Amazing Glazed Donuts Recipe

Hey, I'm John Kanell, and today on Preppy Kitchen, we're making some tender, melt-in-your-mouth glazed donuts. So let's get started. First off, we're gonna make the dough, so let's wake our yeast up in some warm whole milk. One cup of whole milk, that's between 105 and 110 Fahrenheit. To this, we'll add one packet or two and a quarter teaspoons of active dry yeast, not instant yeast. The packaging looks similar, but the instant yeast will not give you that second rise we need. Our yeast want a little bit of food to wake up, so one teaspoon of sugar will do. Sprinkle that in, give it a mix, and we're gonna set this aside for five to 10 minutes. If your yeast does not form a fluffy, foamy head, do this over again with new yeast. That means your yeast are not active, they're not gonna work. While our yeast is waking up, we're gonna get the dry ingredients together. So grab a big bowl and a scale if you're using it, and turn it on. Into our bowl, we're gonna add four and a half cups or 540 grams of all-purpose flour. The scale will give you really accurate results because you want your donuts to be fluffy, tender, melt in your mouth, perfectly sweet pillows. If you add too much flour, that's not gonna happen. If you scoop your flour with a measuring cup, you're packing a ton of flour together. That's adding way too much. So if you're using a measuring cup, sprinkle the flour in gradually, like a little rain, then level it off, and that should be pretty accurate. I'm also adding in half a teaspoon of salt for a bit of contrast. This recipe makes a classic glazed donut. You can add your own favorite spices if you'd like at this point. A teaspoon or so of cinnamon, you could add some nutmeg, cardamom, allspice, any of the warming spices are gonna go really nicely in here. Grab a whisk and give this a nice mix. Warm donuts, fresh out of the fryer, are just about perfection. My mom used to make these donuts when I was growing up, and it's something that you never forget. They're so delicious, and it's really the manifestation of food as love. It's a loving thing you're doing for your family, and it will be appreciated. They're also gonna be much better than store-bought donuts because they are fresh with no preservatives. This can get set aside. Grab another large bowl. Into this large bowl, we're gonna get the wet ingredients together, so two large room-temperature eggs, please, no shells. By the way, if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button. There's two new delicious recipes every week. To the eggs, we're gonna add six tablespoons or 85 grams of melted, unsalted butter. Twist that in, and to sweeten and soften our dough, a quarter cup of granulated sugar, 50 grams. Not a lot of sugar for all that flour, but you just want the donuts to be soft and lovely on the inside and a little bit sweet. They're gonna be coated in a beautiful glaze, and that's where the sweetness will come from. Give that a nice mix. Perfect. And luckily, look what we have here, a beautiful, foamy yeast that's come to life. Because my yeast is happy and alive, we can now add it to the wet ingredients. Just pour that in and stir, and get it all out. Today, I'm leaving these donuts plain on the inside. The glaze will have vanilla, but if you wanted an extra kiss of vanilla, two teaspoons or so right now into the wet ingredients. By the way, if you're watching this video and you have little ones at home, this recipe has no mixer involved, so you can make everything by hand, and it's a really fun project for kids to do on their own. My boys can make pizza dough from scratch since they were like six, including blooming the yeast. All right. Nicely mixed, it's time to combine. We're gonna add the dry to the wet now. I'm using a dough whisk, but you could also use a spatula or even a wooden spoon if that's easier for you. So grab the chili, add a little bit in. Give it a mix. Oftentimes when you're making a rich dough like this, you'll add in a third of the flour. Stir really well so it forms like a thin paste or like a pudding-like consistency, and then you can add the rest in. And unlike making cake batter, you can whisk your heart out. There's no need to worry about overmixing here. A little bit more flour, a little bit more mixing. I love the smell of a yeasted batter. It's so nostalgic for me. All right, this is coming together. Okay, continue mixing this, just go a bit slower now. Mm. In this step, we're looking for a shaggy dough to form. So most, if not all, of the flour has been absorbed, but this kind of looks like a train wreck still. So we're gonna fix this and make a beautiful, smooth, supple dough by kneading