As Daring Bakers, our monthly challenges mostly involve quite a bit of baking. Occasionally though, we take a break do challenges that do not involve baking and this month was one such challenge.
This October, our hostess for the month challenged us to make ourselves some doughnuts. While many of us chose to fry our doughnuts, some others chose to bake them. We had the choice to fry them, bake them, glaze them, fill them, or make them any which way we wanted to, but we had to make some doughnuts.
The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.
Lori wanted us to make doughnuts using one of the four given recipes, but beyond that we were free to experiment with shapes, flavours, glazes or anything else we could think of. Having madedoughnuts before, this wasn’t a challenge for me but it was an opportunity to try a new recipe, and I’m always happy to make doughnuts.
I have rather nostalgic memories about doughnuts because they are a part of my student days at the university. Back then, there were many days of the week when my classes used to be back to back, and I had about 15 minutes of lunchtime out which I spent 10 minutes running from one department to the next for my classes. The remaining 5 minutes would be spent at this small store on the way, which sold jam filled doughnuts.
Now that I think back, I must say they weren’t the best doughnuts I have eaten but back then, they were just the thing. They were inexpensive (student’s budget, you know), made a great “lunch on the run”, and gave us the sugar boost-carbs-calories combination that we desperately needed to face the next class!
I initially made a half recipe of the Alton Brown doughnuts and though they were not bad, I found them too soft with a very strong flavour of yeast. It did seem to me that 4 1/2 tsp yeast for 4 2/3 cups of flour a bit on the higher side. A lot of my fellow DBs who made the same doughnuts don’t seem to have felt this, so maybe its really a matter of taste.
While I do like soft doughnuts, I also consider them comforting kind of food. I do not like them so light and spongy that they’re almost not there when you bite into them. So I made some changes to the recipe by reducing the amount of yeast and increasing the rising time for the dough.
I also reduced the egg by one. I think you could leave the eggs out completely and still have pretty good doughnuts, if you’re looking for an eggless doughnut recipe. I used 5 cups of flour and still had a some what sticky dough. Please resist the urge to add more flour, otherwise you will end up with tough chewy doughnuts.
I could have (and really should have) baked my doughnuts but I decided to fry them because let’s face it, deep-fried doughnuts are the best. The whole world thinks so too, if you stop to take a look at how many countries/ cuisines across the world make their own version of deep fried dough, whatever they call them! So I shall bake doughnuts another day. For now, here are my adapted recipes for this month’s challenge. You can find the detailed challenge here.
This video of Alton Brown making his doughnuts is worth a watch.
Yeasted Doughnuts : Daring Bakers Challenge, October 2010
Ingredients
For the Doughnuts :
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 70 gm butter
- 3 tsps active dry yeast
- 1/3 cup water warm
- 1 egg , beaten
- 1/4 cup sugar granulated
- 1 1/2 tsps salt
- 5 cups all purpose flour + extra for dusting
For the Tangy Saffron Cardamom Glaze :
- 1/4 cup milk
- a few saffron threads of
- 1 tsp lemon juice fresh
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powdered
For the Chocolate Glaze :
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup milk whole , warmed
- 1 tbsp honey
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- xbe to 1 cups chocolate chopped bittersweet
- 1/2 tsp coffee instant powder
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
Instructions
- To make the doughnuts, warm the milk in a pan, over medium heat, just enough to melt the butter. In a small bowl, dissolve the yeast in warm water and 1 tsp of sugar and wait for about 5 minutes till the mixture is foamy. You can mix up and knead the dough in a mixer, but I did it with a wooden spoon.
- In a large bowl, put the dissolved yeast, the butter-milk mixture, the egg, sugar, salt and about 2 1/2 cups of flour. Using a wooden spoon, mix well till the flour is incorporated. Now add about 2 cups of flour and mix till a rather sticky dough forms. If your dough is very sticky add another 1/2 cup of flour, but no more. Do not give in to the temptation to add more flour.
- Mix the dough again with the spoon until all the flour has been well incorporated into the dough and looks smooth. It will still be a bit sticky.
- Lightly dust your palms with flour, and shape the dough into a ball, and place it in a well oiled bowl, turning it to coat it with oil. Loosely cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise for about 1 1/2 hours. Then place the risen dough in the fridge for another hour or so till it rises and is almost double in volume.
- Dust your work surface with flour and place the dough on it. Using your hands (dust your palms if necessary), lightly press the dough out to flatten it a bit and the roll it out to 1/2" thickness. Flour your cutter and cut out the dough into desired shape/ size.
