These Homemade Glazed Doughnuts are fluffy, soft, and a doughnut-lovers dream. Just 11 ingredients and completely made from scratch. With simple trick just 45 minutes rising time. Watch detailed step-by-step photos and video to see how to make fluffy fried donuts.
What you will learn:
How to make…
- donuts from scratch
- donut holes
- a donut glaze
How to make donuts from scratch
Have you ever wondered how to make fluffy donuts from scratch? Frying doughnuts at home is not as hard as you might think. You need just a couple of basic ingredients and thanks to the detailed step-by-step tutorial, you will end up with addictively and super fluffy glazed donuts.
Let’s start with combining lukewarm milk, sugar, and active dry yeast. The easiest way to make the dough is to use a stand mixer attached with a whisk attachment which is later replaced by a dough hook. Make sure that the milk is warm to touch but not hot. If the milk is hot, it kills the yeast, and the donuts won’t rise at all. I warm mine for about 20-30 seconds in the microwave. Depending on your microwave you may need to warm it longer or shorter.
Let stand for 5-10 minutes until the yeast gets foamy on the surface. This is also the test to see if your yeast is still active or already dead. If nothing happens after 10 minutes, your yeast is most likely too old. In this case, stop here, buy new yeast and start again from the beginning. It’s not worth proceeding with dead yeast because your donuts won’t rise. And who wants to eat donuts which are not fluffy?
The surface should look like this after 5-10 minutes:
Then add eggs, melted butter, and salt and whisk to combine.
Replace whisk attachment with dough hook and add the flour. Start with 3+3/4 cups of flour and knead dough for 4-5 minutes on medium-high speed that it comes together. If you use measuring cups instead of a kitchen scale, spoon and level the flour. Always! 1 cup packed flour equals 1+1/2 cups spooned and leveled flour. Too much flour makes your donuts dry.
The dough should start coming off the sides of the bowl after 4-5 minutes of kneading. If the dough does not start coming off the sides of the bowl and is very liquid and sticky, turn the speed down to low and add more flour as needed, 1 tbsp at the time. Depending on the humidity and temperature in your house, you will need between 3+3/4 and 4 cups of flour (450-480g).
Then knead another 5-10 minutes on medium-high speed until the dough doesn’t stick to the bowl anymore. It’s also time to preheat the oven to 200°F (100°C).
Transfer donut dough to a lightly greased bowl and lightly brush the top of the dough with oil as well. Turn off the oven and place bowl in the preheated oven. Leave the oven door ajar and pinch a wooden spoon. Let rest for 10-15 minutes.
It looks like this after 10-15 minutes:
Flour a surface very lightly. Very lightly. Use as little as possible. Then remove the donuts from the oven and preheat again to 200°F. Roll out on the floured surface to a 1/2 inch (1,2cm) thickness. Lightly flour a 3-inch (7,6cm) donut cutter and cut out donut rings and holes.
Reroll and cut the dough until you run out of dough. Remember, use as little flour for rolling as possible (just that it doesn’t stick to the board or rolling pin), or the last couple of donuts you cut will be super dry. You know that you took too much flour when the dough starts to feel like gummy and gets less flexible.
Place donut rings and holes on 3 parchment paper lined baking sheets with about 3-4 inch (7,6-10cm) space in-between. Turn off the oven and place all three baking sheets in the oven. Leave the oven door ajar and pinch a wooden spoon.
In the meantime heat the frying oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan or dutch oven. I use grapeseed oil because that’s my favorite oil for frying donuts. I tried this cronuts recipe by Dominique Ansel one time, and he uses grapeseeds oil for his cronuts. I found out that this works great for donuts too and never switched to another oil anymore.
The temperature needs to be between 360°F and 370°F (180°C-185°C) constantly. Use a thermometer to check the temperature with every donut you fry. Too cold oil leads to oil-soaked donuts and too hot oil to very dark donuts.
Before you add the donut rings to the oil, carefully widen the holes with the back of a wooden spoon. This is just to have prettier donuts. Transfer them with a spatula to the oil rather than with the hands. If you don’t care about almost perfectly round donuts, you can transfer them with your hands as well. As soon as you lift them with fingers, the rings get stretched on one side and end up clunky.
Depending on the size of your pan, fry one or maximum two doughnuts at the time. Fry on each side for 60-90 seconds. Place a stopwatch next to you.
Place fried doughnut rings on a wire rack or paper towels.
How to make donut holes
I love to make a combination of donut rings and holes. But you could go just with donut holes too with this recipe. Prepare the dough exactly as if you do donut rings as well. Cut out 1-inch (2,5 cm) donut holes and let them rise as described.
Fry a handful of donut holes at the time on each side for 30 seconds. They might be hard to roll to the other side because the fried side tends to look down to the bottom. In this case, carefully push them with the spatula into the oil that they fry from all sides.
