Have you ever tried to make homemade cake doughnuts? Not the yeast kind… the cake kind? Well, I tried to last weekend and it was a disaster. I had dough stuck to my hands. Stuck to the counter. I did manage to squeak out a few doughnuts, but they ended up with crusty outsides and doughy, sticky insides. I was really frustrated, disappointed and ultimately donutless. But, I’m pretty sure I know what went wrong.
So this weekend, I gave it another go… and with much better results. Not perfect, but much better.
The dough was really sticky on both attempts, so I was sure something was wrong. But this time, I generously floured everything around… the surface, the rolling pin, my hands, me. I sprinkled flour on top of flour determined to make the dough workable.
And it worked. I was able to roll out the dough and cut circle shapes for the doughnuts. I don’t have a doughnut cutter, so I used two different size circle cutters. One about 3 inches wide and the other about 1 inch wide. Looks pretty good, huh?!
Not so fast. Ugh! I guess I still didn’t use enough flour because I couldn’t get them to come away from the surface.
Frustrated, again… I just took the dough in my hand and formed doughnut patties and I used the small cutter to remove the centers while still holding the dough. (Hey, it worked.)
Eventually, though, I got it down and was able to turn out some really pretty ones that I could even pick up. Yay!
They went in the oil when the temperature was right.
And I knew just when that would be because of my handy dandy new oil thermometer. It definitely makes a difference.
See. Doughnuts. (applause, here)
The best thing about doughnuts? The scraps.
You can fry them, too. Cover them in powdered sugar and it almost makes it worth all the trouble.
You can also make a glaze and dip the tops of your doughnuts.
Sprinkles don’t hurt either.
Yum! And definitely not doughy inside. They were really pretty good. Maybe a tiny bit dry… or maybe I left them in the oil too long.
But, I’m not going to find out.
It was fun trying something new, but the next time I want doughnuts, I’ll be hitting up my local Dunkin’ Donuts for some chocolate glazed munchkins… and maybe a few blueberry ones for kicks.
Here’s the recipe I concocted after researching multiple ones for cake doughnuts in case you want to improve on it.
Slightly Dry Cake Doughnuts
4.5 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
4 tsps baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk*
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla
* Most of the recipes called for a cup of milk. I dropped it back thinking the dough was too wet, but it probably needs it for the moistness if you can figure out how to work with the dough. :)
Vanilla glaze
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 Tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
3-5 Tbsp milk
Enjoy?
P.S. Here’s what happens when you don’t own an oil thermometer. Doughnut disaster!
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478405080/
[2] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478402458/
[3] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478402642/
[4] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3477596417/
[5] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478402876/
[6] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478403380/
[7] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3477595489/
[8] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478403214/
[9] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478403728/
[10] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3477596049/
[11] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3477596673/
[12] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478404378/
[13] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3477597127/
[14] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478404848/
[15] Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bakerella/3478402244/