Offspring #4 eats pretty healthy, normally, but likes to indulge in sugary confections on occasion. He was a big help clearing away the massive amount of snow that accumulated in the last winter storm of 2019 so I decided to start the new year off by making him (and us) a batch of homemade doughnuts which are one of his favourite treats. They came out pretty well and I haven’t posted a recipe in a long while so here it is (which may hopefully start a trend of more recipe posts this year).
Yeast-raised Apple Cider Doughnuts
This makes ~500g of dough which equates to ~10-12 doughnuts depending on the cutter you have. Desired dough temperature is ~27°C.
Set aside 15-20m for prep; ~90-120m for proofing; 20-30m for cooking them all.
- 150g bread flour (yep, grams; treat yourself to a kitchen/baking scale this year if you do not have one)
- 100g pastry flour
- 8g yeast
- 130g apple cider (warm)
- 30g egg (it really doesn't hurt to put in one whole small or medium egg)
- 16g sugar
- 16g notfat dry milk (or, reduce apple cider by 10g and add in 15g of oat/almond/coconut milk which I have to do b/c of our combined dairy allergies; use the dry nonfat milk if you can though as the end product is definitely better)
- 5g baking powder
- 5g salt
- 0.5g fresh ground nutmeg
- 46g emulsified shortening (a.k.a. cake/icing shortening; you can get away with Crisco™ but the donuts will have a slightly more cake-ish texture)
- oil (for frying)
- cinnamon sugar (optional as it's for tossing the cooked doughnuts in, if desired)
Combine flours and yeast well with a whisk in a bowl (I’m assuming y’all are using a stand mixer).
Add water, eggs, milk, sugar, salt, baking powder, and nutmeg.
Mix with dough hook attachment on low speed for 2-3 minutes (all ingredients should be incorporated).
Add shortening and put mixer on medium for 8-9 minutes. You’re looking for decent gluten development.
Bulk ferment the dough (it should just about double). ~30m
Fold the dough and ferment for ~30m more.
Roll out dough on floured board to ½ inch / 1 cm. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or bread towel and let rest for 10-15m.
Cut out doughnuts with cutter, placing cut doughnuts and holes onto a sheet pan with lightly oiled parchment paper.
You can also make other shapes (I made a few twisty sticks).
You can recombine the dough after you get through each cutting pass, but don’t overwork it.
Proof for ~15m (dough needs to spring back slowly after a light finger press).
While waiting, prep a pot with the oil. It is important to maintain a 177°C temperature. If the oil is too hot the dough will burn. If too cold they will be oily.
Put doughnuts in 1-3 at a time depending on size of pot and how well you think you can manage turning and removing them. Having a frying spider/basket helps to turn and remove the cooked doughnuts. Cooking time will be 1-2 minutes for each size. Test one or two doughnuts first before continuing with the entire batch to get the feel for it. After both sides of each doughnut are golden brown remove from oil and let drain over pot or on a rack over a sheet pan.
NOTE: doughnut holes will take 30s-1m per “side”.
If you’re using the cinnamon sugar topping, it helps to have a sidekick to take the cooked doughnuts off the rack right after they stop dripping and coat them in the mixture, but you can also do this on your own.
Let cool sufficiently to eat.
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