D is for Donut

I love donuts so much, I wanted to be cop when I was young. I was even tempted to fail my quizzes in primary school to get that "donut" the teachers spoke of. This is a very simple recipe which produces a tasty yeast-based donuts (a la K.Kreme) i.e. the soft and fluffy sort as opposed to the denser cake sort.

Ingredients:

Donuts
1. 6 cups plain flour (or more if required)
2. 2 satchets of yeast
3. 1-1/2 cups warm milk
4. A pinch of salt
5. 1/2 cup sugar
6. 100g butter
7. 2 eggs
8. Vegetable oil (for frying)

Honey Glaze
1. Honey
2. Sugar
3. Vanilla essence
4. Water
5. Butter

Method:
1. Pour the two satchets of yeast into about 100ml of warm water and leave it for about 15 minutes
2. Mix the butter, sugar, eggs, salt and milk on slow speed until smooth
3. Mix in the yeast and about two cups of flour till you obtain a paste-like texture

4. Add the remaining flour and manually mix and knead till a soft elastic texture is obtained (add more flour if it's too wet)

5. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cling wrap the top
6. Set it aside in a warm place for about an hour and the volume should double (or more!)

7. With a rolling pin, roll the dough (using copious amounts of extra flour if it's too sticky) into sheets of about 1/2 an inch in thickness
8. Using cookie cutters, cut out the donut shapes

9. Line them up on a lightly greased tray prior to frying

10. Glaze (no fixed proportions here)
a. Melt some butter in a pan
b. Stir in sugar and honey till desired flavor is obtained
c. Add a few drops of vanilla essence

d. Add water and stir on low heat until desired viscosity is achieved

11. Heat oil on medium heat, test the temperature first by sacrificing one of those donut centers
12. Fry each donut for about 20-30s on each side (they cook very quickly!)

13. Set aside donuts to cool and excess oil to drip off (they won't pick up the glaze if they're too greasy or too hot)

14. Dip one side of each donut into the honey glaze and serve warm!

There we go, no long queues at this shop but still heaps of soft, fluffy and great-tasting donuts. Try experimenting with different flavors; I made a nutella one which was pretty good (just dipped into microwaved melted nutella) and a green tea one which looked pretty dodgy haha.

Of course, how could we forget what to do with the centers? Donut balls on a stick - a childhood classic.

D