Homemade Doughnuts

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 20 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 18
• 1 tablespoon dry active yeast
• 1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating doughnuts
• 3 1/4 cups flour, plus more for rolling and shaping
• 1 egg
• 4 tablespoons softened butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• vegetable oil, canola oil or lard (for frying)

Recipe

• 1 dissolve yeast in 1 cup of warm water. let sit about 5 minutes until the yeast foams a bit (so you know it's active).
• 2 beat in 2 cups of the flour, sugar, egg, butter, and salt. add the remaining 1 1/4 cup flour 1/4 cup at a time until the dough starts pulling away from the sides of the bowl. cover bowl with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel and let sit in a warm place until the dough doubles in bulk, about 2 hours. alternatively, you can chill the dough overnight.
• 3 punch down the dough and turn it onto a floured surface. roll dough to about 1/2-inch thick and use a large round biscuit cutter (a drinking glass works too) to cut circles and a smaller round cutter to cut out the holes. obviously, if you are lucky enough to be in possession of a doughnut cutter, go ahead and use that!
• 4 cover doughnuts (and holes) and let rise until puffy looking, about 2 hours. alternatively, you can put the cut doughnuts on floured baking sheets, cover, and chill the cut dough overnight.
• 5 heat an inch or two of oil or lard in a large heavy pot to 350 - 375*f. set a cooling rack over a baking sheet and put them near the pot. put about a cup of sugar in a medium bowl and have that handy as well.
• 6 add 3 or 4 doughnuts (or 8 to 10 doughnut holes) to the oil. they should sizzle immediately as you add them to the fat. cook doughnuts until light brown on one side. use tongs or a slotted spoon to flip the doughnuts, cook until the second side is light brown. transfer cooked doughnuts to cooling rack and let cool/drain for a few minutes. dip doughnuts into sugar to coat. repeat with remaining doughnuts. serve warm if at all possible.
• 7 makes about 18 homemade doughnuts and doughnut holes.