- Hey, I'm John Kanell.
And today on Preppy Kitchen,
we're making delicious glazed donuts.
So let's get started.
To make these donuts you'll need milk,
two packets of active dry yeast,
granulated sugar, all purpose flour,
salt, butter, two eggs, some vanilla,
and of course, powdered sugar for the glaze.
And yes, we'll be frying these so get some oil out too.
First off, we're gonna measure out one cup or 240 ml
of whole milk.
We want this to be about one 110 to 115 Fahrenheit.
I'll put Celsius down below.
This is gonna go into the microwave.
I'm at 105 to 110 Fahrenheit,
if you get that milk too hot,
you'll kill the yeast, which is not good.
I'm adding in about a teaspoon of granulated sugar,
as well as, give that a stir first,
now I'm adding two packets of active dry yeast.
If you're not using packets,
that's four and a half teaspoons.
We're just gonna give this a mix so it gets all combined,
and set it aside for about five to ten minutes
until it is nice and frothy.
If this does not froth,
start over again because your yeast were dead.
Either they got burnt, they're just too old,
or something happened, and the donuts will not work.
So always make sure your yeast is nice and frothy.
It's a sign things are gonna be delicious.
In the meantime, we can measure out the dry ingredients.
So get a scale, a big bowl, whatever you want.
I actually got two big bowls out
because one is for wet, one is for dry,
and here's the deal,
you wanna melt six tablespoons of butter out.
That's about 85 grams.
I like to cut my butter into small pieces
when I'm melting it in the microwave,
because even if you use half power, my gosh,
the butter explosions are real.
And you can let me know in the comments
if you've had a butter explosion
and how not fun it is to clean up.
This gets heated up, half power, for maybe a minute or so.
In the meantime, we'll get those dry ingredients out.
This first.
While that warms up,
I'm measuring out four and a half cups or 540 grams
of all purpose flour, because it's easiest with the scale.
To that flour I'm adding half a teaspoon of salt.
This will give it a little bit of contrast.
We're gonna mix it up.
This gets set aside.
Now we're onto the wet ingredients. The scale is done.
We want that scale back because I have to add my sugar in,
that's 50 grams.
Now we're done with the scale and it smells so good.
I love the smell of yeast in the morning.
I'm adding two large room temperature eggs.
(eggs crack)
We'll whisk this together now until it's nice and smooth.
Now we're gonna stir in that yeast,
which is like puffed up beyond belief.
And if you're wondering
why we used two packets of yeast by the way,
it's because we want these donuts to be extra fluffy
and just like have a really beautiful, delicate texture.
Whisk those yeast in.
We're gonna stir the flour in right now
and just mix it by hand until a shaggy dough forms.
So let's add that in.
Oh my gosh, donuts in the morning made by hand.
My mom used to make these
as a special treat on the weekends,
and it's a memory that even though
she stopped doing it later on,
like it was like a childhood thing,
never forgot it.
It was really special.
So here you can see, this is a shaggy mixture.
Like a lot of nooks and crannies. Definitely not smooth.
But what we're gonna do now is knead this
on a lightly floured surface,
just until it gets nice and smooth.
Get this dough out, and yes, it is like a wet mixture.
You always know a dough is gonna be delicious,
one, when there's butter and eggs in there, and milk,
but two, when it's pretty wet.
Cause that means it's going to be as cakey and mm.
I'm gonna be kneading this for about five minutes
until it's tacky but smooth.
Tacky means sticky in case you forgot.
It doesn't mean it has bad taste.
This is something you could also do in the machine.
So like, if you're in a hurry or you're just like,
I don't want to do this by hand,
dough hook, pop it in the machine, and let it knead up.
And you could finish it off by hand if needed
or it might just be ready.
You're kneading this until it's smooth and elastic,
but it's still gonna be tacky
or a little bit sticky to the touch.
So just keep kneading away,
and you can see already,
this dough looks so much smoother but it's not there yet.
One of the tests you can do with dough
is called the windowpane test, by the way.
And that just means that you take two little fingers
and you stretch it up.
This tore immediately. It's not ready.
It should be able to stretch
so you can see light coming through, like a windowpane.
So we've got some more kneading to go.
As you're kneading the dough,
you're developing the gluten in the flour, it's a protein.
And you're also hydrating the dough
so all those, everything is just getting
really mixed well together.
My dough is almost ready, nice and smooth,
and look at this.
I can take two fingers,
pull a section out and it stretches,
and you can see the light comes through.
It's very satisfying.
Another test is just to see how it bounces back
when you press in.
Pressing in, bounces back pretty well.
Okay. This is gonna go into an oiled bowl,
and yes, there is butter, there is milk,
there are eggs in here.
This is not pizza dough
so it's gonna need more time to rise in a nice cozy place.
So my dough's ready.
I'm gonna place it into a lightly oiled bowl,
just reusing my flour bowl.
This wants to hang out in a nice, cozy, warm place
for about an hour.
You can cover it with plastic or get a bonnet out.
In to a nice cozy place, one hour,
and we'll be back
with some beautiful puffed, delicious dough.
Just a little bit over an hour later, look at this dough.
It was actually up to here when I opened it up.
Starts deflating right away.
That's okay because we're gonna punch it down.
Punch, punch, punch, punch, punch.
