Doughnuts

Well if there is anything Canadians like it is their doughnuts. Seriously there is likely a doughnut shop on every corner right next to the pizza joint. Doughnuts are so easy to make at home and they taste so much better piping hot from the deep fryer. They are also considerably cheaper to make at home for those wishing to save a bit of money. My husband called from the golf course Saturday about 7 pm to say a bunch of the guys were coming over to play poker. Ok the first thought was what could I make for the guys because they really do expect home cooked food when they come here. The second thought was how could I pull this off with the kitchen in such a disarray? By the time the guys arrived I had a plan - doughnuts!

That Night

Sounds complicated for a kitchen torn apart with utensils and whatnot scattered throughout the family room doesn't it. But it really wasn't. I needed a dry and wet measuring cup, the KitchenAid® stand mixer and the deep fryer. I couldn't find my doughnut cutter either so I improvised by cutting the doughnut rounds out using a wide mouth mason jar lid and omitting the hole. This suited the guys just fine as apparently eating the holes is a waste of time when you can be eating a whole doughnut although I do hear Tim Hortons® would differ of that opinion. Anyway, the picture does not really do justice to the doughnuts. They were large and fluffy. I coat them in organic sugar or organic sugar mixed with cinnamon.

Doughnuts

1 ¼ c milk
1 egg, beaten
¼ c butter
¼ c granulated sugar
1 tsp salt
3 ½ c white flour
1 ½ tsp instant yeast

Place dry ingredients into KitchenAid® stand mixer bowl on setting 2. Mix briefly on setting two. Stir wet ingredients together. With the mixer set to setting 2 slowly pour in the wet ingredients. Continue mixing until the dough is smooth and elastic. Let rise until double. Roll the dough ½ - inch thick. Cut into desired shape. Let rise until double. Deep fry at 375ºF (190ºC) turning as the doughnuts rise to the surface.

The Next Day

I made a double batch of the doughnut dough. The problem was the guys ended up not eating as many as I thought they would. So what I did was package up about ¼ of the double batch into a plastic container then put it into the fridge. What I was really thinking is there's no point wasting the dough but I didn't have any idea as to whether the dough would work fine the next day.

I pulled the dough out of the fridge the following morning for breakfast. Being rather lazy or the coffee not kicking in quick enough I simply formed the dough into a flat round the cut into pieces. Once the dough doubled in size I fried as normal. These sure didn't look like doughnuts but they tasted just fine. My family game them a two thumbs up while smacking their lips and looking for more. Now I'm not one to not experiment with food. I just simply never thought of refrigerating the dough but it does work quite nicely.