Glazed Doughnuts!

Today we will making doughnuts. And I don't mean to brag, but they were some of the best doughnuts I have ever had, and this being the first time I have ever made them, I was quite proud. We start by weighing out 23 ounces of all-purpose flour.

Then we put 2 1/2 ounces of vegetable shortening into a small mixing bowl and poured some milk that was just hot enough to melt the shortening over the top. You can re heat on the stove is needed. 

While that melted we put 1/3 cups of warm water (95-105 degrees F) into a small bowl and added two packets of instant yeast. Mix together gently and let sit for five minutes.

Pour the yeast mixture into a large bowl. We prefer stainless steel.

Then added the milk/shortening mixture to the yeast mixture.

Beat two eggs.

Then add it to the yeast mixture.

Then you add 1/4 cup of sugar, and 1 1/2 tsp. of salt.

Next we add half the flour, also you would add the 1 tsp of freshly ground nutmeg, but we forgot and added it in later...

After all of the above ingredients are in the bowl, stir it all up.

Then if you forgot the nutmeg, this is where you would add it in...

The other half of the flour goes in now

You will need to use a little bit of muscle and stir in that flour.

If it is still really sticky you can add a little bit more.

Once you are done mixing the ingredients like my brutally awesome brother just got done doing flour your kneading surface liberally...

Then... once you have floured your chosen surface... turn out your dough and put in a very neat perfectly shaped and symmetrical pile... Te He He... not really just turn it out and knead it...

Now knead it until it is a smooth velvety dough mass... there shouldn't be any tears in the finished product... just smooth... think of Barry Manalow... You want the dough to be just as smooth as Barrys voice...

Then put some oil into another mixing bowl, about 1-1 1/2 tbsp. Then put the dough into it, cover it and place it in a warm spot. We turn on the oven and place it on the stove. Let rest until it has doubled in size. About 1 hour.

Now, you may want to punch the dough. Well, YOU ARE WRONG, gently press out the air.

Once the air is out, roll the dough to about 3/8 of an inch thick.

Sift some flour onto a couple baking sheets for when the doughnuts are cut you can place them onto it.

Once you or your partner in crime are done rolling out the dough and getting your baking sheets dusted you can cut out your doughnuts... We started by using a large soup cup to make the round circles you see above... get as many out of the first roll as possible so that you don't have to handle the dough more than necessary when rerolling it out...

Then find a smaller cutter, about the size of a silver dollar, and cut the holes out of the middle.

Place the doughnuts onto the floured baking sheets.

Cover those delicious rounds of dough, so they can take a little nap.

Once they are all covered up and tucked in all snug, let them rest for 30 minutes. 

They should grow a little bit more, as you can see here they have poofed up quite a bit.

Now for the frying. Start by lying some cooling racks upside down onto paper towel.

Then using two sticks, like skewers, we used chopsticks, place the doughnuts into vegetable oil that has been heated to 365 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Turn them like so when the bottom is a nice golden brown, about 45 seconds to a minute.

Remove them from the oil.

And place them on the cooling rack.

Now of course you used the excess dough to make doughnuts holes. 

This is how many doughnuts the recipe made. It can vary depending on how large you cut them. 

Now we are going to make the glaze... sugary delicioius glaze... start first by messuring out some powdered sugar... we doubled our batch because there werez a lot of doughnuts... but for a single batch you are going to need 2 cups of the sugar...



Take that powdered sugar and pour it into a stainless steel sauce pan... go for a shallower on than the one shown because its pretty hard to dip the doughnuts in the glaze with such a deep pan...

Now if you look at that red measuring cup on the stove you can see a little bit of milk in it... that is left over from me adding the `1/4 cup of milk that we didn't get a picture of but none the less you need to add it because it just wouldn't become a glaze if you didn't... also you see that in my right hand I am holding a teaspoon and in my left hand I am holding a bottle of pure vanilla extract... pour that extract into the measuring spoon and add it to the powdered sugar and milk... again it is 1 teaspoon...

Turn on your heat to medium low and mix well... cook the mixture until it is uniform and there are no lumps... stir frequently...



Now take a doughnut and dip it into the glaze, take extra caution because the glaze will be extremely hot, trust me.

Lift it out of the glaze and shake off the excess glaze and place onto a cookie sheet to cool. Repeat with all of the doughnuts.

Once you are done dipping your doughnuts throw the doughnut holes into the left over glaze... make sure that the glaze is still nice and melty...



If you can't tell we forgot to reheat the glaze and it got all clumpy like as seen above... but the method used to coat them is very complex so read carefully... once you have put the holes into the pan pick up the pan... becareful because the pan will  be hot... once you have picked up your pan swish it around till the holes are coated evenly...

And finally the pièce de résistance!  Delicious, fluffy, glazy, doughnuts. Now you could also put your own twist on how you top them, you could use honey, cinnomon sugar, or if you are a real man, you can put some bacon right on the top while the glaze is still warm.