Home Made Doughnuts - Yum!

Recently, Smeagol and Maestro decided to earn some extra money by selling home made muffins and doughnuts. The math and methods for selling are in this post. I posted about it on Facebook and have had a request or two for the recipe. Here is the recipe - remember that you can use the food processor to make them quickly and easily for a good Saturday-morning treat!

This recipe is from the Reader's Digest: Down Home Cooking cookbook - with one or two of my own adjustments, of course! (I just can't seem to leave any recipe entirely alone!) If you see ** in the recipe, it's a spot where I didn't quite follow the method as instructed. If you want to know what is "really" supposed to be done, let me know in the comments and I'll pass it along!

Home-made Doughnuts

Ingredients:

3 1/2 c. flour (I use bread flour for almost everything like this)

4 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. each baking soda, salt and ground nutmeg (I used cardamom though because I don't care for nutmeg)

2 large eggs

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

1 c. sugar

3/4 c. buttermilk (we used milk with 1 Tbsp. vinegar instead to great success)

The items you cannot see in the back are the lemon juice, vinegar, milk, and canola oil

Glaze Ingredients:

1/2 c. each honey, sugar and water

1/4 c. lemon juice

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

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Tools:

Food Processor

Tablespoon

Teaspoon

Dry Measuring Cup

Wet Measuring Cup

Doughnut cutter - pictured later

Chopsticks

Deep Frying Pan or Wok

Instructions:

1. Mix together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and nutmeg/cardamom together in your food processor** Transfer the flour to a bowl to the side. Use the food processor to mix up the eggs, butter and sugar until light yellow and frothy.

2. Add the flour mixture and the buttermilk to the egg mixture in the food processor.** Whiz it together until a soft dough is formed. Divide the dough into two parts, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour. (We made our dough on Friday night and cooked them Saturday morning.)

3. On a lightly-floured surface (and you'll want that flour, it's very sticky!) roll out each piece of dough into a 1/2-inch thick circle. Using a doughnut cutter, cut out the dough

into doughnuts and holes, re-rolling the scraps (but not the holes) as you go. The hole in the center of the doughnut is essential for them to cook properly, trust me!

4. In a deep skillet or a wok, heat 1-inch of vegetable or canola oil over medium high heat until it is around 360 degrees F. Cook the doughnuts and holes in batches, turning to

keep them from burning, until they are golden - I had to use a lower heat and longer cook time to keep them from burning on the outside and being raw on the inside still. Drain them on paper towels or a cooling rack. ** I use a pair of hardwood chopsticks to turn them - tongs were too strong and broke them apart!

5. To make the glaze: In a small saucepan, bring all of the ingredients to a simmer over

moderately high heat. Cook, uncovered, for about 5 minutes then remove from the heat

and keep warm. Use a fork (ahem - hardwood chopsticks are better if you know how to use them!) to dip the donuts into the glaze and then transfer to a rack to cool.

- These doughnuts are equally tasty without the glaze, but have a crunchier outside. The glaze is light and helps soften them up just a bit. They are VERY good dipped in coffee either way!