Maple Glazed Donuts and Cinnamon-Sugar Donuts & Donut Holes

It took me a while to get this Donut recipe right. I did make Donuts before. These Old-Fashioned Sour Cream Donuts from Lara Ferroni's Donuts Book Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Home to be exactly but I never made raised Donuts before... Why? Probably because yeast based doughs kind of scare me although I actually never messed one up and we always make our own Pizza dough. Plus I'm terribly impatient and I hate that the dough needs so much time to rise. When I crave for a Donut, I want a Donut NOW! But, well, we don't live near a Dunkin Donut store. And Krispy Kreme Dougnuts or Tim Horton's do not have stores in Germany. :-( Some bakery chains in Germany to sell Donuts. Or rather, dough rings that are supposed to be donuts but are not even close to Donuts. Really! They taste liked fried plaster and give me a terrible heartburn. So, making Donuts myself is the only option if I want Donuts. And these Donuts are worth the wait! They are so GOOD! So amazingly DELICIOUS!



Some months ago I stumbled over a video of Donna Hay on the Australian TV where she made Donuts. Donna's Delicious Donuts. (Unfortunately I can't find the link anymore.) But as I said it took me a while to figure it out correctly as the measurement seemed to be a little bit off. I also noticed that makes a difference if you make small or large donuts. Or maybe I fried the small ones just a tad too long!? Frying time and temperature really make a difference. So take some time to figure things out for yourself. (And maybe make some more dough for your first batch of donuts to experiment with frying time and temperature.) While the small Donuts tasted more cake-like the larger Donuts tasted like original, store bought Donuts I only had in the US. Only soooo much better!

Donuts & Donut Holes
makes 15 small Donuts or 6 lage Donuts

1 tsp Active Dry Yeast
235 g All-purpose Flour
2 1/2 tbsp Sugar
1 tsp Water, lukewarm
60 ml Milk, lukewarm
25 g/1 tbsp Butter, softed or melted
1 Egg
1/2 tsp Vanilla
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1 Pinch Salt
Vegetable Oil for frying

1Mix flour, yeast and sugar with vanilla, cinnamon and salt in the bowl of your kitchen machine. 2Heat milk and water until lukewarm (which is about 37° C/99° F). If your butter is right from the fridge and cold melt it with the milk and water. But make sure the milk and butter mixture is not hot anymore when you add it to the dry ingredients. 3Pour milk-water mixture over dry ingredients. Add egg. 4Mix everything with the dough hook on slow speed in your kitchen machine until smooth. Continue mixing until the dough starts to come off from the sides of the bowl and becomes less sticky. (Depending on the size of the egg you used and the flour you might have to add another tbsp of flour if your dough is too sticky. Or another tsp of milk if your dough is too dry.) 5Cover the bowl with damp kitchen towel and set aside in a warm place until the dough has doubled iits volume - for about 1 1/2 hours. 6Knead dough again for about 1 minute and roll it out on a slightly floured surface to about 1/2 inch/1 cm thick. Cut Donuts with cookie or donut cutter. If you don't have a donut cutter you can also use a tumble with about 3 inch diameter and a small shot glass with 1 inch diameter for the holes. Place Donuts and Donut Holes on slightly dusted baking sheet about 2 inches apart and cover with plastic wrap. Let the donuts proof again for about 30 to 45 minutes. 7Heat about 2 inches of oil in a deep skillet or heavy-bottomed pot with a thermometer over medium-high heat until oil reaches 360° F. You can test if the oil is hot enough if you stick a (dry!) wooden skewer, chop stick or the handle of a wooden cooking spoon into the oil. If the oil starts forming lots of tiny bubbles around the stick, then the oil is hot enough for frying. 8Carefully add one or more Donut (depending on the size of your pot) with wooden spoon or metal spatula in the hot oil. Fry for about 30 to 60 seconds per side, until Donut or Donut Hole turns golden. Be careful about the frying time! It makes a huge difference in taste if the Donuts are fried too long. And if they are fried too short the dough is still uncooked in the middle...maybe it takes some time to figure out the perfect frying time for the size of your donuts. 9Remove Donut from oil and place on paper towel to drain. Let the Donuts drain and cool off for some minutes but place them still warm in Cinnamon-Sugar mixture or Maple glaze. Cover with sugar or Maple Glaze from both sides and put on wire rack to cool off completely. Or eat still warm ;-)



Maple Glaze
100 g Icing Sugar
4 tbsp Milk
3 tbsp Organic Maple Syrup

Place icing sugar, milk and maple syrup in a medium sized bowl and mix ingredients until smooth. The maple Glaze should be pourable, not spreadable. If the glaze is too thick add some more milk or maple syrup. If the glaze is too thin add some more icing sugar. To glaze Donuts, put one Donut at a time in the bowl with the glaze and turn over with two forks. Make sure all sides are covered with glaze. Remove Doughnut with forks from the bowl and place on colling rack to let the glaze dry.


Cinnamon-Sugar Dounuts
If you like your Doughnuts dusted with Cinnamon-Sugar, mix 100 g sugar with 1 to 2 tsp of cinnamon powder in a medium-sized bowl. Put still warm Donuts into bowl with Cinnmamon-Sugar mixture and make sure to dip all sides of the Donuts into the sugar mixture. To cover your Donut Holes with Cinnamon and Sugar you can also put the sugar mixture in a small brown paper bag. Add donuts holes and toss carefully for 30 seconds to cover donuts completely with cinnamon and sugar.

Trust me, this raised Donut recipe looks far more complicated than it really is. I know, yeast based doughs can be tricky and require some patience but these home-made donuts are so worth it. And if you own a deep fat fryer the frying process gets even easier. Doesn't it? (Anyone out there with a deep fryer who can report? We don't own one because I'm not a fan of deep fried foods and I always prefer some oven-roasted potatoes over French Fries...)

In the two pictures above you see the first batch of donuts I made. The small ones that turned out kind of cake-ey as I mentioned above. I covered the donut holes with cinnamon and sugar while I frosted the donuts itself with an easy and quick to make Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
100 g Cream Cheese
50 g Icing Sugar
2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Place cream cheese, siging sugar, lemon juice and vanilla extract in small bowl and mix until smooth. Spread frosting with small spatula or knife on top of the completely cooled Donuts.