Introduction: Glazed Doughnuts

By Expatcucina
About: An Italian living in China with a passion for cooking. I grew up in a picturesque town called Lecce nestled on the “heel of the boot”, Italy’s southern tip, between the Adriatic and Ionian se…

Ingredients (for about 8 doughnuts):

For the Dough

* 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp whole milk
* 1 tbsp sugar
* 1 package of instant yeast
* 1 whole egg (take it out of the fridge a while before starting)
* 1/2 cup butter
* 2 cups all purpose flour
* 1/8 tsp salt

For the Glaze

* 1 cup powdered sugar
* 1/4 cup milk or water
* 1/8 tsp vanilla extract
* 1/8 tsp salt

Step 1: Make the Dough

Heat up the milk till it’s warm. Add 1 tbsp of sugar. Stir to dissolve. Add the package of instant yeast, stir gently and let sit for about 10-15 min
Melt the butter. Slightly beat the egg and add it to the melted butter. Stir a few times.
Add the butter/egg mixture to the bowl of your electric mixer and turn it on. Pour in the freaky, bubbly yeast mixture keeping the mixer on. Now go ahead and add the flour with 1/2 cup increments. Turn off the mixture, scrape bowl and turn it on again. Mix for a good 15 min, until you have a very smooth dough.Slightly coat a bowl with some canola oil (I didn’t have any canola oil left so I’ve used corn oil). Add the dough, toss the dough to coat. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Step 2: Make the Doughnuts and Fry' Em Up!

This is the dough the following morning. (see pic)
Now roll it out into a 1/2-1/4 inch think disk. Using a 3 inch cutter, cut as many rounds as you can. Now using a 1/2 inch cutter, cut a hole in the center.
Cover the dough with tea towel and put it in a very warm place. (I’ve first heat up my oven, at 50 C, then turn it off and place the tray of doughnuts inside the oven. This way they had a warm – but not hot – place to raise)
See how they look after one hour (see pic)
Heat plenty of canola oil (I highly raccomend to use canola oil, and not corn oil…like I’ve done…my doughnut ended up having a strong oil flavor maybe because I’ve used the wrong type of oil. Learn from my mistakes!) Don’t let the oil get too hot, just around 180 C (375 F)

Drop in your doughnuts and cook about 1 min for each side. Place on paper towel to dry as much oil as possible.

Step 3: Glaze' Em Up!

While your doughnuts are cooling down. make the glaze my mixing all the ingredients together until completely smooth.

One by one, dip doughnuts into the glaze from both sides.
Place on a wire rack. Serve warm!