- I made three different shapes u2013 the traditional round ones with a hole in the middle, some square ones, and some flower shaped ones. I used my doughnut cutter to cut small round doughnuts. For the square ones, I used my pizza cutter to cut out squares and then punched out the holes in the middle with a small piece of metal piping.
- For the flower shaped ones, I first cut out circles with a pastry ring and then used my dough scraper to make 6 equally spaced cuts from the edge towards the centre. Place the doughnuts on a floured surface and cover them loosely with a clean kitchen towel and allow them to rise for about 30 minutes.
- Then heat enough the oil in a pan (or fryer to 185C/ 365F), about 3u201d deep. I donu2019t have a fryer or thermometer, but because I have done a lot of deep-frying before, I can gauge the temperature of oil well enough.
- Slide the doughnuts, about 3 or 4 at a time, and fry them on both sides till theyu2019re a uniform golden brown. Remember the oil temperature needs to be right. If the temperature is low, the doughnuts will absorb a lot of oil and be greasy. If it is too hot, the doughnuts will turn dark quickly and be uncooked at the centre.
- Drain them on paper towels and allow them to cool a bit. Drop them into a paper bag containing cinnamon sugar and shake well to coat the doughnuts with sugar.
- Otherwise let them cool completely (about 15 to 20 minutes) before glazing them. This recipe makes about 20 to 25 doughnuts depending on the size and holes.
- Freezing doughnuts : If you would like to freeze some of your doughnuts, you can do it now before glazing them. Let them cool to room temperature. Place the doughnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet and place them in the freezer. When theyu2019re completely frozen, put them in a freezer bag and seal well.
- Whenever you would like some, remove the doughnuts from the freezer, place them on a sheet and heat them in a 200C (400F) for about 10 minutes. Dust them with sugar, fill them or glaze them, and serve.
- For the Tangy Saffron Cardamom Glaze, put the milk in a small pan and warm it over medium heat. Take the pan off the heat, add the saffron threads and let them steep in the milk for about 10 minutes, so that the saffron colours the milk.
- Put the pan back on medium heat, and heat the milk till it is warm again. Add the icing sugar and whisk well. Add the lemon juice and whisk again till the glaze is smooth. If you feel the glaze is a bit on the thinner side, add a little more icing sugar and whisk it in. Take the pan off the heat and place over a bowl of warm water.
- Working quickly with one at a time, dip one side of the doughnuts in the glaze. Place on a rack positioned over a cookie sheet, for about 10 mintes till the glaze sets. This recipe should be enough to glaze about 20 doughnuts, depending on the size.
- For the Chocolate Glaze, put the butter, milk, honey and vanilla in a pan, over medium and stir until the butter has melted. Turn down the heat to low and add the chocolate and the coffee powder. Whisk until the chocolate has melted. Take the pan off the heat and add the icing sugar. Whisk until smooth. Place the pan over warm water and dip the doughnuts, one at a time in the chocolate glaze. Place the glazed doughnuts on a rack over a cookie sheet for about 30 minutes for the glaze to set.
- This recipe makes enough chocolate glaze for about 20 doughnuts depending on the size. You can store this glaze in an airtight container for a few days and use it to drizzle over cookies or pancakes. Just warm it over warm water first.
I'm Aparna and My Diverse Kitchen is my ovo-lacto vegetarian food blog where you'll find recipes, food stories & photography. I've been blogging since 2007 and believe the kitchen, and the dining table (by extension) is really the heart of a home. 
Wow, what beautifully shaped doughnuts! I love cardamom – I’d planned on filling my bombolini with lemon and cardemom curd, but ‘accidently’ used the curd in a lemon meringue pie! As always, you made a fantastic job of the challenge! xxx
Saffron Cardamom glaze sounds so intriguing! Your donuts are beautiful, great job!
Lovely shapes of doughnuts….looks really yummy
Lovely doughnuts in different shapes. Liked the flower shaped more.
Great looking doughnuts! Very nicely done. Love the petals shaped ones!
I have been looking forward to your posting and I wasn’t disappointed at all. Wonderful result and the saffron one sounds superb. I love the square shaped one a lot. You are so creative and confident in your challenges. Cheers from Audax in Sydney Australia.
Wow you have made variety of them. Here at home we loved it, I too freezed few of them for S as she is only comming home int he weekend.My favourite is the glazed ones.
I really really love your flower shaped doughnuts, it looks so dainty! good job!
I like the flower shape ones – it’s so cute. I made the yeast ones, but really didn’t feel the taste of yeast at all. Maybe it really does depend on one’s taste buds 🙂
Oh, these look so adorable! Shall I fry?
