Fluffy Glazed Doughnuts
This week we're celebrating the kids going back to school...and Friday is National Glazed Doughnut Day. The two days might not be totally related (but we like to think they are). This is our chef's recipe for fluffy glazed doughnuts that melt in your mouth and are amazing served warm. They are one of our Texas Pure Milling masterpiece recipes.
Fluffy Yeast Raised Doughnuts
2 ¼ cups lukewarm water
1/3 cup sugar 1 Tbsp. Red Star Active Dry Yeast 6 cups Texas Pure Milling All Purpose Flour 1 tsp. salt
6-8 cups vegetable oil for frying
Vanilla Glaze:
4 cups powdered sugar
½ cup hot water
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
Equipment:
Large 2-gallon bowl
Mixing spoons
measuring cups
Deep (3-4 inch) 12 inch Dutch oven or Heavy skillet for frying
3-inch biscuit cutter or doughnut cutter
extra flour for counter top
rolling pin
Directions:
Combine the water, sugar and yeast and allow yeast to start to bubble, about 5 minutes. Add 3-4 cups flour and salt. Stir well. Add remaining flour until dough is soft, but not sticky. Knead 3-5 minutes by hand until smooth. Do not knead as long as you normally would for bread, it will be a nice loose dough. Form into a ball. Place in clean large two-gallon bowl. Cover and allow to raise until double in size, about 2 hours. Expel air from dough and transfer to a well-floured counter top.
Gently roll out the dough until it is 1/2 inch thick, checking frequently that the dough is not sticking to the counter top. Firmly press cutter into the dough. In between each cutting, if you lightly dip the cutter in flour, it won't stick.
Place doughnuts on a lightly oiled sheet pan. Allow them to raise 40-50 minutes, until very fluffy.
Prepare the whole frying area. First, make sure you have a pan lined with clean paper towels. Now, fill the Dutch oven or large heavy deep frying pan with the 6-8 cups of vegetable oil. Heat your oil to 365° F (measure the temperature using a candy thermometer). Very gently transfer the doughnuts to the oil one by one with a heat-proof slotted metal spatula.
Brown on one side about 3 minutes. Very gently turn over.
We use a slotted spoon and always turn the doughnut over so if it splashed it would splash away from you. Cook 2-3 more minutes. A 12 inch frying pan can fry 8 of the doughnuts at a time. Place the cooked doughnuts on the clean paper towels to cool or a cooling rack.
This recipe yields 36 small 2 inch doughnuts or 2 dozen 3 inch doughnuts.
To make the Glaze: Combine the glaze ingredients in a medium size bowl until smooth.
Place the finished warm doughnuts on a cooling rack. Drizzle with glaze to coat.
