Homemade Doughnuts

[Chris Amirault]

Anyone know a good recipe for cider doughnuts? We were out in rural RI this weekend and the pumpkins got us hankerin'....

[_john]

does anyone have a tested recipe that uses weights instead of volumetric measures? i'm looking for both cake and yeast doughnuts.

[Kerry Beal]

Buttermilk Doughnuts

Cooks Illustrated Mar/April 97

3 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

3/4 cup buttermilk

4 tbsp melted butter

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

Mix together 1 cup of flour with remaining dry ingredients. Add in wet ingredients and beat for 30 seconds. Add remaining flour and mix. Roll out 1/2 inch thick. Fry at 375 degrees in vegetable shortening for 50 seconds per side. Place on clean brown paper bags to drain.

These are excellent doughnuts!

[fodgycakes]

I've tried Alton Brown's recipe, found on Food Network. I was quite happy with it, though I think I'd like to try some other recipes.

A silly question, but all of the doughnut glaze recipes I see are for the white opaque type of glaze. I like the simple slightly crusty glaze found on Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Is that just plain sugar syrup?

[K8memphis]

You can make some dynamite doughnuts with refrigerator biscuit dough. Just tear a hole in the middle & fry--roll in cinnamon sugar. Remarkably wonderful. I can't remember which kind works better. Whether it's the country kind or the flakey kind or whatever. They are awesome.

Like if you had a housefull of kids or company & wanted a cool easy yummy treat or fast breakfast. Best served warm.

[FoodMan]

I've tried a few recipes for doughnuts, but this one that I tried last week, is by far my favorite. It's from Jamie Oliver's newest book, Cook with Jamie (available from Amazon.uk now), and it makes amazingly fluffy and light yeast doughnuts. I also like using this spiced sugar to coat them rather than a glaze. I decided to fill some of them with raspberry jelly and left some plain. I will certainly be making this again soon.

[Ann_T]

I made Yeast raised donuts using the recipe in the King Arthur Flour cookbook. When I made them again Christmas morning I made half glazed and half sugar dipped..

Ann

[LittleIsland]

I made Yeast raised donuts using the recipe in the King Arthur Flour cookbook.  When  I made them again Christmas morning I made half glazed and half sugar dipped..

Ann

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Hopefully you are hanging around, Ann_T... what size is your doughnut cutter, for the outer ring and the hole? Is it easy to achieve such doughnutty perfection in terms of looks, or is it something that takes a bit of practice and some secret tips?

I made doughnuts for the first time yesterday, but should have some to look them up here first, of course. I used a recipe from Cook's Illustrated. They turned out a little hard and looked disastrous. Perhaps my dough was too soft, but the rounds rose into puffs only vaguely resembling doughnuts, and the fried results quite grossly misshapen.

So, before I decide whether to try again (all that frying is a bit scary too), I just have to know... is making doughnuts actually an easy thing or something I have to do a few more times to get gorgeous, evenly sized and shaped airy puffs? Can't afford too many more calories this way!!

[GTO]

Just today I saw some amazing looking baked doughnuts over at Tartlette. To be honest, I much prefer the look of those to most fried ones.

[CKatCook]

oh crap...now I have to go make doughnuts !!!!

all these wonderful pictures has me wanting some....

[currypuff]

Just a thought... you can make donuts with brioche dough.

I was just reading about it in Julia Child's book.... not sure what the adaptation is but I can post it if you're interested.

I think it just came down to forming the doughnuts and letting them rise for a bit before frying.

[Qui]

does anyone has a good cider donut formula?

[zaskar]

Does anyone have a great recipe for doughnuts? I'm looking for something tried and true if possible.

I hear there are good recipes for amish doughnuts. I know the amish doughnuts near us are one of the best.

I've tried looking at amish books on amazon but can't tell is they have any doughnut recipes, I know one has a baked doughnut, but I'm looking for fried.

Thanks,

-z

[Kerry Beal]

Does anyone have a great recipe for doughnuts?  I'm looking for something tried and true if possible.

I hear there are good recipes for amish doughnuts.  I know the amish doughnuts near us are one of the best.

I've tried looking at amish books on amazon but can't tell is they have any doughnut recipes, I know one has a baked doughnut, but I'm looking for fried.

Thanks,

-z

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I like the Cook's Illustrated Buttermilk doughnut best.

