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DONUTS (real deal fried ones)

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This recipe for donuts has been a long time coming. When I created my Everything Dough and the recipes that went along with it, I just knew that there was donut potential in there.

 

And wouldya look at that. DONUTS.

Last year around the holidays, I tested this recipe about 12 times until I got it right. My plan was to add it to my Everything Dough ebook, since that’s the recipe that inspired them, but a year has gone by and it hasn’t happened. So when I decided to make them for Hanukkah this year, I figured I should just put the recipe here.

But you should still buy the ebook, there’s good stuff in there 😉

 

The reason these donuts don’t have holes in them is because I was hoping to fill them with jelly, in true sufganiyot fashion. But I wasn’t very successful in that endeavor and just got jelly all over the place.

You are more than welcome to try, though. And feel free to use a donut cutter to make them the classic donut shape! OR: if you want to go the beignet route, just cut them into squares.

 

Please note: This is a real donut recipe. They are not baked, which means they are not cake batter poured into a donut pan. Real donuts are made with a yeasted dough; there is some time involved. But if you ask me, they are 100% worth it.

Please also note: Donuts are best on the day they are made, preferable not long after they are fried. The ones pictured in this post were actually made the day before I photographed them, thanks to sunset being so damn early this time of year. They were even poofier the day they were made.

And I know, deep frying can be scary. I get it. But baked donuts are bullshit. I’m half kidding.
Some deep frying pointers:

  1. Make sure the utensils you use are bone-dry. Water + hot oil is no bueno.
  2. Only fill a pan 1/3 full with oil, max. It will expand when you add things to it, and oil bubbling over a pot is dangerous and messy. If it overflows, turn your burner off immediately.
  3. Use a thermometer to test the oil temperature. While it is possible to wing it, a thermometer will ensure you’re cooking at the right temp.
  4. Use heat-safe utensils- no plastic!
  5. Wear clothes. Look, I’m not judging. It’s just that there is always the possibility of splattering oil, and the less exposed surface area, the better.
  6. And never, ever, ever, ever use water to put out a grease fire! Turn off the heat and cut off the oxygen by covering it with a pan or massive amounts of baking soda, if you happen to have it handy.

 

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Donuts

donuts
Print Recipe

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4 from 3 reviews

real deal, fried donuts. gluten-free, grain-free and dairy-free.

  • Author: Simone Miller
  • Prep Time: 30 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 18 donuts
  • Category: Dessert

Ingredients

  • ½ cup water (warmed to about 95ºF*)
  • ½ cup full fat canned coconut milk ( warmed to about 95ºF*)
  • 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
  • ¼ cup honey
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup (74 grams) potato starch, (plus more for dusting)
  • 1/2 cup (70 grams) cassava flour, (plus more for dusting)
  • 1/4 cup (30 grams)) ground psyllium husk**
  • ¼ teaspoon finely ground sea salt
  • 2 ½ – 3 cups oil for frying ((something neutral tasting like avocado or light olive oil))

Instructions

  1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve the yeast in the water and coconut milk. Set aside for 5-10 minutes, it should get foamy and active.
  2. Add the honey, eggs and vanilla extract and whisk until well combined.
  3. Stir in the potato starch, cassava flour, psyllium husk, and salt. Whisk until thickened slightly. (At this point, it will still look more like cake batter than dough. Don’t panic.)
  4. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for 60-90 minutes. During this time, it will thicken into a dough and rise a bit. Alternately, you can refrigerate overnight.
  5. Stir the dough and turn out onto a liberally dusted surface. (I like using a combination of cassava flour and potato starch but you could use one or the other)
  6. Sprinkle some flour onto the dough, and knead until smooth and no longer too sticky to work with.
  7. Roll out to about ¼ inch thick. Cut into circles with a donut cutter or wine glass, anything that’s 2-3 inches in diameter will work. Lightly knead the remaining dough and repeat. If you have a few scraps left, keep them for testing the oil temperature (and eating while you fry the other donuts, obviously)
  8. Cover with a tea towel, and let rise for 45 minutes to one hour. They will aerate a bit and become more delicate but it won’t be super dramatic (again, don’t panic)
  9. In a medium pan, heat the oil to 350-375ºF. Line a baking sheet with paper towels.
  10. Using a metal spatula, lower the donuts into the oil one by one, in batches of 3-5 at a time, depending on how many comfortably fit in your pan. Fry for 45 seconds to 1 minute per side, being careful when you flip them. Transfer to the paper towel lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough.
  11. Dust the donuts with powdered sugar or glaze them, if desired (recipe below). You can also fill them with jelly if you are more patient than I am.

