Old Fashioned Doughnuts

I've been on a bit of a quest lately. Doughnuts are not an item that I've perfected. I've made a plethora of cakes and cookies, but doughnuts have remained outside the edge of my realm. I did dabble a bit in pastries, making Orange Cream Doughnuts and Chocolate Eclairs. I'm working with a friend on a food project and it's made me realize my baking has reached a level of complacency in many ways; I'm making variations of items I am familiar with but not working outside of my comfort zone. 

Part of the reason I avoid making doughnuts is that I love them so much. You see, for years I've qualified myself as a doughnut and hamburger connoisseur. I adore a quality burger and am a total doughnut snob. For the calorie bomb that is a doughnut to interest me, it has to be good. We're lucky here in that we have a couple of high quality doughnut spots, but the best ones I've had were while traveling. But all the talk lately has had me wondering, what's a doughnut recipe I can rely on if I want to make them on the fly? Without some experimentation, that question cannot be answered.

The thing with the internet is that everyone who posts a recipe is going to consider theirs the best. So I can't trust the poster. And while reviews are good, even those can be biased. Frankly, I want to know myself how challenging the recipe is and how mind blowing the result turns out.

I started out using some of my cookbooks as a source. I have some fantastic cookbooks at my disposal, many of which I inherited from my amazing cook of a grandmother when she passed away. She was a wonder in the kitchen; she made everything taste good. So this recipe is coming from a Good Housekeeping cookbook that has illustrations and everything; it's a great book for anyone looking to get into cooking or baking. I landed on Old-fashioned Doughnuts, changing a couple of ingredients slightly but keeping the basics there - none of my traditional adding of nutmeg and cinnamon this time.

This is a straightforward batter for sure. One of those "dump everything together" recipes. I added half of the flour, and then the sugar, buttermilk, eggs, butter, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to my stand mixing bowl and mixed it on low until it was smooth and well-combined, then beat the mixture on medium for about a minute.

I slowly added the remaining flour to the mix and wound up with what looked similar to cookie batter. I covered the bowl and stuck it in the fridge to rest. 

Due to time constrictions, I let the dough rest overnight, but as long as it rests an hour it should be firmed up and ready to roll out. I rolled the dough onto my pastry mat with a nice layer of flour under it.

I used a pastry cutter to cut out the doughnuts, then moved the cut pieces to a pastry mat. The dough was fairly easy to move, but still pretty soft, so keeping the doughnut perfectly round wasn't easy. I recommend using a pastry cutter if you have it to lift the doughnut off the pastry board.

I had plenty of doughnuts and doughnut holes and fried them in batches for about 3 minutes on each side.

Once they were lightly browned, I let the cooked doughnuts drain a bit on a paper towel.

I opted to spoon the glaze over the doughnuts once they were cooled down, creating a lovely little cake doughnut.

And just like that, cake doughnuts were born.

What's the verdict? So I immediately dipped one of the holes into the glaze as soon as they were cool enough, and thought to myself that I'd never had a doughnut like that. These were not the light yeast doughnuts I was familiar with, and not the dense sour cream doughnuts either. This was right in the middle, density-wise, like a cake cooked in the fryer.

The recipe itself called for using powdered sugar to coat these, and I can see why after glazing. These aren't really hard enough on the outside (and by hard I mean crispy on the outside like a yeast doughnut). They were softened up by day's end and quite soggy by day two (which is about standard for a doughnut, honestly). But, they were tasty, and I liked the texture. It is not quite the recipe dreams are made of, but, for a no-rise, cakey doughnut, this is a great pick.

Old Fashioned Doughnuts Recipe

Ingredients:

For the doughnuts:
3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup buttermilk

2 eggs

2 tablespoons softened butter or shortening

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

2-3 cups canola oil (or frying oil of choice)

For the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/3 cup half and half or whole milk

Instructions:

In a stand mixing bowl, add 1 1/2 cups of the flour, sugar, buttermilk, eggs, butter, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix on low speed until combined. Scrape batter down from the sides of the bowl. Beat for 1 minute, until smooth. Gradually add remaining flour. Once well combined, cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 1 hour to firm the dough up. After resting, roll dough out until it is about 1/2" thick on a well-floured surface. Use biscuit cutters to cut doughnuts, cutting them out as close together as possible so as to get the most out of the dough. Place cut dough onto parchment lined pan. Heat canola oil in a heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven on medium-high heat to 375 degrees F, using a thermometer if possible. Add about 4 doughnuts at a time to the oil and fry for about 2-3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Remove from oil and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Allow to cool slightly before glazing.

To make the glaze, whisk together powdered sugar and half and half. To thicken, add more powdered sugar. To thin, add more half and half.

To glaze doughnuts, either dip doughnuts in glaze mixture or spoon over the top.

adapted from good housekeeping illustrated cookbook recipe