Easy Homemade Donuts
The perfect donuts to share with friends on a snow day. Light, airy, fluffy and sweet. These donuts hit the spot with a cup of cocoa and are perfect to pile high with glaze and toppings.
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 10 min
- Yield
- 30 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 430 g whole milk, warmed (1 3/4 cup, warmed (90-100 degrees F))
- 20 g instant yeast (2 Tablespoons)
- 110 g granulated sugar (1/2 cup)
- 10 g salt (2 teaspoons)
- 2 eggs (about 100 grams)
- 65 g shortening, melted (1/3 cup, or unsalted butter)
- 875 g bread flour (5.5-6 cups flour, see recipe note)
- 48 oz vegetable oil (shortening works well here too)
- Scraps of Donut Dough
- 1 Granny Smith apple (chopped)
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 2 cup powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup heavy cream or milk (thinned to your liking)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup chocolate chips, melted (semi-sweet is my favorite)
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tsp corn syrup
- 2 tsp water
- a pinch salt
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter (melted)
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp maple extract
- a pinch salt
- various sprinkles
Instructions
- 1
Warm the milk (around 90-100 degrees F) and pour into a stand mixer. Add the yeast and sugar. Smell for the yeasty smell that tells you your yeast is active.
- 2
Next add the salt, eggs and melted shortening (make sure it's not too hot--over 120 degrees--so it won't kill the yeast).
- 3
Add most of the flour and turn the mixer on. Continue mixing while adding flour a little at a time until dough is tacky but clearing the sides of the bowl.
- 4
Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes. Check out this post for tips on how to know when the dough is ready. Add extra flour a Tablespoon at a time if needed.
- 5
Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover it and let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
- 6
On a very lightly floured surface (you may not need any flour at all), dump the dough out and roll out until about 1/4 inch thick.
- 7
Use a circle cutter or the top of a mason jar or bowl to cut out donuts. Cut out a small circle in the center of the donut and transfer to a baking sheet to rise.
- 8
Cut out donut holes and make apple fritters with the donut scraps if desired (instructions for the apple fritters are in the blog post).
- 9
Let rise again until puffy and almost doubled in size.
- 10
Heat 48 ounces of oil in a large pot or skillet. Keep the temperature steady and around medium heat.
- 11
Toss a small donut hole into the oil when you start to see bubbles and watch how long it takes the donut hole to fry. If it starts sizzling, bubbling and takes about 30-45 seconds to brown on one side before flipping it to the other side, your oil is ready to fry donuts in. If you add more oil, that will change the temperature of the oil and you will need to use another "donut hole tester."
- 12
Fry the donuts a few at a time for about 2 minutes per side until golden brown.
- 13
Remove donuts from the hot oil onto a baking rack. Let cool for a few minutes before dipping in glaze, toppings and sprinkles. Enjoy warm!
- 14
For the glaze, melt together the ingredients and whisk together. If the glaze hardens before or during the process warm it up and, thin out with a bit of milk.