To make the glaze:

  1. Whisk together 1/2 cup coconut milk, 1/2 cup water and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract. Sift in 1 cup powdered sugar and whisk until smooth.
    For the chocolate glaze, I just mixed in chocolate syrup (I didn’t measure, I just added until it looked right). You could also add melted chocolate, which would harden better and be less sweet! 

Notes

*When a drop is placed on the inside of your wrist, it should feel warm, but not hot.

**You can buy psyllium husk already ground, which works fine but is typically dark in color, and gives baked goods a strange brownish purplish tint. I prefer to buy it whole and grind it myself, either a small amount in a coffee or spice grinder, or a larger amount in my blender.


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Comments

  2. Off the donut topic and onto the Everything Dough E-Book. I purchased this time last year and had time to make the cinnamon rolls the morning I was serving them. BUT…this year, I must make them ahead of time so…I bake and freeze – correct? Thanks so much! Love the New Yiddish Kitchen cookbook too!!!

    Reply

    • You can bake and freeze, and you can also make the dough and form them and refrigerate the night before and pop them in the oven the next morning…. If you have time the night before! Either way should work 🙂 If you bake them all the way through and freeze, just underbake them a bit the first round.

      Reply

    • Hello! This recipe looks fantastic! I make your everything dough cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls all the time! Could this be converted to make chocolate donuts??

      Reply

  3. Wow! So grateful for your generosity in sharing this recipe. I can’t wait to try it. I love your website and your creativity. ❤️

    Reply

  4. Hello, I am clean out of potato starch and wanting to make these. Would Tapioca or Arrowroot work as a substitute? Thanks!

    Reply

    • It might, but I can’t say for sure without testing it. Potato starch has a different texture than the other two and is heavier, so you might need a little more than the recipe calls for.

      Reply

    • Coconut flour will not work. I can’t tell you what will work without experimenting, and I already did that many times when I created the recipe. There isn’t another grain-free flour like cassava flour. If you do some experimenting and find a good sub, please report back!

      Reply

  7. These look delicious! I was just gifted an all-clad deep fryer and am wondering if I can make these in there for about 2 minutes total?

    Reply

      • Okay – so I am pretty sure this is a fabulous recipe, but I botched something along the way. I made my dough at night, the yeast mixture looked good according to the instructions. I refrigerated it in a metal bowl with a tight lid overnight. In the morning it was bigger and rolled out beautifully. My donuts got super poofy in my deep fryer, but then they all deflated… I realized I had it too cool first at 350, and they did better once the oil heated to 375. They did slightly better also when I cut the traditional donut hole out of them, but still were only about 50% as fluffy as the one in your photo. I averted a crisis while the cut donuts were proofing under the tea towels. I realized I had fried coconut shrimp previously and had to put all new oil in, so they ended up sitting out for 90 minutes before I started frying. Do you think this was the problem? Or something else along the way? My family LOVED the taste and texture and we still at them all, but it was still so clear that something went wrong. Any ideas?

      • Hi Joey,
        I do find that they deflate more than traditional donuts; gluten really does help hold up the structure quite a bit. They could have over-proofed on the counter too. I’m glad you still enjoyed them!

  8. Hello Simone, Wondering if I can use a replacement for coconut milk in the donut recipe…well, most any recipe that calls for coconut cream or milk? My husband doesn’t do well with coconut. Thanks for all the yummy recipes.
    Kind Regards,
    Sophia Sutton

    Reply

    • Hi Sophia! Any kind of milk should work! This recipe is adapted from a recipe that uses regular dairy milk, and I’m sure another dairy-free alternative should work, too.

      Reply

  9. Making these now for the second time. We really love these donuts and OH MY GOODNESS, the smell of the dough it is everything. Thank you so much for this recipe!! Made exactly as is both times.

    Reply

  10. I’d love to try these but with Xylitol / erythritol. Do you know if that would work without the stickiness of the honey?

    Reply

  11. I was super excited about this recipe and believe I did everything exactly as written, including using a scale to weigh the ingredients. The dough behaved like you described and they looked great going into the oil and puffed up to be beautiful but as soon as I took them out they deflated almost as flat as pancakes and were pretty gooey. It seems like maybe they needed additional flour for structure but turned out too unpleasant to try again. Yours do look beautiful!

    Reply

    • Sorry to hear that, Aarin. Sounds like your yeast was a dud and/or they were undercooked. If they were gooey inside and deflated, it’s likely that they weren’t cooked enough. Did you use ground psyllium or whole?

      Reply

  12. Hello! This recipe looks fantastic! I make your everything dough cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls all the time! Could this be converted to make chocolate donuts??

    Reply

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