Yeast Donut Recipe Will Make You Say, Krispy Who?

 

To make yeast donuts from scratch, you need time. Lots of time. It involves working with yeast so there's some inactive time you need to schedule in. 

My donut baking project started on a Friday night.  I followed a recipe by Alton Brown of Food Network fame. His original recipe is here, but I cut the recipe in half to lessen the casualties in case it was a total disaster.  I use some irregular calculations so it might help to have a kitchen scale handy or just halve the original recipe on your own. 

Heat 3/4 cup of milk over medium heat. You want it just warm enough to melt 1.25 ounces (about half of 1/3 cup) of vegetable shortening.  Pour the milk over the shortening in a separate bowl and mix until melted.  Set aside.  Let cool until lukewarm. 

In a small bowl, sprinkle one packet of instant yeast over 1/6 cup of warm water.  Dissolve for 5 minutes and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.  Add the milk and shortening mixture. 

Add 1 beaten egg, 1/8 cup sugar, 3/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, and 6 ounces of flour.  Mix, using the paddle attachment on low speed until flour is combined. Then increase to medium speed until mixture is well combined. Add 6 more ounces of flour, mixing on low and then medium. 

Switch to the dough hook and use medium speed for about 3-4 minutes. You want the dough to pull away from the bowl.  

Move the dough to an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap for an hour to rise. 

By the time I finished this step it was after 11pm and I was exhausted so I stuck the dough in the refrigerator and figured the more time it had to rise, the better.  I'm not really sure how truthful that is.
 

After morning sport activities and a whole lotta eating at a food truck event in the neighborhood, I was finally ready to finish my donut baking project. 

My dough has nicely increased in size! 

Now I was ready to roll out the dough. First, make sure your surface is well floured.  Be generous because the dough is sticky.  Roll out to about 3/8 inch thickness. 

Of course I didn't have any donut cutters, so I just looked around the kitchen.  I used a drinking glass to cut the donuts and a medicine cup to cut out the donut holes.  

Cover lightly with a tea towel. What the heck is a tea towel? I asked that too.  For those of you that aren't fancy schmancy, just use paper towels like I did.  It's to prevent the donut tops from drying out while you let them rise for 30 minutes. 

My babies have risen!!! Amaze balls. 

Alton instructs you to preheat the oil to 365 degrees, but luckily I have one of those fryers so I just plugged that baby in. 

Here we go!!!

I did one donut hole to get a feel for frying.  Fry each side for 45 seconds.  I used a timer to keep me on track.  I suggest if you are a newbie like me, to fry no more than 3 donut holes at a time and one donut at a time.  

After frying, move these beauties on a bed of paper towels to soak up the excess oil.

Let cool, then glaze, frost, sprinkle and EAT! 

To be perfectly honest, I was sure I was going to fail. But it turned out much better than anticipated.  Look!  Even the insides look like a donut!  The donut itself was very light and not too sweet.  I especially loved eating the donut holes. 

Okay, so the donut baking scratch has been itched.  It was a lot of work, but it gave me a great sense of accomplishment.  I'm taking this baby off my bucket list!  :)