Doughnuts

I love doughnuts but I have never made them myself before because I think the ones at the store are perfectly fine. However this changed when I went on a spree of dissecting store-bought food ingredient lists. If it came in a package, I read the ingredients. Of course this probably doubled the amount of time I spent in the grocery store, but I found it pretty interesting. There were lots of things I have never heard of, some I couldn't even pronounce. I decided then that I would make some doughnuts with simple ingredients I could pronounce.

Cake Doughnuts from here

makes about 16 doughnuts*

4 cups flour

2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

2 eggs

1.25 c sugar

1 t vanilla

2/3 c milk

1/4 c butter, melted

oil or shortening for frying

toppings, like confectioner's sugar, chocolate glaze, powdered sugar icing

*I halved this recipe and it worked well

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Put the eggs, sugar, and vanilla in a large bowl and beat until thick (3 minutes on medium speed with electric mixer). In small bowl stir together milk and melted butter.

Next, put the flour mixture and the milk mixture in the large bowl, alternating between the two and stirring in after each addition. Cover the dough and refrigerate for 2-4 hours. I waited for 3 hours.

Generously flour your work surface. Roll the dough to 1/2 inch thickness and cut out doughnuts. 

Fry in deep hot oil for a few minutes, until doughnuts are nicely browned. Flip them once. The oil should be at 365F (185C). Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. To make doughnut holes, put the centers in the oil and fry.

Let them cool a little and then coat with confectioner's sugar, cinnamon sugar, or put chocolate glaze on top if you would like. I just melted some semisweet chocolate and put on top of the doughnuts.

I've never fried anything before, so I think these came out good for my first try. They were nice and hearty, really great when still slightly warm.