Holy crap, it’s been a while. It’s been extremely busy around here…big life changes. Updates to come.
I’ve been recording the show “Donut Showdown,” although my husband couldn’t care less for it. Have you seen it? I mean, come on. You get to watch people make donuts, aka a wheel of crack. Watching the show makes me want to just jump into a pile of donuts, glaze and all.
Today is also the day I finally feel better. You see, working around students who have no sense of cleanliness means you are prone to getting sick. All the time. Two weeks of sickness made me really appreciate hand sanitizer and Mucinex. As well as Kleenex. I polished off two boxes worth. Overflowing garbage can? Check. Bright red nose? OH yes.
So since I felt better today, I thought it would be the perfect time to make donuts. I remember my boss at my first job at an Italian bakery would punch out these donuts out of a huge sheet of dough. It was quite impressive…I would have lost a finger somehow. Now, frying is my deepest, darkest fear. Is it just me, or is anyone else afraid that they might fry off their finger?
I also figured glazed would be the way to go. I’ve never been a fan of chocolate glazed donuts or filled donuts. But glazed donuts? Give it to me! Right meow. We also bought WAY too many strawberries yesterday and I figured I would make a strawberry glaze as well…and it was a good decision.
OH…the reason I call these “ugly” is because well…look at them! I didn’t have a donut cutter so I resorted to using my multi-sized biscuit cutters…meaning the hole in the center turned out to be way too large. But, regardless, these turned out perfect.
As for the glaze, it is an incredibly easy step for these donuts. I imagine any fruit could be used in a glaze, as well as any flavoring like any extracts or powders.
Time: 2.5 hours
Makes about 10-12 donuts
Ingredients:
3+ cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup hot water
3 tablespoons butter
1 packet active yeast
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon salt
(*I used a bread machine to knead my dough, but if you need to do it by hand, you can follow these steps.)
1. In a small bowl, combine the yeast, hot water, and honey. Mix and allow to proof (all foamy and bubbly).
2. In a small pot, bring your milk, butter, and salt to a simmer. Once you see the milk steaming, turn it off.
3. In a large bowl, place 1 cup of your flour and pour in your hot milk mixture. Mix carefully.
4. Add your yeast mixture and 1 cup of flour. Mix thoroughly.
5. Add your remaining flour. You want the dough to be soft and workable. If it’s too tough or dry, add some more warm milk. If it’s too sticky, add some more flour.
6. Knead until the dough is really smooth. This will probably take about 8-10 minutes.
7. Place in a bowl and allow to double in size. A great way to have dough rise is to warm up your oven (then turn it off!) and place your bowl (covered with a towel) inside.
8. For the glaze, mix 3:1 powdered sugar and whole milk. You want the mixture to be quite ‘goopy.’ I completely forgot to measure here so…sorry! Also, at this point if you want to use a fruit, pulverize your fruit into a liquid and add enough powdered sugar to make it goopy as well. Set aside.
9. Roll out your dough to about 1/2″ thick. Cut out your dough, place on parchment paper, and allow to rise for about 30-45 minutes.
10. Heat up your frying oil over medium heat. I used about 3-4 cups of vegetable oil. The way I tell if my oil is ready is by taking a wooden spoon or chopstick and sticking into the oil to the bottom of the pan. If it starts bubbling, it’s ready.
11. Carefully put in your donut. You will see it turning golden brown. At this point, flip your donut. I used wooden chopsticks to fry and remove my donuts…easy and disposable!
12. Remove from the oil and allow to cool off on a cooling rack.
13. Once cooled (it will be slightly warm to the touch), dip your donuts away in your glaze! Place back on the cooling rack and allow to sit for about 10 minutes. This will allow the glaze to be soaked up by the fried dough.
14. Enjoy!
Kimchi and Kogi 