Monday, February 1, 2016

Mad over donuts? Try these beautiful home made doughnuts

Hello to all my blog readers… Here I am, welcoming the month of love with beautiful homemade donuts.
It was my dream to make donuts myself and I am so glad I did it. I didn't use any special resources (example donut maker etc.) to achieve it. Just simple kitchen tools. :-) I realized it quite late that donuts are fried and not baked. These donuts are soft, have a cake like flavor, and a distinct flavor of nutmeg. I added some lemon zest to balance out the sweetness…
The recipe uses baking flour to get the rise. I am planning to do achieve the same with yeast. I will share the recipe later. 
My husband liked these homemade donuts. He specifically liked the ones dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with coconut and sugar. 
So friends, try it out. Hopefully you will like your hand made donuts more than the store-bought ones.. 




Here’s the recipe.
(Note: The recipe will yield 12-14 doughnuts) 
Ingredients:

For making doughnuts:
3 cup all purpose flour(Maida in hindi)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tsp baking powder
3/4  tsp nutmeg powder
1 tsp lemon zest (or zest from one lemon)(optional)
2 eggs
2/3 cup granulated white sugar 
1/2 cup milk(at room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 tbsp melted butter(at room temperature)
Oil for frying the doughnuts (I used vegetable oil. You can use any of your preference. Canola, Sunflower is fine too.)

For chocolate glaze:
1 cup semi sweet chocolate morsels or chopped chocolate
3 tbsp butter
2 tbsp corn syrup(optional)
1/4 cup -1/2 cup whipping cream

Procedure:
Let’s start preparing the doughnut batter.
(Note: I used an electric beater for this process like we do for cake batter. You can do this manually with a spatula )
In a large container, transfer all the following dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and ground nutmeg powder, ). Whisk everything well.
Lemon Zest
Baking powder 
Salt
Nutmeg
Whisk well

In another large bowl, beat eggs and sugar until it is thick and fluffy.
Beating egg and sugar
Now add vanilla extract and beat it again. 
Adding vanilla extract

We will add flour in three additions, milk and butter in two additions.

First add one part of flour in the egg mixture.
Adding one third portion of flour
Incorporating flour in egg and sugar.
Now add one part of melted butter and milk. Beat everything well again.
Adding half portion of melted butter
Adding half portion of milk
Incorporating everything well
Now add second part of flour. Beat everything well. 
Now add second part of melted butter and milk. Beat everything well again. Add the final third part of flour. Beat everything well. You will see a sticky dough. 
Sticky dough
Plastic wrap it and let it rest for around 30 minutes or until the stickiness in the dough is gone and it is good enough to roll. Place a finger in the dough to see if comes out clean. If so you can start with rolling process.
Dough after 30 minutes of resting
Now the dough is ready. Let’s start rolling it out. 
Place the dough on a floured surface, knead it once if needed. It will become a smooth dough which would be very easy to roll out. Roll it out around 1/2 cm thickness. Make sure it is evenly rolled out.
Dough on a floured surface
Rolling out the smooth dough
Dough rolled out
Cut out around 7 cm diameter outer circles through cookie cutter or doughnut cutter. Cut out smaller circles (or around 3 cm) in the middle of each large circle. I used the lid of a container to cut out the inner circle. (You can also fry these smaller circle doughnuts :-) )
Outer circle of doughnut cut out 
A doughnut cut out. Inner circle cut also shown
Place all the doughnut rings on a floured sheet.
Cut out doughnuts lined up for frying
Now the doughnuts are ready to be fried. Let’s do that.
Bring the oil to medium heat. We will be deep frying the doughnuts so let the oil be enough for frying those. Fry one or two together depending on the pan size. Fry each side until light brown on each side. Once you see one side of doughnut and its middle become light brown, you can turn the side and fry it until light brown. 
Repeat the process for all doughnuts. Place them in paper towels to soak the extra oil.  Let them cool down.
Frying a doughnut
Fried doughnuts
So you have all the doughnuts ready. You can have these plain sprinkled with powdered sugar. Or you can dip them in chocolate glaze with some sprinkles on top.
I did a simple chocolate glaze. Here's the recipe.
Over a sauce pan of boiling water, place a pan with chopped chocolate(or morsels), butter and corn syrup. The chocolate will start melting in a minute. Pour 1/4 cup or more of whipping cream. Keep stirring until everything is well incorporated. It’s done. Remove it from flame. Let it rest for a minute.
Chocolate morsels, butter and corn syrup. Add whipping cream later
Ready chocolate glaze

Now dip the cooled down doughnuts in the chocolate glaze . Sprinkle your favorite toppings like decorative sugar, grated coconut etc over the chocolate glaze. 
Donuts dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with decorative sugar sprinkles, coconut and sugar. The one in white is powdered sugar.
Enjoy the delicious donuts with a cup of coffee. You will love these. These are soft and have cake like flavor.  I will soon come up with a recipe which uses yeast instead of baking powder for making donuts.
You can even store these in an air tight container and refrigerate them. Just microwave for 20-30 seconds before having them.

Don't forget to add your comments in the comments section. You can follow me on Google+ or subscribe your email id, to get my recipes in email. 

See you soon with another interesting recipe. Till then have fun cooking.

Cheers,
Shweta