Glazed Doughnut Craving

Friday night we were snowed in for the first time all year. At 9:00pm ( prime snacking hour at our house) Brandon announces " I could really go for a glazed doughnut". Great,probably not a fresh glazed doughnut in a 5 mile radius. Not to mention it's a blizzard outside. Unfortunately it didn't hit me until about an hour later that I used to make glazed doughnuts years ago. So at 10:00pm my mission began...
Here is the recipe I use. If I remember correctly ( and I usually don't) I found it in the Detroit Free Press. It makes about 2 dozen doughnuts.

Glazed Doughnuts

1  .25 oz packet active dry yeast

2   Tbsp warm water

3/4 cup lukewarm milk

1/4 cup white sugar

1 tsp salt

1 egg

2 Tbsp & 2 tsp shortening

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 cups vegetable oil for frying

Glaze :

1/3 cup butter

2 cups confectioners sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

4 Tbsp hot water

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let sit until it bubbles and becomes frothy. Takes about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix together yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and flour. Mix a few minutes at low speed until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Knead dough for about 5 minutes or until smooth. I flour my hands and counter pretty heavily for this step. You can add more flour if necessary to get the elastic consistancy ( but not too much flour). 

Place dough in a greased bowl, cover, and set in a warm place.

I heat my oven to 200 degrees F. , turn off the heat, and put the bowl in the oven with the door closed to speed up this process.

When dough has doubled turn it out on a floured surface , roll to a bout 1/2 inch thick, and cut with a biscuit cutter or in strips if you prefer to make twists. I then use a smaller cutter to cut out the "hole" . Save these and fry them also.

Let doughnuts sit , covered, on a piece of greased wax paper until they double in size ( I do this in my preheated 200 degree oven also to speed things up.)

Glaze

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, stir in confectioners sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in 1 Tbsp of water at a time until it reached a rather thin ( but not watery )  consistancy.

Heat oil in either a deep fryer or a skillet to 350 degrees, I heat it on medium-high and then reduce to medium to fry the doughnuts.

Slide doughnuts into the oil and once they float ( this takes less than a minute ) flip them. Both sides should be a light golden brown.

Remove from oil, place on a wire drying rack. I place my rack over one of the sink basins. Then dip the warm doughnuts into the glaze and set back on the wire cooling rack to let the excess glaze drip off. 

Enjoy!

By the time I had these finished it was almost midnight, but that didn't stop Brandon from eating a few.

These are best fresh out of the fryer. They tend to get heavier as time goes on but I have been told that they are still excellent warmed up with some ice cream on top the next day.

With this recipe I have also not cut out the doughnut hole and after frying filled with jelly or custard. I have made chocolate icing, starwberry icing, and lemon icing. There are a lot of vartiations you can experiment with.

After trying these for the 1st time Brandon has vowed to never eat a store bought doughnut again.

They seem labor intensive, but they aren't bad at all...give ' em a shot ( but hopefully before 10pm ) .