Doughnut Recipe

(Recipe yields 1 dozen doughnuts)

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My kids were craving Krispy Kreme doughnuts, so rather than spend a lot of money, I scoured the internet for a great doughnut recipe. I had tried the copy cat Krispy Kreme recipe on Recipezaar, in the past, and I was going to use it if I couldn’t find anything better. But, like most of the people, I thought that recipe was a little too bready. Then I came across a site advertising “The Secret Donut Recipe” by Brad Flickinger located at . Secret Donut Recipe This recipe is the best for homemade doughnuts that I have ever come across. They are not bready. They taste as close to bakery version as possible. The texture was excellent – not to mention the taste. I felt that the only thing I would change is they could have been a little sweeter. I don’t know if using 2% milk versus whole milk may have been the cause for this or not. I think next time instead of ¼ cup of sugar I might try ½ cup. But, regardless, Brad’s recipe was very detailed and he was right on about the cooking temp. They turned out great. I also tried his glazes, both the vanilla glaze and chocolate glaze. I definitely will be making this again, but I might try making eclairs or jelly donuts next time, too.

Brad’s recipe calls for very few ingredients, most of which you already have at home. One unusual ingredient, and this almost made me change my mind about making these doughnuts, was the use of ½ cup mashed potato. But, I couldn’t even tell it was in the dough. Also, by cooking it in the microwave, this recipe is quick, easy, and delicous. I have to give Brad a huge “Thank You” for coming up with this recipe.

Ingredients

1 cup warm milk (not hot)
2 packages yeast
2 cups of flour (and extra for kneading and rolling dough with)
½ cup of mashed potatoes
½ tsp salt
¼ cup of sugar
dash of sugar for yeast mixture
2 Tbs cooking oil

Instructions

Microwave a decent sized potato which will yield ½ cup when mashed. I cooked mine for 10 minutes – flipping it after 5 minutes. The skin just peeled right off. Then mashed it well and placed it in a measuring cup. Set it aside - you will mix this in with the dry ingredients.
Microwave 1 cup of milk until it is warm, not hot and combine with 2 packages yeast, and a dash of sugar. Let this sit for about 5 minutes until bubbly while you get the dry ingredients ready. In a large bowl, combine the 2 cups of flour, salt, sugar, and mashed potatoes. Mix the dough well. Add the yeast and milk mixture and more flour to form a nice dough. Next, you can move it to a flour board for kneading (I just kneaded mine in the bowl, but you will have to add additional flour because it is very wet and sticky. Keep kneading and adding flour until it resembles regular dough. If you come across any potatoe lumps, use your fingers and they will combine with the dough. I didn’t have much trouble getting the lumps out as I kneaded it. I did a taste test at this point and couldn’t even tell it had potato in the recipe.
Roll the dough out to ½” thickness and using a biscuit cutter or a large glass (which is what I did) cut doughnuts out. Then I used a pill bottle lid for the center, cut small doughnut holes out of those doughnuts. I floured a cookie sheet and set the doughnuts on that. Leave them alone for 10 minutes. Brad’s recipe indicates that you should let your oil heat up while doing this. I agree. You need the temp to be 360 degrees and this will be at Medium High. It will take 5 minutes for the oil to reach that temperature.
When frying the donuts, start with the little doughnut holes first, that way you can make sure the temperature is right. They should take about 1 minute to turn golden brown.

Don’t just plop them in the oil or you may get splashed with hot oil. When frying, try to get as close to the surface and let them slide in the oil. This will avoid splashing hot oil everywhere. Fry the doughnuts on both sides until lightly golden. This will take just a minute or two. After frying the doughnuts, place on a paper towel. Then dip each one in the glaze of your choice. I had my son do the dipping while I did the frying. You may need help here, too.

Now for the glaze recipes.

Heat ½ cup of milk with 1 Tbs butter for both glazes until warm.

Vanilla Glaze

In a bowl mix:

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbs of milk & butter mixture (above)
¼ tsp of lemon juice (optional – I left this out)
¼ tsp of vanilla extract

If you need a thinner glaze, add more milk mixture.

Chocolate Glaze

In a bowl mix:

1 cup of powdered sugar
2 Tbsp of Hersheys Unsweetened Cocoa
3 Tbsp of the milk and butter mixture mentioned above