Tuesday Dinners

Step by Step Directions

Activate your yeast. This is a fancy way of saying warm up some milk and then add your sugar and yeast. Most baking blogs will say to warm the milk up to 100-110 degrees, but just make sure it’s warm (not hot), because who has a thermometer for milk?

Mix in your salt, butter and eggs. I know in the recipe card above it says to use melted butter. I meant to, but I forgot, so I’m a hypocrite, my apologies.

Add in your flour. Add 75-80% of the total, do a round of mixing, and then slowly add the rest. You want a somewhat sticky consistency, but not so sticky that you are still sticking to the side of the bowl. If you feel like you’re getting too dry just add a splash of water until you like the consistency again.

How do you make the fancy ball of dough? You cheat. Pick up the ball of dough and then working clockwise pull one of the “hours” on your clock face towards the center of the dough ball. Then flip the dough ball over. The outside should look smooth, and the flaps should all be on the underside hidden from view.

Cover your dough and then let it rest for either an hour or overnight.

Ideally after the rest your dough should have “doubled” in size.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll it flat. The shape doesn’t matter, but you want an even thickness throughout. I don’t have any advice for how thick to make the dough, just remember that it’s going rest and rise again, and as soon as you begin to fry it it’s going to expand as well.

When it comes to cutting your dough you have a lot of options. Donut cutters are a thing, but I use a plastic glass for the outside and then a shot glass for the interior. (You didn’t hear it from me, but cookie cutters are fun, although Santa in donut form doesn’t really turn out). Make sure to put your weight on your cutting instrument and then twist to get all the parts of dough severed from the main body of dough.

I think the holes that are cut are as good if not better than any circular donut, but I know that’s a hot take. If you need more convincing then some additional benefits include:

• Test donuts for your oil later
• No one is going to be counting how many donut holes you make, you can skim them off the top
• They’re perfectly poppable, the donut hole is smaller than my mouth hole and that’s the ideal size
• If you mess up one of the donut holes it’s not as big of a deal as if you mess up a larger donut

Once you run out of room for cutting your donuts gather up all the loose dough, reroll it out and cut more, repeat until you run out of dough.

Cover your donuts and let rest for another hour.

If I were you I would use this time to plan out where you’re going to put the donuts are they are fried, remember they are going to get bigger. And no matter how careful you are there is going to be excess oil. My method is usually to find another baking tray if you have one and cover it in paper towel. This shouldn’t take the entire hour, but it’s free time to figure it out.

Heat your oil on the stove, you’re going to need less oil than you think because this dough floats, so it doesn’t really matter how deep it is.

A good check to make sure your oil is hot enough is to run your fingers under some water and then flick it into your oil (not a lot of water, just a couple of drops), if it’s hot enough the water should cause the oil to sputter.

Fry your donuts in batches, remember that when you add objects to oil that the oil will cool, so you’ll need to watch the donuts to make sure they cook. I find 30-45 seconds on a side is usually the right amount of time before you can flip them.

Some tips:

• Donuts will continue to darken after you remove them from the oil, so take them out a little before you think the color is perfect.
• Different size donuts will fry at different rates, so if you’re mixing sizes be prepared to keep an eye on them
• To make sure donuts are cooked all the way through you can tap the top of them, they should sound hollow.
• To remember the order you added the donuts I like to work clockwise, starting at the 12 position, this allows for a more consistent cooking time.
• To prevent splashes of hot oil don’t drop your dough from a height, put one end of the dough into the oil and then drop it at an angle.

Transfer the donuts to somewhere where they can cool and the excess oil can drip off and then all you have to do is enjoy.

Alright, fine. Here’s the top glazes that I use for the donuts.

• Cinnamon Sugar
  • Pretty simple, melt a little bit of butter and then mix in sugar and cinnamon, roll donuts around in mixture
• Chocolate
  • I haven’t found an easier method than melting some chocolate chips in a bowl, then dipping the donuts in
• Vanilla Glaze
  • Melt a little bit of butter with some vanilla extract and then add milk and powdered sugar, if you want it to be thicker than add more powdered sugar, if you want it to be runnier than add more milk or butter

Variations

• Make only donut holes
• Make long johns
• Don’t cut out the holes
• Make your favorite filling
• Make your own glaze with your favorite flavor

Unsolicited Feedback

• BN: Why didn’t we just go to Dunkin’?
• John F. Kennedy: Ich bin ein Berliner!
• LW: That’s a real donut.