This Gal Bakes: Donuts

Apparently I’ve been bitten by the baking bug. And up until a couple months ago, I didn’t even know I liked baking. Ever since, I’ve had one major thing on my baking bucket list, donuts. A couple of weeks ago I did make up a batch of cake donuts, which were AMAZING. But I really wanted to try my hand at raised donuts, which involved yeast, and that terrified me. Turns out there was nothing to worry about.

It just so happens, I put my fears aside just in time to celebrate National Donut Day, which apparently has a rich history. The holiday was created in 1938 by the Salvation Army to honor their World War I women volunteers. During the War, volunteers known as the ‘Dough Girls’, would take donuts overseas to boost soldier morale. The tradition was picked up again during the second World War by the Red Cross. Pretty interesting, right?

I also made the chocolate glaze from scratch. It’s surprising how easy it was. Melt some butter and chocolate together, add a bunch of powdered sugar, then slowly add some milk until you get a consistency you’re happy with and that’s it. The exact recipe is from good ol’ Betty Crocker circa 1980. I haven't been able to find a recipe like it online.

I love the look of a sprinkled donut, but I’m not a fan of eating them. So, I sprinkled a couple anyway for photo purposes only to realize the sprinkles I found in the cupboard were a little bit less than fresh... Luckily, I only sprinkled a few.

As for the donuts themselves, they were insanely easy, too. Yeast and all. I don’t know why I decided to do this, but I followed a cinnamon roll recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction for the dough then sort of just winged it from there. After mixing the dough, I just did everything I did for my cake donuts. Rolled out the dough to 3/8 of and inch, cut the donuts. Then I went back to the cinnamon roll recipe for rising times, about 90 minutes. After they had risen, I fried them in a large pot of oil, as per cake donut recipe. And I'm really happy with the results.

The only complaint I have about these are they're a little dense. After a little bit of research I learned, it’s either because I didn’t let them rise enough, or I added too much flour. Probably a combination of the two. Either way, it was a good learning process and the results are still totally edible.

Recipes Used
Dough: Easy Cinnamon Rolls (from scratch) by Sally's Baking Addiction
Glaze: Chocolate Glaze by Betty Crocker (1980)
Frying Instructions: Cake and Raised Donuts by Betty Crocker (1980)

I’m still new to baking, but I’m thinking this new hobby is another one that’s going to stick. Either way, if you want to follow my journey follow me on Instagram and see all the things I’m making that don’t make it to the blog.