We don’t make doughnuts but once a year. This year, we decided to try out a yeast dough. So the night before, I threw the dough together quickly and let it sit in the fridge to wait until morning. These turned out to be wonderful. Just make sure to keep the oil at the right temp to prevent burning.

I got these from the Pioneer Woman’s website, but wanted to write about them so that I can remember next year how I did it. If you want the play by play of how to do these, look them up on her website.

Doughnuts

1-1/8 cup whole milk, warm
1/4 cup sugar
2-1/4 tsp Active Dry Yeast
2 whole eggs, beaten
1-1/4 stick butter, melted
4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt

The night before-
Warm up the milk in the microwave to about 110°F in a microwave safe bowl or pyrex. Add sugar to milk and stir to dissolve. Put yeast mixing bowl and pour the warm milk mixture over. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Melt butter in pyrex. Don’t over heat.  Add beaten eggs to cooled melted butter carefully and whisk until mixed well. Pour egg mixture into yeast and mix on low for a couple of minutes to thoroughly combine. Add small amounts of flour the flour into the bowl at a time. Stop mixer and scrap down and then let the mixer knead for another 5 minutes. Scrap down again and mix another 30 seconds or so. Turn off mixer and let dough rest for 10 minutes. Transfer dough after the 10 minutes to a lightly oiled bowl. Lightly turn dough to coat, then cover the bowl and place in refridgerator for at least 8 hours to over night.

Day of-
When ready to make doughnuts, remove bowl from the fridge and turn dough out onto a floured surface or silpat. Roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Use a 3 inch cutter, and cut as many rounds as you can. Then roll out the remaining dough and cut again. Cut holes in each round with smaller cutter. Place doughnuts on a very floury baking sheet. Put enough flour otherwise they will stick when transfering to the oil. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. (I used a warm oven as my proofing box). Doughnuts should be puffier and appear airy. The picture below are the doughnuts right after I cut them. In the future, I will need more flour underneath them.

Heat vegetable oil until 375°F. Don’t let it get too hot or doughnuts will burn. Do one or two doughnuts at a time and allow them to cook 1 minute each side. Remove doughnuts from oil with a slotted spoon. If you are glazing the doughnuts, place on papertowels to drain off oil. I rolled my doughnuts immediately in a sugar cinnamon mixture and them set them on paper towels to dry. A glaze would  be great too.

I served these with a little sipping chocolate as a treat on Christmas morning. Similar to what one would do with a churro.