I have been obsessed with donuts lately. I made cake donuts awhile back but I was craving real fried donuts. I ordered a donut cutter and donut cook book from William Sonoma and a friend brought them when she came to visit.

I'm only so-so with yeast so I decided it would be a good idea to start with a simple recipe first and work my way up from there. I picked the brown sugar donut with orange and cinnamon glaze.

NOTE: These are cooked using extremely hot oil. Read all the directions carefully and make sure you have the proper equipment.

Brown Sugar Donuts

Ingredients

3/4 cup whole milk (I used soy)

3 tbs unsalted butter

3 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 package (2 1/2 tsp quick rise yeast)

2 large eggs

2 tsp orange zest

oil for frying (canola or rapeseed)

This is thicker glaze (more like icing). The one at the top is thinner.

1. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the milk and butter over heat, stirring until melted and 126 F/52 C and remove from the heat.

You need quick yeast not granules (this is the best I could find)

2. Fit a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. In the mixing bowl, combine 2 1/2 cups of the flour, the brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and yeast and beat on low speed to mix (I used my hand mixer).

Add the hot milk mixture, raise the speed to medium, and beat until well blended. Add the eggs and orange zest and beat until fully incorporated, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining 3/4 cup of flour and beat until well blended and smooth about 1 minute longer. The dough will be slightly sticky.

3. Scrape the dough into a large clean bowl and cover the dough with a clean kitchen towel. Let stand until the dough is well risen and doubles in size about 45 minutes.

4. Line one baking sheet with paper towels and one with baking paper brushed with oil.

5. Generously flour a work surface (and your rolling pin) and roll out the dough into a round about 1/2 inch thick using a donut cutter. Gather the scrap and repeat until all the dough is used (remember to re-flour your surface). Transfer the donuts and holes to the oiled paper.

Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise about 30 minutes.

6. Pour warm oil to a depth of 2 inches into a deep fryer or deep heavy saute pan and warm oil on medium high until it reaches 360 F/182 C (I used my candy thermometer and set my electric hob to about 5-6 and give it a few minutes to heat up. Too high and the temperature will rocket up).

I don't think they sell Canola Oil in the UK

Carefully lower 3 donuts into the hot oil and deep fry until golden dark brown about 1 minute on each side. Transfer to the towel lined banking sheet. Repeat to fry the remaining donuts and allow the oil to return to 360 F between batches (on a stove top it's difficult to maintain a 360 F temp. I used 340-360 F and it seemed to work fine).

I used tongs to lower and flip the donuts and a big serving spoon for the holes

This donut is perfectly cooked

Make sure to do a tester with one donut. This first one came out burnt!

Cinnamon Orange Glaze

Ingredients

2 cups icing sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp light corn syrup (I used golden syrup)

1 tsp orange zest

3-4 tbs hot water

 

1. Mix all ingredients into a medium bowl and stir in hot water. Glaze should be slightly thin. I did 3 tablespoons and it was more like icing and needed to be spread with a spatula. 4 tablespoons gave a nice glaze and I could dip the top of the donut in the glaze.

This was the thicker more frosting like glaze