Homemade Glazed Doughnuts

By AzWench

Making good, raised doughnuts at home is not as easy as you’d think. For years (yes, you heard me) I tried in vain to make the perfect homemade doughnut—not just a fat, bready wad of fried dough with a sweet glaze, but a delicate, light ring of love with a slightly crispy surface and a wonderful flavor. Like “those doughtnuts”, and I don’t mean Krispy Kreme.

I mean the doughnuts sold at the tiny doughnut dive in our small town. They’re the best raised doughnuts in the world. The shop is owned by an older resident of our town whose temperament can range from kind, welcoming, and gracious to a complete mirror of a certain soup purveyor in a certain long-running series starring a certain man with the last name of Seinfeld. Think I’m kidding? The doughnut guy in our town once made my summer babysitter, fresh-faced and home from college, cry. Stuck working cattle, I called her one hot July morning to beg her to run to the doughnut shop and bring the working crew a few dozen. The doughnut man didn’t like her request, for some reason—I think he took it personally that she wanted to buy so many at a time after he’d worked so hard, and so early, to make them—and by the time she left the store she was in tears. She immediately called me and said, “For the sake of my emotional health, I don’t think I can buy doughnuts for you anymore.” And I chuckled, knowing exactly what she was talking about.

Ingredients

• Doughnuts
• 1-1/8 cup Whole Milk, Warm
• 1/4 cups Sugar
• 2-1/4 teaspoons (one Package) Instant Or Active Dry Yeast
• 2 whole Large Eggs, Beaten
• 1-1/4 stick Unsalted Butter, melted
• 4 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/4 teaspoons Salt
• Canola Oil
• GLAZE
• 3 cups Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoons Salt
• 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla
• 1/2 cups Cold Water Or Milk

Preparation

Step 1

To Make the Dough:

1. Make sure milk is nice and warm, but not overly hot.
2. Add sugar to milk. Stir to dissolve.
3. Add yeast into a small bowl.
4. Pour milk/sugar mixture over yeast. Stir gently, then let sit for 10 minutes.
5. Melt butter in separate bowl until butter is almost melted. Stir to finish melting so butter won’t be overly hot.
6. Add beaten eggs to melted butter, stirring constantly to make sure the butter’s not too hot for the eggs.
7. Add the egg/butter mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the dough hook.
8. With the mixer on 3 or medium-low speed, pour in the yeast mixture.
9. Allow the dough hook to stir this mixture for a couple of minutes, making sure it’s thoroughly combined.
10. With the mixer still going, add helpings of the flour mixture in 1/4 to 1/2 cup increments until all the flour is gone.
11. Stop the mixer, scrape the bowl, then turn the mixer on the same speed for five whole minutes.
12. After five minutes, stop the mixer and scrape the bottom of the bowl.
13. Turn on the mixer for 30 seconds.
14. Turn off the mixer and allow the dough to sit in the bowl undisturbed for 10 minutes.
15. After 10 minutes, transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Toss the dough to coat, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place straight in the fridge.
16. Refrigerate dough for at least 8 hours, or overnight.

To Make the Doughnuts:

1. Remove bowl from fridge and turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface.
2. Roll out to 1/4 to 1/3-inch thickness.
3. Using a 3-inch cutter, cut as many rounds as you can, then roll out remaining dough and cut as much as you can, etc.
4. Cut holes out of each round using a 1 1/2-inch cutter.
5. Place both doughnuts and holes on a floured baking sheet.
6. Cover with large tea towel and place in a warm place in your kitchen; my kitchen is very drafty, so I have to briefly warm the griddle, then turn it off and set the sheets on top to keep warm.
7. Allow doughnuts to rise undisturbed for at least 1 hour; 1 hour 15 minutes if necessary. Doughuts should be visibly puffier and appear to be airy.

To Fry the Dougnuts

1. Heat plenty of canola oil in a large pot until the temperature reaches 375 to 380 degrees—do not let it get hotter than 380 degrees! 375 is ideal; keep the thermometer in the pan to continually monitor.
2. One to two at a time, gently grab doughnuts and ease them into the hot oil. Allow them to cook 1 minute on each side; they will brown very quickly.
3. Remove doughnuts from the oil with a slotted spoon, allowing all oil to drip off.
4. Place doughnut immediately on several layers of paper towels. Count to five, then flip it over onto a clean part of the paper towels. Count to five, then flip it over again; the purpose, obviously, is to drain as much grease as possible before it soaks into the doughnut.
5. Repeat with remaining doughnuts and holes. The holes will cook more quickly than the doughnuts; about 30 seconds per side.
6. Allow doughnuts to slightly cool.

To Glaze

1. Mix all glaze ingredients in a bowl until completely smooth.
2. One by one, dip doughnuts into the glaze until halfway submerged. (Note: completely submerge doughnut holes, then remove with slotted spoon.)
4. Remove from glaze, then turn right side up on a cooling rack over a cookie sheet (to catch dripping glaze.)
5. Serve warm if possible, or room temperature.