This was my first attempt at making doughnuts. I am tentative about frying stuff because I'm always scared of oil flying out of the pan and burning me. Before I fried anything I did some research on the smoking points of different oils, which actually scared me to death because it made me scared of setting the oil on fire. Which of course didn't happen. I used my cast iron dutch oven and my candy thermometer to regulate the temperature of the oil.
I actually made two batches of doughnuts. The first one (the ones with the white sprinkles) I made exactly the way the recipe said to. Except I used lard to fry them, because I had heard lard would make them crispier and less greasy. Unfortunately those did not turn out very well. The lard did not work out at all. It left a thin residue on all the doughnuts which left them tasting very lard-y.
So for my second batch I used corn oil - which worked much better. I also changed the flavor of the glaze.
The original recipe is from A Beautiful Mess for Grapefruit Donuts. The grapefruit flavor did not come through very well, in the glaze or the donuts, so for the second batch I made the glaze chai flavored, which tasted much better in my opinion. I also made donut-holes instead of whole donuts, this was just my decision, you can make traditional donuts if you desire.
Homemade Donuts with Chai Glaze
recipe adapted from here
Donuts
- 1 cup milk
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup, plus 2 TB butter
- 4 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- oil for frying
Glaze
- 2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 tsp ground cardamom
- pinch of ground cinnamon
- pinch of ground cloves
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- optional sprinkles
Warm the milk in the microwave for 1 minute, and stir in sugar until it dissolves.
Pour in the yeast and let it proof for 5-10 minutes.
Melt butter in microwave until it's just nearly melted. Whisk in the eggs and pour egg-mixture into the bowl of your mixer with a dough hook attachment turned on low (I use a hand mixer but a stand mixer would work as well). Pour in the yeast-milk mixture. Add in flour one cup at a time followed by the salt. Now turn up mixer to medium and let it knead the dough for 8-10 minutes. Put the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight.
The next day roll out your dough and cut the donuts while the dough is still cold. You can use whatever you like to cut your shapes, I actually used a narrow glass cup to cut my donut holes. Lay donuts on a baking sheet, cover with a towel, and allow to rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours. (I had to used my oven because my kitchen was too cold. Warm up your oven to 200 and then turn it off.)
Pour enough oil in your pot or dutch oven so that your donuts have room to float (a few inches deep). You want your oil at 375 degrees, so use a candy thermometer. The donuts should cook 30-45 seconds on each side, or until golden brown, and then remove them onto a bed of paper towels.
For the glaze whisk all the ingredients together (water, powdered sugar and spices) until a smooth glaze is formed. Dip the cooled donuts in the glaze and set on a wire rack with parchment paper beneath. Before the glaze hardens, add the sprinkles or they won't stick.
Enjoy!
The chai glaze on the doughnuts look awesome!
faye