Doughnuts with Brown Butter Vanilla Glaze

There isn’t too much to say about these, except that they are unbelievable!!!! The dough is very forgiving- I accidentally left the dough for 4 hours, and I thought I would have to toss when I got back, but I didn’t- the dough was great! I also waited about ½ hour between mixing all of the ingredients and adding the milk (again on accident) and it was totally fine!

Also, I really can’t speak enough to how good these were. I brought the dough to my moms house and rolled them out, cut them and fried them up there, where a bunch of us had a family dinner. They were truly all eaten. Every single one. And, yes, I did have a stomach ache afterwards- but in a good way ☺

Certainly feel free to skip the glaze and just go for powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar.

Fluffy Doughnut Dough
½ oz of instant rise yeast
¼ cup water (that is about 110 degrees)
1 ½ cups whole milk
½ cup sugar
1 tsp salt
2 eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup Crisco
2 ½ cups AP flour
3 cups cake flour

Add the milk to a small pan, and bring the milk to a boil. Immediately remove the pan from the heat and let the milk cool. (I think it helps if you transfer it to another bowl so that it can cool faster).

In a small bowl, combine the hot water and the yeast. Let sit while rising, about 10 minutes. (Also, make sure that you test the temperature of the water after it is in the bowl- because a cold bowl can cool the temperature down so much that the yeast doesn’t rise. Also, make sure that you stir the yeast into the water right when you add it).

Combine the milk, sugar, salt, eggs, Crisco and the 2 ½ cups of AP flour. Mix well, and then add the yeast. When this is well combined, add the additional 3 cups of cake flour.

Mix on high for about 3-5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth.

Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and leave in a non-drafty place for about an hour (or in my case up to 4 hours!).

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll the nice, fluffy, soft dough to about ½ inch in thickness.

Using a doughnut cutter, or two round cookie cutters, cut out the doughnuts, (saving the holes).

Place these on a sheet pan (mine had a silpat, but you could use wax paper or parchment), and let them rise about another 30 minutes, and up to 2 hours.

In a large, heavy pot, heat 1 qt of vegetable oil to 350 degrees (please use a thermometer!!) Fry the doughnuts and doughnut holes just until golden brown, before gently flipping them with a chopstick or a Chinese spider strainer.

When golden on both sides, pick them up with the Chinese spider strainer. Let them sit on a cooling rack to drain, (although they really wont be very greasy). If you want them to be powdered sugar or cinnamon-sugar donuts, than immediately put them in a paper bag filled with the sugar or sugar mixture, and shake to coat.