Homemade Donuts

This Homemade Donuts recipe is mega popular! Ultra soft, light, airy and they are sinfully addictive. I have provided countless tips and tricks to achieve the most amazing doughnuts you'll ever make. It's as light as biting into a cloud.

Course Breakfast

Cuisine American

Keyword soft donuts, soft doughnuts

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 12

Total Time 27

Servings doughnuts

Calories 120kcal

Author Maria Doss

Ingredients

1 and ½ cups milk, lukewarm (whole milk or 2%)
1 stick unsalted butter ( ½ cup ), room temperature
4 and ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
3 large eggs, room temperature
6 tablespoons sugar
1 and ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
5 cups + ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour, divided
additional flour for dusting
vegetable oil, for deep frying

Glaze

3 cups confectioners sugar
5 to 6 tablespoons water
1 and ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
2 pinches salt

Instructions

To make doughnuts

Combine first 7 ingredients (milk through nutmeg) and 2 cups all purpose flour in the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat on medium speed with a flat beater for 2-3 minutes (dough will look like slightly curdled cake batter).
Add remaining all purpose flour ( 3 cups + ¼ cup + 2 tablespoons ) and switch to a dough hook, knead on medium speed for additional 3 minutes (dough will be very soft).
Remove bowl from the mixer, scrape the sides of the bowl and cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel and place in the warmest spot in your kitchen. Let dough rise for about 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size.
Pro tip: Soft dough equals soft doughnuts. Do not be tempted to mix in more flour!
Dust working surface liberally with all purpose flour, Dump dough and dust flour on top. Gently roll into ½ to ¾th inch thick, cut circles with a doughnut cutter
Tip: Don't have a donut cutter? Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter (a wide mouth canning ring would also work) and the fat end of a large piping tip to cut the holes.
Place doughnuts and holes on two lightly floured cookie sheets, spacing about an inch apart. Cover with a kitchen towel, let rise again for 45 - 60 minutes.
Line a large baking sheet with paper towels and place a wire rack on top.
When ready to fry, add vegetable oil in a large dutch oven until comes to about 2-inches height. Place over medium high heat until 330 to 340 degrees (use a deep fry thermometer , refer notes if you do not own one). Deep fry about 4 doughnuts at a time (do not overcrowd the pan), until golden brown on both sides (45-60 seconds per side). Remove doughnuts onto the cooling rack.
Tip: How do you know if the oil is ready? Pinch a small piece of dough and add into the oil. It should take about a minute to get golden in color.
Pro Tip - Deep fry only until pale golden and not any darker! Letting the homemade donuts brown will form a crusty outside, but not the light texture we are aiming for.
Repeat until all doughnuts and holes have been fried.
Pro tip: Yeast releases carbon dioxide gas, forming thousands of tiny air pockets inside the cut donut dough, causing it to rise. When the risen dough hits the hot oil, those air pockets expand further giving a high rise.

Glaze doughnuts

In a medium bowl, whisk all glaze ingredients until smooth. Begin by adding 5 tablespoons water and then a touch more if glaze seems thick.
Working with one doughnut at a time, dip one side of each doughnut into the glaze and return to the wire rack.
Let glaze set for about 20 minutes before serving. We never wait that long around here:)
These soft glazed doughnuts are best eaten hot!!! However, to enjoy them later (but not more than a day) microwave one doughnut for 7 seconds.

Notes

Luke warm - An easy way to check without a thermometer- sprinkle few drops of water on the inside of your wrist. It should neither feel hot nor cold.

Nutmeg gives the classic doughnut shop flavor to the doughnuts. Do not use nutmeg powder, grate freshly with a microplane or a fine grater.

During cooler days, I adopt the oven method to rise the dough - Set oven temperature to 170 degrees F (or the lowest that your oven can go to). As soon as the oven begins to heat, let it warm up for 20-30 seconds (don’t let it go to 100 degrees). Turn off oven and place the bowl inside and let rise until doubled. If oven reaches 100 degrees or higher, leave the oven door open for a minute or two to cool down a touch before keeping the dough

Oil temperature – Magic temperature is 330-340 degrees F. Hotter will get the outside brown fast before the doughnuts have a chance to rise fully in the oil. If you own a deep fry thermometer then this is great time to use. If not, medium heat is perfect and test one doughnut – it should take about a minute on each side to get golden. Adjust heat accordingly.

Nutrition