How to make a donut glaze
I don’t know about you, but sugar glazed donuts are my favorite. You could make this simple doughnut recipe with any glaze you want. Chocolate, caramel, lemon glaze, you name it or think about a cinnamon sugar coating. That all fits perfectly.
Start with whisking the melted butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla until combined. The texture is very crumbly at this stage.
Then add the one tablespoon of hot water at the time and stir to combine.
The consistency should be thick but liquid as you can see in the photo below. If the glaze is too thick, it will be too much glaze on the doughnuts, and when it is too thin, it will run down the doughnuts.
Dip warm doughnuts on each side into the glaze, drip off any excess glaze and place on a wire rack or parchment paper layered baking sheets.
The glaze will set and harden after 20-30 minutes. Donuts are best eaten on the same day.
These Homemade Glazed Doughnuts are fluffy, soft, and a doughnut-lovers dream. Just 11 ingredients and completely made from scratch. 45 minutes rising time. With detailed step-by-step instructions including photos and video!
- 1 cup lukewarm milk (240ml)
- 1/4 cup granulated white sugar (50g)
- 2+1/4 tsp active dry yeast (7g / 1 envelope)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup butter, melted (75g)
- 1 tsp salt
- 3+3/4 to 4 cups all-purpose flour (450-480g)
- 3-4 cups oil for frying (360-480ml)
- 6 tbsp butter, melted (84g)
- 3 vanilla beans (or 3 tsp=1tbsp vanilla extract)
- 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (360g)
- 3-5 tbsp hot water (45-75ml)
In a large mixing bowl, stir with a stand or handheld mixer fitted with a whisk attachment milk, sugar, and yeast to combine. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes until it starts to get foamy on the surface.
Preheat oven to 200°F (100°C). Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
Add eggs, butter, and salt and whisk to combine.
Replace whisk attachment and attach a dough hook. Add 3+3/4 cups flour and knead on medium-high speed until the dough comes together about 4-5 minutes. The dough should be slightly sticky to touch and should start to come off the sides of the bowl. If it doesn't come off the sides of the bowl at this stage, turn the speed down to low and add 1 tbsp of flour at the time (up to 4 cups in total) and mix on low speed until you reach this point. But don't add too much flour or your doughnuts end up dry. How much flour you need depends on the humidity and temperature where you live. Make sure that you stay at around 4 cups highest. (Watch the video and the step-by-step photos to see the required consistency.) Once you reached the required consistency, turn on medium-high speed and knead for about 5-10 minutes.
Transfer dough to a lightly greased bowl (brush a few drops of oil in a bowl or use a non-stick spray) and lightly grease the top of the dough.
Turn off preheated oven and place bowl in the oven to rest for about 10-15 minutes. Leave the oven door ajar.
Remove bowl from the oven and preheat again to 200°F (100°C).
On a very lightly floured surface, roll out the dough, about 1/2 inch (1,2 cm) thick. Take as little flour as possible. Just enough to roll out the dough without any problems. Cut out 3-inch (7,5cm) donuts with a lightly floured donut cutter. Place on prepared baking sheets. Turn off preheated oven and place all baking sheets in the oven to rise for about 30 minutes until they are doubled in size. Leave the oven door ajar.
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat oil to 360°F-370°F (180°C-185°C). Use a thermometer. Fry doughnut rings on each side for about 60-90 seconds until golden brown. Don't crowd the pan too much. I fried just one or maximum two doughnuts at the same time. Fry doughnut holes for about 30 seconds on each side. Place fried doughnut rings and holes on a wire rack or paper towels.
In a large mixing bowl whisk butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar to combine. Add one tbsp of hot water at the time and stir to combine. The consistency should be thick but liquid. When the glaze is too thick, it will be too much glaze on the doughnuts, and when it is too thin, it will run down the doughnuts. (Watch the video and the step-by-step photos to see the required consistency.) Dip warm doughnuts on each side into the glaze and let drip off any excess glaze. Place on a parchment paper layered baking sheets or wire rack to dry. The glaze will dry and harden after about 20-30 minutes.
Serve immediately when the glaze is dried. Although doughnuts are best eaten fresh, you can store them in the fridge in an airtight container up to 1 day. Let come to room temperature before serving.
Recipe Video
*First, cut off the straight end of the vanilla bean. Then place the tip of your knife below the curled end and cut the vanilla bean through the middle of the bean lengthwise with a sharp knife. Although you don't need to cut it all the way through, it's ok when you do so. Then open the vanilla bean and scrape out the flavorful seeds with the back of your knife. Just use the seeds.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Read blog post for additional information and watch step-by-step photos to see the required consistency at any step.
- Watch 48-seconds video to see the whole process of making fluffy fried donuts.
HOW TO RISE THEM OVERNIGHT:
Proceed through step 5 but skip step 2. Instead of rising them in the oven, cover the dough and place into the fridge overnight, 8-12 hours. Remove from the refrigerator and preheat oven to 200°F (100°C). Continue with step 6.
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