A while back, I went looking for good doughnut recipes. There are a kazillion and six doughnut shops around here, and at least one of them is pretty damn good at what they do. However, I wanted to be able to have doughnuts on demand, plus there’s something extra-awesome about anything that’s made at home.
I came across this recipe on the ‘tubes, and it looked simple but delicious. Plus, I didn’t have to wait through a couple of rises. Score! While making this particular recipe, though, I tweaked it quite a bit. So the recipe I’m going to give you is the modified version. (I promise you’ll want to go with mine here.)
The ingredients:
5-7 cups flour, divided
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
The players:
These ingredients always play so nicely together, I like to give them playdates as often as I can.
In a medium mixing bowl, sift together 4 cups flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside. (Wanna know something? I rarely sift flour. In fact, I don’t even own a sifter right now. Frankly, I think a whisk works just as well for most things. NAUGHTY ME!)
Also? How cute are the snowmen? Very! I know!
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter. Add sugar and beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. (I soften my butter for nearly every recipe I make. But I generally don’t MELT it. You want it to be soft and smooshy, not liquid. Tragic things happen when you use liquid butter. Trust me.)
I knew when I saw this that me and this recipe were going to be BFF.
Add milk and vanilla, stir until combined.
How is that when you add vanilla to stuff, it looks kind of fucked up until it’s mixed in, but it always works to make your stuff taste heavenly? Vanilla is fucking mystical.
Slowly add the flour mixture, and mix until combined and dough comes together. Slooooowly, I said. Also, this is where I started adding more flour than the recipe said to use. Because that dough was stickier than any of the buds I smoked back in the day, and God knows I’ve smoked some sticky bud in my time. But I digress. Just keep adding flour until you’re able to actually handle the dough.
Did I mention you add this slowly? Gluten, people, THINK OF THE GLUTEN!!
Roll the dough into a ball and chill for 2 hours. That means chill the dough, by the way, not go rollin’ with yo’ homies or checkin’ what’s crackalackin’ on the intertubes. Although you are more than welcome to do those things, as long as you put the dough in the fridge first.
At this point, I was contemplating making a cake doughnut batter snowman. I decided to go with a cake doughnut Jabba the Hutt instead.
Roll out the dough to about 1/3″ thick. (I added more flour at this point because Jesus, God in Heaven, this dough was sticky.) Cut with doughnut cutter. (Or, if you’re a cheapass like me, use a biscuit cutter and a shot glass. I am not lying.)
It works, so don’t judge me.
Heat your deep fryer to 365°, and get to cookin’ doughnuts. What’s that? You don’t have a deep fryer? I’m sorry. You really should get one. They’re fucking handy, yo. But until you get a deep fryer, you can use a large cast iron skillet, a big saucepan, whatever. You need enough oil to cover the doughnuts. And probably you should invest in a candy/deep fry thermometer because you’re going to need it to gauge the oil temperature. Believe me, doughnuts are a skosh picky about oil temp – too low and they’re greasy; too high and the insides don’t get done. Just get the damn thermometer, okay?
Clearly, if you have symmetry issues, this doughnut recipe is not for you.
Make sure to flip your doughnuts throughout the frying. (I use a carving fork because it fits perfectly in the hole, and I don’t stab my donuts.) When your doughnuts look like this, take them out and set them on a paper towel to await their fate.
They look so happy and carefree, don’t they? They don’t realize they’re about to make some tummies very happy.
From here, you can do a multitude of things with these. You could glaze them. You could put them in cinnamon sugar.
Or.
You could go for ultimate doughnut fabulosity, and make a simple chocolate icing. Since I know y’all are the fabulous types, I know that’s what you’re going to pick. Sadly, I didn’t document that process since it was kind of a last minute decision. But here are the ingredients and instructions.
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
6 tbsp. milk
4 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 tsp. vanilla
1 lb. powdered sugar
In a saucepan over medium heat, bring butter, milk and cocoa to a steady boil. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Add powdered sugar until desired consistency. My “desired” consistency is fairly runny since I dip the doughnuts into the stuff. But not too runny, or it won’t stick.
Mmmm…chocolatey goodness.
Just dip the doughnuts into the icing while it’s still warm (but not hot).
OMFG. That should be illegal, shouldn’t it?
Now eat those suckers. These are best served slightly warm with a big glass of milk. But they’re pretty effing good even when they’ve cooled off. NOM!
P.S. Did you see Missy’s Tastebook? No? Go check it out!
P.P.S. Did you know Jaci’s giving away FIESTAWARE?! No? Go check that shit out, too, huh?
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