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
- 1 3/4 cup milk, warmed to the temperature of baby's bath water
- 2 Tablespoons instant yeast
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup shortening, melted or unsalted butter
- 5 1/2 - 6 cups all purpose flour
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
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
Powdered Sugar Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup heavy cream or milk thinned to your liking
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Glaze
- 1/2 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
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon maple extract
- pinch of salt
Toppings
- various sprinkles
Instructions
Donut Dough
- Warm the milk (it should be the temperature of a baby's bath water) 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 so it won't kill the yeast).
- Add one cup of flour and turn the mixer on. Continue mixing while adding flour a cup at a time until you've added 5 cups of flour total. Reserve the last cup of flour to add as needed.
- Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes until it is slightly tacky to touch but clears the sides of the bowl. Check out this post for tips on how to know when the dough is ready. Add extra flour as needed (you may need up to 6 cups of flour but you may also be fine with 5 1/2 cups).
- 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, thin out with a bit of water.
Notes
Recipe Notes:
*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.