Homemade Doughnuts

My family got this doughnut recipe from a family friend and it is our favorite! We rarely make homemade doughnuts because they are a little labor intensive, but every time we do make them I am reminded that the hard work is so worth it because these are delicious!

Start by mixing 3 1/2 cups o flour, 1 cup of granulated sugar, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg in a medium sized mixing bowl.

In a small bowl or measuring cup, mix together the wet ingredients - 2 tablespoons of shortening, 2 eggs and 3/4 cup of milk.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. This dough is pretty sticky, so I recommend using quite a bit of flour when you roll out the dough.

Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. You can roll out your dough a little thinner or thicker, depending on how thin/thick you want the final doughnuts to be. I roll out 1/3 of the dough at a time.

 

My family found our doughnut cookie cutter at a little kitchen shop in the States, but it's similar to this one from Williams-Sonoma.

Make sure the raw doughnuts are always kept on a floured surface because they stick easily! My family has always cooked the doughnut holes, but if you don't want the doughnut holes, you could just roll back out with your next section of dough!

This is not a great picture of the deep fryer that I used, but it's a Black & Decker one that my family has had for a while. Fill your deep fryer with vegetable oil and heat the oil to 375°F. The cage in my fryer fits 4 large doughnuts or 16 doughnut holes for each batch.

Place the raw doughnuts into the cage and let them cook for 2 minutes on one side, flip them over using tongs and cook them for another minute.

When the doughnuts are done cooking, let each batch cool between some paper towel. The paper towel helps to absorb all the extra oil. I briefly mentioned using tongs before, but I highly recommend using tongs because everything about the deep fryer is HOT!! I would not recommend touching the doughnuts with bare hands until they are completely cooled.

I seriously tried to keep track of how many doughnuts this recipe made, but because they are made in batches (and it probably takes about 30-40 minutes to get through all the doughnuts) it's hard to not eat them as you go. I think this recipe makes about 40-50 doughnuts in total, but that is a total estimation! Next time I make these, I will keep track and update this!

These doughnuts are delicious alone, but my family loves to dip them! We dip them in plain granulated sugar, icing sugar, cinnamon & sugar, cocoa & sugar and some have even ventured to putting nutella on their doughnuts!

DOUGHNUTS:
ingredients:
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk 

1. Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. Mix the vegetable shortening, eggs and milk in a small mixing bowl or measuring cup.
3. Pour the wet ingredient mixture into the dry ingredient bowl and mix until just combined.
4. Generously flour the work surface and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough (I start with 1/3 of the dough). Using a doughnut cookie cutter, cut out the doughnuts and lay them on a floured surface until you are ready to cook them.
5. Fill a deep fryer with vegetable oil and heat it to 375°F.
6. Place the doughnuts into the deep fryer cage and cook them for 2 minutes, flip them to their other side and cook them for another 1 minute.
7. Let doughnuts cool between paper towel.

Let me know if you have any questions!
Kenzie