And by the way, when you use a bonnet like this,
a reusable one as opposed to plastic, good and bad.
Here, it's a little bit dried out, just a little bit though,
which is actually really nice when you dump out your dough.
This is just nice because it's not gonna stick so much
to the bottom of your pastry mat or your counter.
(hands patting on dough)
Pat it out.
(more patting)
It's a little bit thick right now
so I'm just gonna add a little bit of flour,
and roll it out.
This smells so good by the way, already.
For these donuts,
we're gonna use circle cookie cutters.
Get a set of circle cookie cutters.
They're my favorite tool in the kitchen,
and they are infinitely like this.
What is the word? Versatile.
They're infinitely versatile.
They do anything you want. Okay.
So we're gonna cut out our doughnuts
and place them onto a sheet of parchment paper,
just for transport.
Give them a little, kind of like that.
And as you can see,
they're not sticking to the counter
because I used that bonnet, really handy.
If you wanna filled donut,
you could fry it up like that.
Like get some jam, get some pastry cream.
Link up here for that.
But I was making classic glazed donuts today
so I'm using a one inch circle cookie cutter
just to cut the centers out.
And of course, you know, this is a delicious donut hole.
Save those. They're actually my favorite parts.
One thing you wanna be careful of
is not rolling your dough out too thin.
You do want them to pop up and these have a second rise.
We're not done yet.
They're gonna have a little bit more warm and cozy time,
and puff up even more.
And then we're gonna deep fry them.
But if they're too thin or if they're too thick,
they're just not gonna have the right texture inside
because they have to cook through in that hot oil,
without getting overcooked.
It's a delicate balance.
So three quarters of an inch will do you just right.
Loosely cover your doughnuts.
And we're gonna transfer these to a warm, cozy place
to rise up for about 40 minutes.
They're gonna get really puffy, and this stage is important,
that's what gives you that light-as-air texture
in your donuts.
So, remember, 40 minutes, warm, cozy place,
and in the meantime, we're gonna get our oil out.
While our donuts are rising,
add two inches of oil to your Dutch oven or a large pot,
and place it over medium heat, along with a thermometer.
And we're gonna heat that up
until it's 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
In the meantime,
let's make an easy glaze for our glazed donuts.
I want three cups or about 360 grams of powdered sugar.
I don't need to sieve this out.
Six tablespoons, 90 ml of milk.
Pour that right in.
This is a much thinner consistency
than a lot of the glazes you're used to.
And now, half a teaspoon of vanilla.
You can use other flavorings you love too.
Like maybe a touch of almond extract,
some orange blossom water.
I think bourbon or rum is a popular addition as well.
And yes, you can add citrus zest or juice into this as well.
So many delicious choices.
This, as you can see, is a nice thin drizzling consistency.
Just what we want.
You wanna cover this up just with paper or something,
while this is happening,
'cause you do not want your glaze to dry out.
(tongue tuts)
Cover that up. Let's check our thermometer.
We needed to be 350. My oil's nice and hot.
I'm starting off by dropping my,
ooh, my donut holes in there.
Be careful. You do not want hot splashes of oil anywhere.
We're gonna fry these up until they're golden brown.
It happens really quick.
So keep an eye on and hopefully have a nice spider
to help you just move things along, keep them turning over.
Once your donuts are golden brown,
they're gonna go onto a wire rack
over a rimmed baking sheet.
Now it's time for our proper donuts.
So, as you can see, my donuts have really puffed up.
We're gonna place these right over here
and set up an assembly line where we just plop them in.
And to help that, be gentle with them right now,
You don't wanna like, really squeeze them
because you'll push out all that delicate,
a little bit of the delicate structure inside.
Plop those right in, carefully.
Like, let them glide in.
You can fry up three to four at a time,
but as you add them in, the oil temperature will drop.
So keep an eye on your thermometer
and adjust your temperature accordingly.
Everyone's stove is different
so you might be on medium low,
you might be on medium high.
It's totally dependent on the temperature
so look at that thermometer when you add things in.
And as you can see, come take a look,
these are getting to be golden brown, super quick.
My bounty of donuts is ready to glaze.
So here's the deal.
Set up a station. Uncover that glaze.
And you're just gonna dip your donuts
that are still really warm,
right in the glaze, as much as you want.
Could be atop, it could be fully covered.
It's up to you and what you enjoy.
Then we're just going to dip,
and let them set on the wire rack.
You can pop them into your mouth now,
hot oil, boiling, burnt feelings,
but it'll still be delicious, up to you.
You can also spoon the glaze over
if you want even more coverage.
So, plop it like that, spoon it over the top,
and this'll be the completely covered donut.
But I will warn you, you're using a lot of glaze,
so make sure you let it drain off for a while first,
before you pop it onto the wire rack.
Otherwise you'll run out of glaze and be sad.
Plop those donut holes in, it's raining donut holes.
And then you'll just move them around with your spoons
to get good coverage,
and place them right onto your rack, just like this.
Be very gentle though,
because these guys are so airy and puffy inside
that you don't wanna collapse them.
You really want to preserve that shape.
Soft and airy on the inside.
Golden crisp glazed deliciousness on the outside.
- Literally can't stop, eating these.
(John laughs)
- If you get a chance to make this recipe,
and if you liked this video,
check out my breakfast treats playlist.