You are such an inspiration. Your creativity is so amazing. Between the shapes and the flavors, all of your donuts are just stunning and look absolutely marvelous. Really amazing work.
Nice doughnuts Aparna. Love the inspiration and different shapes. The saffron sounds enticing!
Square shaped one looks so cute and wonderful job.. everything is yummy and the glaze is simply superb.
Cute looking doughnuts, looks absolutely awesome, love that square shaped one..
As always, you take the DB challenge to the next level. I love the different shapes, the glazes–everything looks perfect and delectable. Fabulous idea to make a saffron cardamom glaze. It makes these humble doughnuts so much more interesting and sophisticated.
It’s amazing how you’ve managed to make doughnuts look like a gourmet dessert! Beautiful work. 🙂
Wow they look absolutely gorgeous…love the different shapes…..
Loved the flowers and the squares
I love all the different shapes you made! They look so good. Too bad you didn’t try the baked ones as I actually thought they were pretty good. Maybe not a true doughnut but still quite delicious and not so fattening as the fried ones! Great shots as usual!
i really must try Alton Brown’s recipe before I ditch donut making once and for all. A lot of people seem to have had better luck with it than I did with mine!
I like the idea of saffron cardamom glaze. Sounds delish! Wonderful looking donuts.
They look lovely,A! I managed to do it this month, finally! 🙂
Love the shape of your doughnuts! Gorgeous!!
Aparna, what lovely doughnuts and what a lovely glaze (saffron cardamom) which I’ll have to try. I did not think the Alton Brown recipe tasted too yeasty, maybe it has something to do with the yeast itself? Anyway, they look delish and I’m sure you enjoyed them. Congrats!
Those look beautiful! I love how you used different shapes for the same batch of dough. Nice job on the challenge!
I love the flower shaped doughnuts you did and even the square ones! What delicious and different glazes you made – YUM!
Hi Aparna, beautiful doughnuts, I made mine on the 26th :)), will post it tomorrow, Half of it is already gone, they are my H & son’s favourite.., at last I participated this time.., lovely clicks too…
Aparna, your doughnuts are gorgeous! I love the square ones with that shiny chocolate glaze. I really need to try your cardamom and saffron glaze, as that is just one more way for me to use cardamom! I fully intended to cut the yeast in half in my recipe, but I halved the whole recipe and forgot to quarter the yeast. I realized moments later. Grrr! Anyway, I did all the rising in the fridge and they weren’t too yeasty. I find a warm rising temperature always brings out the yeasty taste.Superb work this month!:)
I love the flower doughnuts! How clever! And the saffron, cardamom and lemon glaze…. well, that is really clever!!!
I am impressed with your choice of shapes. They all look amazing!
Great donuts Aparna. We get fab baked donuts here and you never miss the taste of deep fried fat:)
Doughnuts galore. Love all the shapes, great to know the various ways a doughnut can be shaped. Lovely clicks.
wow!!! beautiful doughnuts. Loved the flower shaped one
The flower shaped donuts are just beautiful! Bravo for taking the effort to make different types of shapes and glaze.Sawadee from Bangkok,Kris
Aparna, I love your multi shaped doughnuts! I specially like the “flower”… and they look so delicious too!
Second you Aparna!! Fried donuts would probably the best!! Have eaten only store bought stuff and can imagine how good good home-made fresh ones must taste. A refreshing change to see square doughnuts and saffron cardamom glaze..
Aparna..such a beautiful array of shapes and toppings! Great idea to reduce the yeast in Alton’s recipe – I will do that next time. Gorgeous challenge results as always, and your photos are just beautiful 🙂
These are beautiful – and I can taste them just by looking at the picture. Your posts are always extraordinary! Pictures, content, everything. LOVE IT!Thanks! If I ever make doughnuts someday, I want to use this recipe!
Beautiful as always Aparna, love your doughnuts! They are just too good to eat.
Square doughnuts?!!Your creativity, as well as your photography, absolutely astounds me!
Yummmy!!!Incidently, I used another of Alton Brown’s recipe just a couple of days back.
Hi Aparna,Try removing v shaped wedges from the all around the round shaped donuts. That would increase the crisp area of the donut for those like it that way. Call it “gear wheel” donuts!
These all look so good! Great job!
thank you for sharing looks delicious
enjoyed the variety of donuts, especially the saffron cardammom ones. looks amazing!
aparna they looks soooo perfect and thanks for the glaze recipe.