Day 3: YEAST DONUTS

For Day 3 of our 7 Ingredients-7 Recipes-7 Days we are making one of our family favorites, DONUTS!  You have not had the best donut of your life until you've had homemade donuts.  I kid you not--it is the most delicious donut.  My kids would prefer our homemade donuts any day to those from the donut shop.  I don't do special toppings, usually just chocolate and if we don't have any chocolate, old fashioned glaze or cinnamon and sugar are more than enough to make this a finger-licking, lip-smacking, yummy-in-your-tummy treat.

Let's get our bake on shall we?

For this recipe we're using flour, sugar, rising agent, salt, and eggs--five of our seven essential ingredients.

I prefer yeast donuts to cake donuts so that's the kind we're making today.  So that's going to be one of our first steps.

You need 1 cup of warm water in a large mixing bowl. 

And to that we'll add 4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast as well as 4 Tablespoons of sugar to the water.

We need to wait for the yeast to form into a foam.  In the meantime, take one egg and beat well.

Once the yeast has begun to foam, you can add the rest of the ingredients starting with the egg,

 then 1/3 cup of melted butter,

1 

 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon,

v

 and 1 teaspoon of vanilla,

Finally we add 1 teaspoon salt and 2 1/2 cups of flour.

Mix well.

Next we're going to dust a clean surface or counter top with flour and place our dough on the floured surface.  We will knead the dough a few times until it becomes nice and smooth.


Right about now I turn my oven on to warm. I also put my baking sheets in the oven while its warming. This way, when my donuts go on to the warm baking sheets, they rise a little faster and stay warm longer before going ito the oil for frying.  Just a little trick I like to use.

Now we're ready to roll out the dough to about 1/2 inch thickness.  At this point we should be ready to cut our donuts.  We don't have a donut cutter so we use a cup, floured around the rim so it doesn't stick to the dough.   I just tap it in a small pile of flour to get that rim coated.  I bet you're wondering about the donut hole, huh?

We just use the vanilla cap for that.  

Now we're ready to cut circle shapes all around our rolled dough and then go back and cut donut holes with my vanilla lid.  Nifai likes to come behind me and take the donut holes out.  

Once I've got my donuts and donut holes cut, I'm ready to pull my baking sheets out of the oven and turn the oven dial to off.  Here's another trick I picked up, I line the baking sheets with parchment paper or foil and dust them with flour too.  If I don't, as the donuts rise on them, they will stick.  When its time to remove them from the baking sheets they will tear, lose their shape, deflated and all before ever hitting the grease.  Nifai helps me put all the donuts on the baking sheets.

Then, we put those donuts in the oven to rise.  

So just remember, WE ARE NOT BAKING THE DONUTS in the oven.  

They're JUST RISING in there.  Your oven is shut off!

Whatever scraps I have together after cutting my first batch of donuts, I mash together best I can then flour and roll out again.  I keep doing this until there isn't dough large enough to cut anymore donuts.  Whatever little is left I cut donut holes.  You can also add all the donut holes together to make more full-size donuts if you want.

We also put the donut holes on a baking sheet so they can rise too.

The donuts need to rise for about 30 minutes.  About 20 minutes in, go ahead and get your oil hot.  If the donuts come out from the warm oven into cool air and sit too long, they start to deflate.
So I try to have the oil ready for them to go straight in.


They look perfect!

Use a spatula and carefully slide it under your donut.
Remember, if it tears or gets bumped, the donut might deflate.

Just as carefully as you scooped up, let it gently slide down into the oil.  The closer you get to the oil, the less splashing you'll have which is great because then you won't get burned by hot oil!


And if there's enough room, add a few more.

These don't take long to cook at all.  After maybe a minute I will use metal tongs to carefully turn them over, still doing my best not to splash the hot liquid onto me.

When both sides are a nice golden honey color-they're ready!



Take them out and let them drain on a cooling rack with something beneath to catch the dripping oil.  You can also let them drain and cool on a layer of paper towels.


Once all the donuts are done I start frying the donut holes.  In you go!


These will cook much faster so I keep a close eye on them
They're all harder to turn or flip over so I stir them around instead.


Once they get that golden honey color all over I take them out with a metal slotted spoon--much easier than tongs for this many!


Once everything has been cooked, we can add a little sweetness to them.

We like to let our donut holes roll around in a bowl of cinnamon and sugar.


I had some baker's chocolate so I made a homemade chocolate glaze for the donuts.

He also wanted sprinkles on some

I found coconut and peanuts in the cupboard so I tried that on a few too!

Really, the kids don't care for all the fancy stuff.  Good 'ol chocolate glaze suits their tastes just fine!

Hope you like yours as much as we like ours!  

Post a comment or picture and let me know how it turned out.  Happy baking!

Yeast Donuts

Prep time:   45 Min                      Cook Time: 30 minutes                       Servings 12-15 donuts

Ingredients

• 2 pkgs .25oz yeast or 4 1/2 teaspoons
• 1 cup warm water
• 4 Tablespoons sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup melted butter or margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• Vegetable oil for frying

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl pour 1 cup of warm water
2. Add yeast and sugar to water.  Stir a few times and let sit until foaming 5-10 minutes
3. In the meantime melt butter and beat egg
4. Once yeast has begun to foam, add egg, butter, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and flour
5. Mix well
6. Dust clean surface or counter with flour
7. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead a few times until smooth.  Do not overknead or dough will be tough
8. Turn oven on to WARM and place baking sheets in oven while warming
9. Roll dough out to about 1/2 inch thickness and cut donut shapes throughout
10. Use extra scraps to work into another dough ball until smooth, roll out again and continue cutting.  Remove any donut holes and set aside.
11. Remove warmed baking sheet from oven and turn oven off.
12.  Line baking sheets with foil or parchment.  
13. Dust lined baking sheet with flour.
14. Place donuts on baking sheet, evenly spaced apart so that once they rise, they don't squish each other and tear when taken apart.
15. Place donuts back in oven to continue rising 30 minutes.
16. Repeat process for donut holes.
17. 10 minutes before removing donuts from oven, begin warming oil on stove to medium high heat.
18. Once oil is hot, drop one donut hole in oil.  If the oil begins to bubble and donut hole fries easily, the oil is perfect.  If it takes it awhile to bubble, oil is not hot enough.  Try a few more times with donut holes until it seems to be the right temperature.
19. Using a spatula, slide under donut and carefully allow donut to slide off into oil.  Keep spatula close to the oil to avoid splashing.
20. As donut cooks, watch for coloring underneath.  When it turns a golden honey color, flip donut over and allow to cook on opposite side.
21. Once both sides have equaly golden honey color, remove from hot oil with tongs and allow to drain on cooling rack or paper towels.
22. Use metal slotted spoon to remove donut holes from oil
23. Drizzle glaze or douse in cinnamon and sugar for added sweetness.
24. Enjoy with cold glass of milk or hot chocolate.