it on the counter. For now, though, let's just get it together. So this is a shaggy dough here. It'll lift off a bunch of it. It just tears. Would not pass the windowpane test. It has no structure. We're gonna develop a structure by kneading this dough. Flour your countertop and flour your hands. Very important. Transfer your shaggy dough onto your countertop. As I showed you earlier, no structure. This looks horrible. We're gonna knead this for five minutes or so and develop the gluten in here so it becomes really silky soft. So many of us will make or enjoy cakes and cupcakes and quick breads, and we really take baking powder and baking soda for granted. Those two things which allow you to make these fluffy, amazing desserts were only available from the 1840s. Before that, the only way that you can fluff up any baked good was either by really frothing up your egg whites or by using yeast. So donuts continue that age-old tradition of having a yeasted dough that's sweetened, but it's not insanely sweet, soft, and then it gets treated with a glaze or a topping to seal the deal. So right now, I'm just folding the dough over on itself and then pushing it out, and as you do that, you'll develop the structure. You can add more flour to the countertop or to your hands as needed. And I've only been doing this for one minute. I just wanna show you. I'm already getting some bounce back, and while still not great, there is more stretch to this dough. Just keep going, and if you want to, you could, of course, make this in a stand mixer. Just have your dough hook attachment at the ready, and you'll be working this on medium-low until it develops a nice structure. So donuts as we know them today have a long history. Fried dough existed for millennia, like the longest time ever. But as we know them today, kind of comes from Dutch settlers to the US. They have fried dough snacks. I think they're called oliebollen. It's like a winter treat. There are other kinds too, though. Just lumps of dough that are fried in oil after they've risen and dusted with powdered sugar. The donuts that we see today that are ring-shaped or torus-shaped come from the innovation of a young sailor, allegedly, in 1847. The problem, if you ever make a donut that doesn't have a hole in the middle, is they could look golden brown and perfect on the outside, and the edges could be great, but the inside is often raw. So by cutting out the middle, it will now fry evenly. And then this specific type of a glazed donut really got popularized by Krispy Kreme. They're the originators. Salisbury, North Carolina. They bought the recipe from a chef in New Orleans, though. And, you know, donuts are addictively delicious, so they became popular, I would say, around the world, but especially around the US. You don't see tons of donuts when you're out in Europe. So kneading it by hand, you could think of it in two ways. Ugh, this is a pain. Why is this taking so long? I don't wanna do this. Or, what an amazing time to have a hands-on moment in the kitchen that's kind of meditative and tactile, and full of pleasure. Kids really like doing this, by the way, so Lachlan and George will love making a dough by hand, because it can be kind of messy, but it's still really fun. Being in the kitchen and baking when it's not stressful lowers your cortisol levels as well. Isn't that right, everybody? Mm-hmm. That's why everyone here is so relaxed. Using the heel of my palm to press out the dough, bring it back, and repeat. I've been kneading for a few minutes, and now, if you take a look, you can grab some of the dough, pull it out, and it's stretching without breaking. It's almost at the point where light's passing through it really well. It's actually really, really close. That's the windowpane test. You're grabbing the dough and seeing if light passes through it without the dough ripping. And if this dough is a bit tacky right now, or feels sticky, perfect. That's right where you want it to be. If it's unmanageably so, just add some more flour in as you're kneading. So you can see now, just by working a little bit by hand, my dough is much smoother. It's more elastic. And if I press it with my finger, it bounces back pretty well. Those are the three things that you wanna look for when you're kneading dough. This looks good enough for me, so I'm gonna stop right now. Lightly oil a large bowl. Let's bring that oil up to the side. And form a nice ball. Put that ball face down, flip it over so it's nice and moist. So now we can loosely cover this and set it aside in a nice, cozy place until it has doubled in size. It should be about an hour, but if your place is less cozy, it might take a little bit