Donuts

So do you prefer to spell them as doughnuts or donuts?

Anyway, our donut recipe below yields really soft and scrumptious donuts. There are a couple of things to go over before we get to it though. First, we’ve used instant yeast in the recipe. You can get it from most corner shops. However, active dried yeast would work too since the yeast gets combined with milk in step 3. And while on the topic of milk, it needs to be just a tad warm, nothing even remotely close to hot. Do check with your finger before using the milk as we don’t want to kill off the yeast.

We’ve also included recipes for a Cinnamon & Sugar coating and a Vanilla Glaze, which you can use to dress up your donuts. You can choose one or do both.

Makes: 12

Ingredients:

• 2 cups & 3 tbsp. flour
• 3 tbsp. sugar
• ¾ tsp. salt
• 1 egg
• ½ cup & 4 tbsp. warm milk
• 2 tbsp. melted butter (at room temperature)
• 2 ½ tsp. instant yeast
• 3 cups oil (for frying)

Instructions:

1. In a bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and salt and set aside.
2. In another bowl, mix together half a cup of warm milk with the egg, melted butter and yeast. Mix everything well and wait for a couple of minutes to see whether bubbles form in the mixture. If they do it means the yeast is all good and active.
3. Pour the egg and milk mixture into the flour mixture and mix everything together until you get a nice and somewhat sticky dough. You can use a spoon, spatula or even your fingers for this. If you find it a bit dry in places, add a little bit of milk; we added 4 tbsp. Also, if you are adding the extra milk, do it gradually so that you don’t get the mixture too wet accidentally. However, please don’t add anymore flour because a sticky dough means softer donuts.
4. Mix to the point where there are no large pieces of dough sticking to the bowl because a clean bowl means you’ve done a good job.
5. Now it’s time for kneading the dough. First, rub oil on the surface you are going to use for kneading. You can use a clean countertop, large cutting board or a large bowl. Then rub oil on your palms and fingers. Then knead the dough for a full 15 minutes. Don’t skimp out on this step. Using a timer might be a good idea. And once again, it’s going to be sticky, but don’t add any more flour.
6. Then rub a little bit of oil on a clean bowl and place the dough in it. Cover the bowl entirely with a clean cloth and leave it until the dough doubles in size. 1 ½ to 2 hours should do and we kept ours for 2.
7. Once the dough doubles in size, it’s time for rolling it. First, dust a surface with flour. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on the surface. Press down a couple of times to get rid of any air bubbles.
8. Then, using your rolling pin, roll the dough out. Aim for half an inch in thickness. If you don’t have a big enough surface to roll the dough all at once, you can divide it into two and roll out the halves separately.
9. Once you’ve rolled it out it’s time to cut the dough. If you’ve got a donut cutter, that’s great, use that, but if you don’t, use a mug to cut the big circle and a bottle cap to cut the donut hole.
10. Arrange the donuts on a lightly oiled plate or tray. Don’t keep them too close together as they could stick.
11. You are going to have some leftover dough after cutting the donuts. Make a ball from the leftover dough and roll in out, this time too to a thickness of half an inch. Cut the donuts as you did in step 9 and arrange them as it step 10. Do this until you run out of dough. Also, make a small ball which you’d use to check the temperature of the oil when frying.
12. That tray or plate with the donuts on it, cover it with a clean cloth and keep aside until the donuts double in size. 20 minutes should do it. If you poke the donut and the dent stays, they are ready for frying.
13. Heat the oil in a pot. Donuts need to float around when being fried and that’s why we are using 3 whole cups of oil. Use the extra ball to check whether the oil is hot enough. If it’s floating and bubbles are forming around it at a moderate speed, you are good to go.
14. Donuts fry fast, and it’s easier to fry them in batches. We did 2 at a time. So add your first batch to the oil. Handle them really gently as the donuts are going to be really soft at this point. The bottom is going to get done in about a minute, so when it’s done, flip to fry the other side. We are aiming to get these to a light golden colour.
15. When fried, remove from oil and place in a steel strainer to get the excess oil off. After around 5 minutes in the strainer, lay them flat over some tissue papers.
16. Repeat steps 14 and 15 until you run out of donuts. Keep the heat at a medium throughout the frying.

Cinnamon & Sugar

Ingredients:

• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 heaped tsp. ground cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Mix the sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl.
2. Place a couple of warm donuts in the sugar cinnamon mixture. Toss and turn to get them coated evenly and then remove them to a plate. Repeat with the other donuts until done. (You can also coat the donuts in melted butter before placing them in the sugar cinnamon mixture. This will really help the mixture stick to the donuts if the donuts are no longer warm too.)

Vanilla glaze

Ingredients:

• 2  cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla essence
• ½ tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. milk
• Food colouring (optional)

Instructions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until well combined. If you want the glaze to be thinner, just add a little bit more milk.
2. Dip warm donuts into the glaze and them remove them to a plate. You can glaze the whole donut or do it on one side.