How to Make Donuts

Donuts often come in many different shapes and sizes. This is the perfect cake to pamper yourself on a lazy weekend, or to get yourself into a cake-making hobby. The donuts sold at the store are delicious, the ones made at home are much better. Here are three distinctive donut recipes that will leave you craving. Let’s explore together!

Prep time (with the recipe for frying the cake and topping it with sugar): 2 hours, 30 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Total time: 2 hours, 45 minutes

Table of Contents

Ingredient

Ingredients for making donuts covered with sugar water

2 packs (about 700g) dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (40-45°C)
1½ cup warm milk
½ cup white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
⅓ cup shortening
5 cups all-purpose flour
1 liter vegetable oil for frying

Sugar water for cake :

⅓ cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1½ teaspoon vanilla
4 tablespoons hot water or as much as needed

Ingredients to make baked donuts covered with sugar water

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon nutmeg powder
¼ teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon salt
cup of milk
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon lamb fat (or 2 tablespoons melted butter)

Sugar water for cake :

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons of hot water
½ teaspoon almond essence

Ingredients for making Canadian-style fried donuts

½ cup warm water (or 45°C)
5 teaspoons dry yeast
1 pinch of white granulated sugar
1 cup warm milk (or 45°C)
⅓ cup white granulated sugar
1½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 beaten eggs
⅓ cup vegetable oil
5 cups whole wheat flour, divided
1 liter vegetable oil for frying

Cake sugar :

2 cups white granulated sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon powder, or to taste

Fried donuts covered with sugar water

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Stir the yeast into the warm water in a small bowl. You need to use warm water to activate the yeast; This will help the dough to float and be spongy. Activate yeast for 5 minutes.

Mix the yeast, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, lard, and 2 cups of flour with a whisk on low. Alternatively, you can use a wooden spoon and mix by hand, but make sure to mix the dry ingredients first, then separate the wet ingredients, and then mix both groups of ingredients together.

Add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, mixer on low. Mix until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl.

Knead the dough by hand and punch the dough for about 5 minutes until the dough is smooth but pliable.

Put the dough in a bowl with oil to let it rise. Cover the dough with a towel and wait for it to double in size (about 1 hour). When you can press your finger in and leave an indentation in the dough, the kneading is done.

Prepare a surface covered with flour to roll the dough into a thin piece of about 1.3cm. Cut the dough with a doughnut cutter, or use a knife to cut the dough into a donut shape.

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Incubate the dough pieces one more time until the dough has doubled in size (about 30-60 minutes). Place the dough in a tray and cover with a large clean towel.

Prepare the sugar water while the dough rises. This will be the familiar buttery syrup, unlike the popular Krispy Kreme sugar water in the US. Make sugar water as follows:

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Be careful not to burn the butter.
Pour butter into a bowl and stir in powdered sugar with vanilla essence until smooth.
Stir in more hot water, one tablespoon at a time, until the mixture is no longer thick but not as watery.

Heat oil in a pan to 175℃. Measure with a cooking thermometer for the correct temperature.

To make the cake without much oil, you would heat the oil over medium heat for 5 minutes, then slowly reduce the heat until the thermometer shows 175℃.

Carefully drop the dough pieces into the oil with a folding tongs or metal grit. Flip the dough over as it rises to the surface of the oil. Fry on both sides until golden brown.

Baked donuts topped with sugar

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Preheat oven to 165℃. Grease the donut mold with a little oil.

Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, cinnamon, and salt into a large bowl.

Stir in milk, eggs, vanilla, and lard before adding to dry ingredients. Mix the flour mixture until it is even.

Fill each cake pan 3/4 full. Donut dough will float when baked in the oven.

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Bake the donuts for about 8-10 minutes, until you can feel the elasticity to the touch. Wait for the cake to cool down before removing it from the mold.

Stir in the sugar water and pour over the cake. In a small bowl, stir together powdered sugar, hot water, and almond essence until the mixture is smooth and thick. Dip the still warm donut in the sugar water and wait for the excess sugar to drain.

Canadian-style donuts

Stir in yeast, warm water, and a pinch of sugar in a large bowl until frothy (about 5 minutes).

Stir in the milk, 1/3 cup sugar, salt, vanilla essence, egg, and 1/3 cup vegetable oil into the yeast mixture. Then stir until the sugar dissolves.

Mix in about 2.5 cups of whole wheat flour. Stir until the dough is so stiff that no more flour can be added. Put the dough on a floured surface and start kneading more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Continue kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes).

Form the dough into a large ball, place the dough in an oiled bowl and cover. Incubate the dough until it has doubled in size, this takes about 1 hour.

Place the dough ball on the flour-coated surface and knead again to shape. Divide the dough into small portions the size of a soup spoon.

Roll small, medium-sized balls of dough into long strands or ovals. You can use a rolling pin or just use your hands to do it. The dough will be about 0.6cm thick. In Canada, donuts are often referred to as “beaver tails”, so let your imagination run wild!

Rest the rolled dough in a towel as you shape the rest of the dough.

Heat oil in pan to 190℃. The amount of oil in the pan should be about 10-12cm high.

While the oil is heating, you will mix 2 cups of sugar with the cinnamon powder to prepare to sprinkle on the cake.

Gently drop the dough pieces into the oil pan, one at a time, frying for 1-2 minutes on each side, until golden brown. Then place the cake on the griddle.

Use a paper towel to absorb the oil on the donuts. Roll the still-warm cake through the sugar and cinnamon mixture.

Advice

Remember to evenly coat the flour on the surface used to handle the dough, because when the powder sticks to that surface, it will be difficult to remove.
If you don’t have vanilla essence to make sugar water, you can use lemon essence or lemon juice.

Warning

Be careful not to get burned by hot oil, pans, or hot metal.