Deep Fried Yeast Doughnuts

Like the corner shop, but better. Homemade doughnuts are made with a yeast dough and then fried until pillowy soft and puffy. Dipped in a simple homemade frosting. What's not to love?

Prep Time30

Cook Time10

Rising Time3

Total Time3 40

Course: Breakfast

Servings: doughnuts

Calories: 480kcal

Author: Katie

Equipment

Stand mixer
Doughnut cutter or 2 biscuit cutters

Ingredients

For the Doughnuts

1 ¼ cup milk whole or 2%
1 tablespoon instant or active dry yeast
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
4 ¾ -5 cups all-purpose flour
2 quarts canola oil or peanut oil for frying

Chocolate Icing

4 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chopped
2 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
¼ cup half and half
pinch salt
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Vanilla Icing

2 cups powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons half and half
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2-3 drops pink food coloring if desired or more or less for desired shade of pink
Rainbow sprinkles or any colored sprinkles desired

Instructions

Make the Doughnuts

Prep milk. Warm milk in microwave on low power for 1 minutes. (If using active dry yeast, you can mix it with the milk at this time if you prefer, or add with other ingredients.)
Mix all ingredients except flour. In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or with an electric mixer with a large bowl, beat the milk, yeast butter, sugar, eggs, salt, and vanilla.
Add flour. Continue to mix in flour one cup at a time until dough starts to pull from the sides of the bowl. Switch to a dough hook with a stand mixer and knead an additional 5-6 minutes or knead dough by hand.
First rise. Transfer dough to a greased large bowl, cover with plastic wrap sprayed with butter spray, and let rise 1 to 1 ½ hours.
Roll out and cut. Roll dough onto a floured surface until dough is approximately ½ inch thick. )If you don’t have a doughnut cutter, use a 3 ½ inch circular cutter to cut the outside circles and a 1-inch cutter in the center for the inside circles for the doughnut holes.) Cut the outside circles as close together as possible and place circles of dough on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Combine and roll out scraps of dough until all dough is used. The final doughnuts will not look quite as nice, but most imperfections will be covered by the icing.
Second rise. Cover cookie sheets with a cotton towel and let rise for 1 to ½ hours. 15 minutes before doughnuts are done rising, pour oil in a deep pot until about 2 inches deep. Bring oil to a temperature of 360 degrees, using a thermometer to monitor temperature.
Prep for cooling. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a paper towel and place a cooling rack on top. Place cookie sheet near your pan with oil.
Fry. Cut parchment paper under risen donuts in squares. Using a spatula, lift the donut with the parchment paper underneath into hot oil. Place two donuts or several donut holes in the oil to cook at once. Cook donuts for one minute on one side, flip using a strainer spoon or slotted spoon, and cook for 45 seconds on the other side. Donut holes cook a little faster. Remove the parchment paper with tongs and discard while the donuts cook, it will just float and is safe in the oil. Use a strainer spoon to place the cooked donuts onto the prepared cooling rack. Cook all the donuts and let cool. Prepare icing while donuts cool.

Make the Chocolate Icing (Optional)

Melt ingredients on stovetop. Pour an inch of water into a small pot (double boiler) and bring to a simmer over low heat. Place a double boiler insert pot or heat-proof bowl over simmering water, making sure the bottom of the pot or bowl doesn’t touch the water. Combine all chocolate icing ingredients in a bowl or double boiler pot and whisk periodically until chocolate and butter are melted and all ingredients are mixed together. Keep warm on low heat setting.
Dip. When doughnuts have cooled, hold each individually and dip it into chocolate until the inner hole has been filled with chocolate. Swivel a little back and forth and lift out, turning the doughnut a little as you raise it out of the chocolate to ensure it is is completely covered in glaze. You can redip if necessary.
Sprinkle and let set. Place the doughnuts back on cooling rack and immediately sprinkle with desired sprinkles. Let cool on cooling rack. Eat immediately or place in a covered container. Eat right away.
Vanilla Icing (Optional)
Place powdered sugar, half and half, vanilla, and salt in a small to medium bowl and whisk until ingredients are combined. Add a little more half and half if needed if too thick. Add food coloring if desired.
Dip and garnish. Using the same process as the chocolate icing, dip cooled donuts into icing, turn, and place back on cooling rack. Sprinkle immediately with sprinkles.

Notes

Watch your oil temperature! You want to make sure they cook all the way through without turning excessively brown. 360 turned out to be the perfect temperature and I would use a thermometer to watch the temperature. If it gets warmer than 360 I would only cook the first side for 45 seconds instead of a minute. With 1 minute on one side and 45 seconds on the other side at 360 they were always cooked through.

Depending on the humidity and measuring styles for the flour and liquids, the 4 ¾ c - 5 c of flour is an estimate for the amount needed before the dough starts to release from the sides of the bowl when being mixed.

Nutrition