Snow Day Donuts
The perfect donuts to share with friends on a snow day. Light, airy, fluffy and sweet. These donuts hit the spot with a cup of cocoa and are perfect to pile high with glaze and toppings.
Ingredients
Donut Dough
- 430 grams whole milk, warmed 1 3/4 cup, warmed (90-100 degrees F)
- 20 grams instant yeast 2 Tablespoons
- 110 grams granulated sugar 1/2 cup
- 10 grams salt 2 teaspoons
- 2 eggs about 100 grams
- 65 grams shortening, melted 1/3 cup, or unsalted butter
- 875 grams bread flour 5.5-6 cups flour, see recipe note
Frying
- 48 ounces vegetable oil shortening works well here too
Apple Fritters
- Scraps of Donut Dough
- 1 Granny Smith apple chopped
- 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
Powdered Sugar Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- ⅓ cup heavy cream or milk thinned to your liking
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Glaze
- ½ cup chocolate chips, melted semi-sweet is my favorite
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 2 teaspoons corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons water
- pinch of salt
Maple Glaze
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ⅓ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- ¼ teaspoon maple extract
- pinch of salt
Toppings
- various sprinkles
Instructions
Donut Dough
- Warm the milk (around 90-100 degrees F) and pour into a stand mixer. Add the yeast and sugar. Smell for the yeasty smell that tells you your yeast is active.
- Next add the salt, eggs and melted shortening (make sure it's not too hot--over 120 degrees--so it won't kill the yeast).
- Add most of the flour and turn the mixer on. Continue mixing while adding flour a little at a time until dough is tacky but clearing the sides of the bowl.
- Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes. Check out this post for tips on how to know when the dough is ready. Add extra flour a Tablespoon at a time if needed.
- Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover it and let it rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
- On a very lightly floured surface (you may not need any flour at all), dump the dough out and roll out until about 1/4 inch thick.
- Use a circle cutter or the top of a mason jar or bowl to cut out donuts. Cut out a small circle in the center of the donut and transfer to a baking sheet to rise.
- Cut out donut holes and make apple fritters with the donut scraps if desired (instructions for the apple fritters are in the blog post).
- Let rise again until puffy and almost doubled in size.
Frying Donuts
- Heat 48 ounces of oil in a large pot or skillet. Keep the temperature steady and around medium heat.
- Toss a small donut hole into the oil when you start to see bubbles and watch how long it takes the donut hole to fry. If it starts sizzling, bubbling and takes about 30-45 seconds to brown on one side before flipping it to the other side, your oil is ready to fry donuts in. If you add more oil, that will change the temperature of the oil and you will need to use another "donut hole tester."
- Fry the donuts a few at a time for about 2 minutes per side until golden brown.
- Remove donuts from the hot oil onto a baking rack. Let cool for a few minutes before dipping in glaze, toppings and sprinkles. Enjoy warm!
Glazing Donuts
- For the glaze, melt together the ingredients and whisk together. If the glaze hardens before or during the process warm it up and, thin out with a bit of milk.
Notes
Recipe Notes:
Flour: I like using bread flour for donuts. It gives them more elasticity and makes them airy and chewy. If you don't have bread flour, substitute all purpose flour.
*Donut dough should not be re-rolled to form more donuts. Instead use the scraps to make donut holes or apple fritters.
*Donuts should be glazed after they've had a few minutes to cool so the icing doesn't run right off them.
*Once the donuts are fried, the oil should not be poured down your sink drain. Instead, pour it into a container with a lid and dispose of it in the trash.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!