[hummingbirdkiss]

this is my favorite recipe sweet dough

if you already make donuts then try this

save the water from the next time you make boiled potatoes mix it well with your salt, sugar, yeast, a pinch of ground mace and about 1/4 cup of finely pureed potato..use that in place of milk..buttermilk or water in your next batch of yeast donuts make a sponge first then add your flour ..being careful not to add too much flour...knead well and let the dough sit in the fridge at least over night ..

they have a most awesome texture and flavor

Edited May 8, 2008 by hummingbirdkiss (log)

[Patrick S]

Does anyone have a great recipe for doughnuts?  I'm looking for something tried and true if possible.

I hear there are good recipes for amish doughnuts.  I know the amish doughnuts near us are one of the best.

I've tried looking at amish books on amazon but can't tell is they have any doughnut recipes, I know one has a baked doughnut, but I'm looking for fried.

Thanks,

-z

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Alton Brown's recipe is great, IMO.

Recipe

[helenjp]

That Alton Brown recipe IS great.

I used lard instead of vegetable shortening, since that was what I had. Possibly the use of lard rather than butter or oil was responsible for the softer "crust" and the bouncier texture. I had a doughnut recipe or two that I liked, but THIS is better! Definitely the best doughnuts I've made, especially after half a day.

I absent-mindedly started to make the recipe without thinking about the huge quantities, so ended up "baking" some of the dough as rolls (literally - snail-style roll-ups) in my heavy frypan over a flame-tamer, since my oven has died. The soft top to the rolls got a sprinkle of spiced sugar, which improved their looks no end.

[jsmeeker]

Does anyone make doughnuts using pate a choux piped directly into the hot oil? are these even considered doughnuts? I want to try this out. I think it would be fairly easy since I have made pate a choux several times and it avoids the need to roll out dough. I've got a recipe I want to try (from the Eggbeater blog), but am certainly open to looking at others as well.

[alanamoana]

Does anyone make doughnuts using pate a choux piped directly into the hot oil? are these even considered doughnuts?  I want to try this out. I think it would be fairly easy since I have made pate a choux several times and it avoids the need to roll out dough.  I've got a recipe I want to try (from the Eggbeater blog), but am certainly open to looking at others as well.

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ever eaten a churro? that's what they are, more or less.

[adey73]

anyone got a yeast and glazed recipe in metric?

[rickster]

Does anyone make doughnuts using pate a choux piped directly into the hot oil? are these even considered doughnuts?

I thought this is similar to what are called French crullers.

[polpus]

Does anyone make doughnuts using pate a choux piped directly into the hot oil? are these even considered doughnuts?  I want to try this out. I think it would be fairly easy since I have made pate a choux several times and it avoids the need to roll out dough.   I've got a recipe I want to try (from the Eggbeater blog), but am certainly open to looking at others as well.

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ever eaten a churro? that's what they are, more or less.

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Not really, choux has lots of egg, whereas churros usually don't contain any egg at all.

Churros with hot chocolate.... hmmmmm

[jsmeeker]

here are the doughnuts I made with pate a choux. I think they turned out really well.

[alanamoana]

They look great! I was wondering if you had followed up on your project.

[kayb]

A couple of posters have mentioned yeast and/or potato doughnuts. Here's my mother's recipe. I have never made these on my own, but I fondly remember waking up on Saturday mornings to the smell of doughnuts frying.

Potato Doughnuts

2 cups milk,

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup mashed potatos

2 pkgs yeast

1/4 cup water

3 eggs

1 tsp lemon flavoring

1 tsp cinnamon

8 cups flour (I presume self-rising, as I don't remember Mama cooking much with all-purpose)

Fry in three pounds shortening.

Glaze with 1 1/2 boxes powdered sugar

This is the recipe exactly as written on a dog-eared, grease-spotted index card. Obviously she left out some steps. It seems that I recall her making up the batter and letting it rise; and I'm guessing that she used 1/4 cup warm water to soak the yeast and activate it. I don't recall the lemon flavoring, nor the cinnamon, for that matter, but they wouldn't taste much in that volume of batter anyway.

She would roll out the batter in batches and cut the doughnuts out with a doughnut cutter, and would fry the holes separately because I begged for them.

I think the glaze was powdered sugar and milk, although it could have been powdered sugar and water. And it seems that this recipe made five or six dozen.

I remember vividly that they were the best doughnuts I ever ate, bar none.