Sometimes plain is the best – especially when it comes to these Glazed Doughnuts! A yeast raised doughnut is covered in the perfect doughnut glaze.
Doughnuts, donuts – I’m not quite sure which is the proper spelling, but either way – they are delicious!!
I’ve been really bad about participating in all of the food events lately, but when I saw Helen at Tartelette and Peabody at Culinary Concoctions by Peabody announce a doughnut event, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get into the kitchen and get the deep fryer out!
I am a huge doughnut fan. When I was in high school, my parents owned a sporting goods store, and right next door was a Dunkin Donuts. My metabolism was definitely better back then, because donuts were a regular occurrence. There was another donut shop in the town I grew up in called Spudnuts (which unfortunately is gone now) that sold doughnuts made with a potato dough. They were my absolute favorite – especially the ones with cherry frosting. I have never seen another doughnut shop that sells cherry frosted doughnuts. I miss those days!! These days, I don’t get many doughnuts. We do have a Krispy Kreme – and I love those – but my husband doesn’t like them. And supermarket doughnuts just don’t make the cut! So this was a perfect opportunity to test out my doughnut making skills.
I actually had a tasty sounding ricotta doughnut recipe all chosen out, but when I told my husband, he got a really disappointed look on his face. And then he asked me if I could make him some regular, yeast doughnuts. I couldn’t resist him, so my plan was to make a half batch of each. But after this first batch, we had so many doughnuts that I knew we wouldn’t be able to eat them all plus another kind as well! So the ricotta doughnuts will have to wait for another day, which is fine – because I could eat doughnuts every day!
I ended up choosing out a recipe from one of my cookbooks that sounded good. It is a little different from the normal yeast doughnuts, as it is made with buttermilk and there are no eggs in them. I found a double heart cookie cutter in my drawer, and thought it would be the perfect doughnut – a Valentine’s Day doughnut!! Unfortunately, only one of the heart shaped doughnuts turned out. While these doughnuts were delicious (and we both ate way too many of them!), the dough was very difficult to work with. It was really sticky and I had a hard time keeping the shapes. They were some very deformed looking doughnuts!! But I was able to salvage a few of them for pictures luckily. The only change I made to the recipe was that I used lime zest instead of lemon zest. While I’m sure I could have left the zest out completely, I really liked what it added. It was enough flavor for you to notice something was there, but not enough to make the doughnut seem flavored. The glaze I used was an Alton Brown recipe that I found online – and it was perfect!! It tasted just like any doughnut glaze you would find at a bakery.
I have a feeling that this is going to be one of the tastiest round ups in food blogging history – so make sure to check out Helen and Peabody’s blogs on the 15th!
Glazed Doughnuts
Ingredients
Doughnuts:
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 cup milk heated to lukewarm
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup buttermilk heated to lukewarm
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 ounces 1/2 stick unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces, softened
- Vegetable or peanut oil for frying
Glaze:
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
Instructions
Doughnuts:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, mix the yeast and 1/2 cup of the lukewarm milk. Let stand for 5 minutes, then stir in 1 tablespoon of the sugar and 1/2 cup of the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let it stand at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes, until bubbles form.
- Reheat the remaining 1/2 cup milk to lukewarm. Stir in the milk, buttermilk, nutmeg, zest, and remaining 1/2 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar. Place the remaining flour and the salt on top of the sponge. Put the bowl on the stand mixer, and using the paddle attachment, mix on low speed for 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and change to the dough hook. Increase the speed to medium and knead the dough for 5 minutes. The dough should be tacky.
- Turn the speed to medium-low and add the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Mix for 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth. Scrape down the sides of the bowl again and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled – 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
- When the dough has doubled, turn it out onto a slightly floured surface. Roll into a 10-inch square and wrap with plastic wrap. Place it in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Take out of the freezer, and using doughnut cutter, cut out the doughnuts. Dip the cutter in flour each time to make cutting easier. Place the doughnuts on a sheet pan covered with parchment paper. Cover with lightly sprayed plastic wrap and let rise for 30 minutes.
- In a deep heavy skillet or deep saucepan fitted with a deep-fry thermometer (or a deep fryer) heat oil to 350F. Cut the parchment that the doughnuts are sitting on into squares, each square holding a doughnut or a doughnut hole. Carefully slide 4 doughnuts off their parchment into the oil. After 30 seconds, turn the doughnuts over, cook for 1 minute, then flip it back over a cook for an additional 30 seconds. Remove from oil and let them drain on paper towels. Once they are cool enough to handle, dip them in the prepared glaze (recipe below). Repeat with the remaining doughnuts and doughnut holes.
Glaze:
- Combine milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan and heat over low heat until warm.
- Sift confectioners’ sugar into milk mixture. Whisk slowly, until well combined.
- Remove the glaze from the heat and set over a bowl of warm water.
- Dip doughnuts into the glaze, 1 at a time, and set on a draining rack placed in a half sheet pan for 5 minutes before serving.
Thomas says
Peanut Oil is a horrible oil to fry doughnuts. Absolutely disgusting.
Spend a few extra pennies an ounce to buy rice bran oil if you insist on a vegetable oil.
You won't have that horrible peanut oil after taste in your mouth for hours.
The best oil for doughnuts is the original frying oils from antiquity — lard and beef tallow.
Not the crap lard sold in supermarkets, get yourself some pork fat/beef fat and low temperature render it. Butchers will often give it to you free, my supermarkets charges 15 cents per pound for nice beef fat trimmings.
I will guarantee you'll be ruined for life — you'll never fry a doughnut in vegetable oil again.
I know, I know, it's like asking you to fry your doughnuts in an agent orange and nuclear waste combination.
Do yourself a favor and read up on the subject.
Animal fats have been condemned by Crisco type manufacturers for over 100 years, it now being proven it was all a big lie. Proctor and Gamble even sold their flagship Crisco product because of litigation over all the heart disease the trans fats caused.
Jim says
The heart shape is really clever… I'm definitely going to have to try these out! Thanks for the post!
Cheryl says
Oh the glaze on them, oh the glaze. I just love the glaze.
Miri says
Those look so adorable, their beautiful glow makes me wanna bite right into one of them!
Cakelaw says
These are really cute donuts, and the glaze really sets them off.
Vineela says
Hi,
Love your glaze on doughnuts.
Vineela
Pixie says
Such cute heart doughuts! yummy
Annina says
They look soo delicious! Do you have this recipe with gramms instead cups?! I think I will try my first doughnuts next week…omg.. delicous!!
Tracy says
Those look yummy! Actually, kind of like heart shaped Krispy Kremes! I think your husband is all wet — KKs are yummy. Actually, I’ve never met a donut I didn’t like…
stacielk says
Love the heart donut, so cute! Even though you had problems with the dough, I’m sure it was all worth it!
Jerri says
wow. those donuts look just like krispy kremes. and i love the heart shapes.
kellypea says
Talk about metabolism. Feh. Me, too. I remember being able to eat all kinds of things without an expanding waistline. Your doughnuts look wonderful! I tried to glaze a few of mine, and they just didn’t look classic like yours. YUM.
Kristen says
Oh my… those looks so good my teeth hurt!
PheMom says
These look great! How did they keep the next day? The Good Eats recipe was good on day one, but they were starting to get kind of stale today – still good though.
eatme_delicious says
Mmm they look delicious! Too bad the dough was sticky and a bit difficult to work with, but I’m sure the doughnuts were delicious whatever shape they turned out!
Dhanggit says
im a donut monster like you too 🙂 i specially love dunkin donut, too bad they dont have one here in france 🙁 your entry looks really lovely..and the heart-shape its very timely..