Donuts, Doughnuts, Do-nuts!

Homemade donuts shouldn't be this easy to make because it's very dangerous! You can whip a batch of these up in no time and they taste sooo good! We started making our donuts homemade back in December and we can never go back. My husband received a gift card, to a donut place I won't mention ;), so around Valentine's Day we decided we'd better use it up. We ordered a dozen donuts and took them home to the kids. Of course, we had to sample a few of them on the way home, just to make sure the kids would approve ;). As soon as we each took a bite and looked at each other we both had the same thought....YUK!!! Neither one of us finished them. We know they were made that day, but they tasted so stale! They were waaay too sweet and very poorly decorated. I had bought each of the kids the heart donuts with pink sprinkles on top.

We have officially become donut snobs! There's nothing like a fresh donut, let alone a warm, light and fluffy, not too sweet donut! Oh, and one last thing I love about homemade donuts is I can make them non dairy so every one can enjoy them!

Let me introduce you to my breakfast committee:

My mouth is watering!

You can use my recipe or use a bread recipe that you prefer. That's really all it is, a good bread recipe.

I use:
3 cups of flour
1/2 cup of sugar + 1 Tbs.
1 cup and 1/4 c. of warm water
2 Tbs. of olive oil
1 egg
dash of salt
2 and 1/4 tsp. of yeast

I will give quick directions in this post for these donuts, but for pictures on making the dough please see our post on Boston Cream Donuts.

Proof your yeast using the 1/4 c. of water and 1 Tbs. of sugar for about 5 minutes or so.

Prepare your dry ingredients in a large glass bowl.

Once your yeast is ready pour it, the oil, the 1 cup of water, and the egg into the dry ingredients. Mix together, Sprinkle a little more flour if necessary into the dough mixture and to keep it easy to work with and not too sticky.

Once you have formed a nice dough in the shape of a ball, leave it in the bowl and cover with a dish towel. Let it rise in a warm area in your kitchen.

Once it has doubled in size it's time to punch it down and roll it out onto a floured surface.

Once your dough is rolled out take a circle cookie cutter and cut out your donuts.
Use a tiny circle to cut out the center hole of your donut.

I place my donuts on a Silpat mat and cover them again with the dish towel and let them rise for another 45 minutes at least.

If you have a deep fryer you can use that to cook your donuts. I don't have a fryer, so I just pour some canola oil into a medium sized pot. I use just enough oil so that the donuts are floating in it and I can flip them over. It's really not a lot of oil, I'm cheap frugal like that. I'll measure next time, I promise.

BEFORE, you start to fry your donuts get your sugar ready! If you are using cinnamon and sugar you will need to have someone help you. One person fries the donuts, the other puts them in the sugar. The donuts cook soo fast you really can't do both. I would let a little bit of the oil drip off the donuts for a second before throwing them into the sugar, otherwise it makes the sugar unable to stick to the donuts after doing it a few times. Also, they will be very hot! You can put your cinnamon and sugar into a brown paper bag, or use a bowl. Either way it gets the job done!

If you are using powdered sugar you can do those donuts any time after you are done frying. I put a dash of cinnamon in the powdered sugar too. I would do the powdered sugar after all the oil has dried and/or dripped off. I place my donuts on a  cooling rack to let the cooling process begin. You will end up with a sugary sticky mess if you place the fresh donuts directly into the powdered sugar. Still yummy, but not pretty.

These really are sooo easy! I hope you give them a try. You won't regret it!!
Please visit our other posts on donut making to get a feel for it through the pictures. Remember if you can make bread, you can make these! If you don't make bread, give it a try! You will love it!