Donuts

Ever since I saw an episode of Chuck Day's Off on the Cooking Channel on donuts, I've been wanting to make donuts.

I promptly borrowed my neighbor's deep fat fryer (portable)and set up my limited counter space so I had a kind of assembly line going. The key to frying and not burning your apartment or house down is to have something like this set up so there's no question on the order in which things should proceed.



But what about the dough? Using this Chuck fellow's recipe, I was able to have wonderfully yeasty, but not overwhelmingly so, munchkin-sized donuts:



What's the recipe? Well you can google it, or I can just list it here:

Donut Extravaganza (courtesy of FoodNetwork Canada)

Ingredients
1 teaspoon active dry yeast (5 ml)
2 cups warm milk (approx. 105C) (500 ml)
1/2 cup granulated sugar (125 ml)
1/2 teaspoon salt (2 ml)
2 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (1,25 L)
1/2 cup butter
Oil for deep frying
Powdered sugar for garnish

Directions

In a food processor sprinkle yeast over the warm milk; stir to dissolve and let stand for 5 minutes. Add sugar, salt, beaten eggs and vanilla. Blend thoroughly. Add flour and then using a stand mixer with a dough hook, beat until smooth. You can also kneed the dough by hand for about 5 minutes. Add butter and blend until thick. Cover with plastic wrap and chill at least 4 hours or overnight.

Roll the dough out on a floured surface to 1/2-inch in thickness. Cut the dough into 1 inch-round doughnuts using a circular cookie cutter (or alternately, a can). Cover with a plastic wrap and let rest for an hour in a warm place. Deep fry at 360F (185C) for 1 to 1 and a half minutes until lightly browned on both sides. Drain on paper towels.



I made the chocolate caramel and lemon creme filling that the recipe came with, and when shared it was unanimous that the lemon creme was the favorite among the eaters.



There is nothing like warm, fresh donuts bursting with creme filling. It's actually a little obscene, come to think of it. Obscenely good that is!