Saturday, November 07, 2009

In the kitchen: Donuts

Now my momma (and my grandma and me) are all those kind of bakers. You know those ones who don't exactly know the amounts of things that are put in. It's more about how the dough feels and all that. But I'll do my best in posting amounts! :)

Now this is also a BIG recipe. It makes 10 dozen donuts. So you can use it to make donuts, long johns, cinnamon buns, dinner buns, or scones. Or you can cut it in half (which I do often!)

2 liters of warm water (like warm like the bath warm)
1 pound melted margarine (or use 2 cups oil)
8 eggs
3 Tbsp Salt
3 Tbsp instant yeast (quick rising)
2 cup sugar
Flour (? a lot hahahaha)

Put your water and salt in a large bowl and stir to let the salt dissolve.
And set it aside.
In a different bowl mix the eggs and sugar until frosty.
Combine into the biggest bowl. Add 1/2 of the melted margarine (or oil).
Stir well.
Start adding flour until it gets hard to stir with a spoon. Like it isn't dry yet... but it looks lumpy with flour (does that make sense?) It's sloppy and super sticky.
Sprinkle yeast on top and stir it in.
Now start adding flour until the dough comes together and you can handle it. Knead it a bit with your hands. (If you are using a Bosch or a kitchen-aid it will start to pull away from the sides.) It should be a nice clean dough that you poke your hand into and it just leaves a dent that pops back out. (make sense?)
Turn the dough over so the smooth side is on the top. Then pour the rest of the margarine (or oil) over top and grease the sides of the bowl with it too.
Let rise in a warm spot until doubled.
Punch down once.
Let rise in a warm spot again.
Once doubled again use it.

Now to make it into donuts, you lay the dough out onto the counter squishing it with your hands until is in a rectangle shape (like you would for cinnamon buns) then cut out your donuts (I have a rolling pin that is a donut cutter outer. So I lay my dough out and then roll it over it and it cuts out constant donuts. It's cool. And it was my mom's. It takes me like 3 minutes to cut out 80 donuts (which is what I did this morning.)

Deep fry them in hot oil (I always use the stove but you could use a deep fryer).
Then drain them.
As soon as you can touch them without burning your hands, drop them into a glaze. (my glaze is just icing sugar with vanilla and some warm water til it is runny. I have no idea the amounts..... just til it looks right. hahahaha)
Then let them drain again.
Then eat them. :)

The more often you make this dough the easier it will be. It's a bit second nature to me as I used to make this dough weekly to make buns and whatever else. I did it on baking mondays. It sounds like a lot of work but it's really not.

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MSBH Challenge 25 (Banana Carmel Cake), 26 (Tart Dough), 27 (Lemon Curd), 28 (Pate A Choux), 29 (Cream puffs), 30 (Chocolate Eclairs), 31 (Vanilla Whipped Cream), 32 (Pastry Cream).

Hmm that's a lot of stuff...... but a lot of them went together. As in the lemon curd and tart became a french lemon tart. The Pate A Choux is the dough that starts cream puffs and chocolate eclairs and the vanilla whipped cream and pastry cream fill them.

And a funny side note to all this baking? I've lost a little weight lately. hahahaha. Kind of ironic eh?

16 comments:

Lisa C said...

Yay, I'm so excited to try this - I love a good multi-purpose recipe. I'm kinda like you with the whole "no exact measurements" thing, but I lean a little toward ratios and that helps.

Susie said...

ughhh I guess I'm not a real baker, like a ball park figure for how much flour come on. You know I want the donuts bad if I am willing to try this ol recipe out. I'll keep ya posted

KellyLady said...

yummmmmm. Definitely going to try this once I'm healthy enough not to cough up a lung into the dough!

Amy said...

Ahh, a donut diet, sounds perfect.
Thanks for sharing the recipe!

Anonymous said...

Have you made them with whole wheat flour? Sounds so yummy!

Lora said...

Thanks Rhonda, I have printed out the recipe and I'm going to give it a try.

Val said...

It was a good thing I came by on Saturday and took some of those Donuts off your hands...I'm never gonna eat a Safeway donut again. I'm ruined!

Dirk & Marie said...

Oh thank you for posting this! I can't wait to try!

Mike and Jodi said...

Thanks Rhonda! I remember your donuts for when we were out in NS! Yummy.

Three questions for you. I've never known to bake the donuts in the oven. Only heard of deep frying. How long do you bake them and at what temperature? We don't have a deep fryer so the oven would work out for me. :)

Also - Where did you get your rolling pin donut cutter combo? Very interesting. Maybe that could go on my Christmas wish list!

Mike and Jodi said...

Okay - so I just realized that it was
"stove" not "oven"! Never mind about that question. Ha! But I'm still interested in that rolling pin. wink wink

nichole said...

Homemade donuts! I must try some.

Julie Spackman said...

ooooo donut recipe! yummm :)

The first time I ever tried to make home-made donuts, I didn't realize that hot oil doesn't boil... and our friends that were over said put a few drops of water in to see if it sizzles - when he said that, I happened to have in my hand at that exact moment a measuring cup full of water. I think it was a 1/4 cup. And I went "okay!" and dropped it in... and our apartment filled with smoke and we had to go hang outside for awhile. :)

Jess said...

You are inspiring cooking like crazy and losing weight. Amazing!!!

Heather M. said...

seriously, you amaze me. in my (or jonathan's) dreams, i'm making donuts. ha!

Connie Nichol said...

I want to live closer to you. ;-)

mindy said...

I think I'll try these. What's your baking challenge?