickness.
3. Using a 3-inch cutter, cut as many rounds as you can, then roll out remaining dough and cut as much as you can, etc.
4. Cut holes out of each round using a 1 1/2-inch cutter.
5. Place both doughnuts and holes on a floured baking sheet.
6. Cover with large towel and place in a warm place in your kitchen.  Allow doughnuts to rise undisturbed for at least 1 hour; 1 hour 15 minutes if necessary. Doughuts should be visibly puffier and appear to be airy.

To Fry the Dougnuts:

1. Heat plenty of vegetable shortening in a large pot until the temperature reaches 375 to 380 degrees—375 is ideal; keep the thermometer in the pan to continually monitor.  For the first few doughnuts that I made, the oil was too hot.  The quality of the doughnut was not compromised, they were still tasty, but you can see from the photos that some of them were really dark in color.  I cooled down the oil just a little bit and the later batches were better.
2. One to two at a time, gently grab doughnuts and ease them into the hot oil. Allow them to cook 1 minute on each side; they will brown very quickly.
3. Remove doughnuts from the oil with a slotted spoon, allowing all oil to drip off.
4. Place doughnut immediately on several layers of paper towels, draining as much grease as possible before it soaks into the doughnut.
5. Repeat with remaining doughnuts and holes. The holes will cook more quickly than the doughnuts; about 30 seconds per side.  (I actually forgot to save and cook the doughnut holes!)
6. Allow doughnuts to slightly cool.

To Glaze

1. Mix all glaze ingredients in a bowl until completely smooth.
2. One by one, dip doughnuts into the glaze until halfway submerged. (Note: completely submerge doughnut holes, then remove with slotted spoon.)
4. Remove from glaze, then turn right side up on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet (to catch dripping glaze.)
5. Serve warm if possible, or room temperature.