longer. If it's too hot, don't put it someplace too hot. In you go. My dough has doubled in size. Beautiful, so large. Grab a rimmed baking sheet and line it with parchment paper, a rolling pin, and you want either a doughnut cutter or a three inch and a one inch circle cutter. Punch the dough down. So satisfying. Even if I didn't eat the doughnuts, that alone is worth it. Lightly flour your surface and turn the dough out. Now we wanna roll the dough into a 3 1⁄4 inch thick rectangle. You can also pat it if you want. You know what else you could have added in here? Some orange zest or lemon zest, that would be nice. One of my favorite bakeries in Paris has an orange blossom brioche. It's so good. All right, this looks nice, 3⁄4 of an inch about. Now we can give this a cut. Transfer your doughnuts onto your rimmed baking sheet as you cut them. It can be easier to cut the large circle out. Transfer that over and then remove your doughnut hole. Make sure you give your doughnuts some space to rise. They should not be too close together because they will be doubling. I have some extra dough left over, so pull that together. We're gonna re-roll it. If you wanna step this out, you can make the dough, do the first rise in the fridge overnight, pull it out, let it come to room temperature, and then roll and cut your doughnuts. So it's a bit half and half instead of doing everything in the morning. I rolled my doughnuts out a little flat today, but I kind of like having more glaze and less doughnut. You can make them thicker or thinner. It's up to you. But aim for 3⁄4 of an inch thick. And if you have any scraps left over, more doughnut holes. Loosely cover your doughnuts with tea towels, and we're gonna let these rise on the countertop for about 40 minutes until they're doubled in size. Towards the end of your rise time, we're gonna prep for the frying. So grab a big Dutch oven and fill it with two inches of oil, your choice. It could be veggie or peanut oil. And you also wanna have a rimmed baking sheet lined with a wire rack. Place your oil over medium heat. We want it at 350, so have your thermometer out. My doughnuts have doubled. My oil's at 350. It's time to fry. Look at these guys. I'm gonna work in batches. The doughnuts need one minute per side. Keep an eye on them. Sooner than you'd expect, it's time to flip your doughnuts over. As you fry your doughnuts, really mind the temperature. It will go down once you add your doughnuts in. It'll slowly rise with the heat on, so you don't wanna stray from that 350 mark too much. If the oil gets too hot, your doughnuts will be burnt, but they could be raw in the middle. After a minute, flip them over. For the doughnut holes, they'll fry up in one minute. Just stir constantly. Stir away. And just like that, pop them about. Heat off. These can hang out for a minute while we make our easy, delicious vanilla glaze. For the glaze, you can have it thicker or thinner, but it's gonna be about three cups of powdered sugar with six tablespoons of milk. That's 360 grams of powdered sugar. And today I'm using vanilla, but you could use citrus zest. You could use bourbon, dark rum, other extracts. Anything goes here. Half a teaspoon or so of vanilla will be delicious. Just give this a mix until all the sugar's incorporated and it's nice and smooth. If you want your glaze thinner, you can add more milk. If you want it thicker, add more sugar. Grab your doughnuts and give them a dip. Let the excess drizzle off, and then you can return them to the wire rack to set. Repeat this process for all your doughnuts. Then you can enjoy right away, nice and warm or at room temperature. The ones that I re-rolled were much thicker, and this is how they'll turn out, mega doughnuts. Just like anything fried, these doughnuts are best fresh from the fryer with the glaze just set, but they will last in the fridge for up to three days in an airtight container. Do us all a favor and just eat them fresh. For the doughnut holes, you just toss them in. You can give them a spin or just have the tops coated. It's up to you. The doughnuts in doughnut holes are also delicious lightly dusted with powdered sugar. If you don't have that much of a sweet tooth, but still want a treat, some confectioner's sugar, and you're done. You could also roll them in cinnamon sugar. Delicious. And just like that, your glazed doughnuts are ready to enjoy. So delicious. Perfectly sweet from the glaze on the outside, crisp and golden, but on the inside, pillowy, soft, and fluffy. They melt in your mouth. I hope you get a chance to make this delicious recipe, and if you like my videos, hit that subscribe button and check out my breakfast treat playlist.