Homemade Doughnuts or Donuts

There was a time when every other week of grocery shopping would include a donut purchase too. I used to love it. My favorite was the sugar glazed donut. It never made sense to me to make it at home because, Jacob was not a big doughnut fan.

It had been a while that we had bought any doughnuts and lil one was watching something on the tv and came up to me requesting to make doughnuts. Well, I thought why not make it for teatime snack. And soon we were kneading the dough for donuts. Lil one loves to help me while I am making something that includes kneading. So we did it together in the first half of the day. I waited for him to nap before I fry them, because I would need some piece of mind while I am doing some frying and to avoid any accidents I wanted him to be away from the kitchen. After he woke up, he came running, still a little dizzy from the sleep and said, "Mama, I am done napping, Can I get doughnuts? " It was so funny. But seriously, this guy never forgot about the doughnuts, though he was included only in the first stage of kneading.

We enjoyed our doughnuts during the tea time snack. And I guess I am gonna make it often given we have now two doughnut fans.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups of all purpose flour
2. 1 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast
3. 3 tbsp of granulated white sugar
4. 1/4 tsp of salt
5. 1/2 cup of lukewarm milk
6. 1 large egg, beaten
7. 2 tbsp of butter at room temperature
8. Oil for deep frying
9. 3/4 cup of granulated white sugar for rolling the doughnuts 

Method

• In a bowl, add the ingredients 1-4. Whisk it to let the ingredients distribute evenly.
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Add the beaten egg and lukewarm milk into the well. Mix it all well to form a dough. 
• Remove the dough on to the counter. Add the softened butter and knead it into the dough. Add flour very little by little, if the dough seems to be sticky. Knead it well to form a smooth, non sticky, soft and elastic dough. Grease the bowl and place the dough in it. Cling wrap the bowl and let it rest for about 2 hours or untill the dough doubles in size.
• After the dough has doubled up, remove it onto a lightly floured surface and punch it down. Flour a rolling pin and roll the dough about 1/2 inch thick. Cut out doughnuts either using a doughnut cutter or using two cookie cutters, one to cut out the dough as big as the doughnut you would need and the other cookie cutter to form the hole in the center. 
• Place the doughnuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and sprinkle it with flour to avoid the doughnuts from sticking on it. Once done with cutting out the doughnuts, cover it with a greased cling wrap and place it again in a warm place for about 30-45 minutes or untill it double in size.
• Heat the oil. To check if the oil is ready to fry the doughnuts, pinch out some dough and drop it in the oil. The dough should bubble and rise back to the surface of the oil as soon as it hits the bottom. If so, bring the heat to medium. Drop the doughnuts gently into the oil. Fry each side for about a minute or untill it browns. 
• Remove it onto a plate lined with paper towel. Let it cool a bit. While it is still warm, roll it in the bowl of sugar and place it on the serving plate.
• Serve it warm with some black coffee.
• This recipe yields 7-8 donuts. The donuts are good to be served warm, so double or half the recipe as per the number of people you are going to serve.

Tips

1. Do not drop the doughnuts into the oil which is not hot enough or very hot, else the donuts would either brown on the outside, or remain uncooked inside. Maintaining the same temperature all throughout the frying, helps in even cooking and browning of the donuts. 
2. You could use chocolate sauce or sugar glaze or have any topping of your choice for the doughnuts.

Recipe Courtesy: Adapted from Joy of Baking

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