Donuts, food from heaven. These donuts are light, melt in your mouth goodness. Perfect for … hmm, all the time? I think so.

{updated post from June 25, 2016}

This post is going to be a bit long since I have a lot to tell you about how to make perfect donuts at home. Not because it's complicated, just so the first time you make it, it can be a success and you can make again and again.

I have been making this recipe and modifying it for several years.

For a while, we were known for our donuts 😌 My husband used to make them every Saturday for breakfast. Soon we realized that it was not the best for our health and our precious Saturday donuts were done.

Copycat Krispy Kreme Donuts

I found the recipe about 10 years ago. It was a copy or imitation of the donuts sold at Krispy Kreme, an American donut chain (our favorite).

From that recipe, which I can not find the website anymore, this recipe for donuts came out. The amounts for the ingredients varied and the biggest change I made was using a different kind of flour.

One day, for lack of all purpose flour, I used self-rising flour. To our surprise, the donuts came out much lighter and fluffier. From that moment on, we continued using self-rising flour.

Making Donuts with Shortening

For the donut dough, we're using vegetable shortening and not butter.

Shortening actually refers to all fats and oils, but what we are talking about here is hydrogenated (like Crisco). It remains semi-solid at room temperature.

Making Donuts with a Bread Machine

This is my favorite way to make donuts. This was the easiest way to make donuts for breakfast on Saturdays.

All the ingredients are added to the breadmaker's container, according to the machine's instructions, and then you need to program it for Dough. Our machine has a setting for scheduling when we want to start the machine, even when we are not present, and have it done at the time we want to continue with the recipe.

If you use this method (which only mixes, kneads and leaven the dough) I recommend using instant yeast.

In my experience, this yeast dissolves easily, unlike active dry yeast, the dough ended up with visible yeast granules.

Donut Dough

So, you have your dough ready, rolled and cut all the donuts, what do you do with the bits of dough left over?

You have two options:

you can fry them (kids like to imagine these are different kind of animals)
or you can bring the dough together again, knead it for 3 to 5 minutes, let rise again (about 40 minutes) and continue with step 5.

Fried Donuts

Many people want to know if these donuts can be baked. Yes, they can be baked, but they come out tasting like bread 🤷 fluffy and delicious bread. But not like a real donut 😉.

I use vegetable oil to fry these donuts at low temperature. For those of you who have thermometers and want to know the correct temperature, it should be 180C / 360F.

Glazed Donuts

So you already know how to make light donuts (using self-rising flour) and now we go to the glaze.

It's simple, but you need to use quality icing sugar to get a smooth and shiny glaze.

I do not know what icing sugar will be like in your country, but here we have national brands that look like cornstarch or are a little grainy.

A few years ago, this Brazilian brand began to come to Paraguay. It is finely ground and makes perfect glazes.

Making Donut Dough Ahead of Time

Last year I sold some donuts. I made the dough the day before (I think I made 5 recipes 😱). I made them until step 4 of the recipe card. Then I kept the dough in the refrigerator.

The next day, I removed the dough from the fridge and needed the dough to return to room temperature (something that takes about an hour) I was in a hurry and began to roll the dough while it was still cold. The first donuts did not come out well.

I've also done until step 5 and then put the donuts in the fridge for one night and then fried them the next day. I do not recommend doing this. The donuts did not come out spongy. They were heavy. Not how a donut should be.

What other questions or comments do you have about making homemade donuts?

I hope this post helps you make the best donuts ever! 😊

I love donuts, as you can see. Come and see other donut recipes I have here:

If you liked the recipe above, please consider rating the recipe and leaving a comment below! and share your picture on Instagram with the hashtag #chipabythedozen

Recipe

Print Recipe

5 from 10 votes

How to Make Donuts from Scratch

Donuts, food from heaven. These donuts are light, melt in your mouth goodness.

Prep Time25

Cook Time20

Resting TIme2

Total Time2 45

Course: Dessert, Snack

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 260kcal

Author: Lizet Bowen

Ingredients

Dough:

1-¾ cups milk
⅓ cup vegetable shortening (64g)
1 teaspoon sugar
4 teaspoons dry yeast
2 beaten eggs
6 cups self-rising flour (750g)
½ cup sugar (100g)
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups vegetable oil for frying

Glazed:

5 cups icing sugar (625g)
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup milk (120ml)

Instructions

In a measuring glass, add milk and shortening. Heat in the microwave for 1:40 minutes. Remove the glass and add 1 teaspoon of sugar and 4 teaspoons of dry yeast. Stir and let stand for 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, add 6 cups of flour, ½ cup of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add 2 beaten eggs, and milk with the yeast. Mix with your hands or a wooden ladle until the dough comes together.
Put the dough on a clean and flat surface, sprinkled with a little flour. Knead for 10 minutes stretching the dough with the palm of the hand and folding it again. Until the dough is soft and elastic.
Grease a large bowl with vegetable oil, put the dough and cover with a towel. Let it stand for 1.5 hours or until doubled in size.
On a floured surface, roll dough to 2 cm / 1 inch thick and cut with a donut cutter. If you do not have one, you can use a glass and a small lid. Lay donuts on a kitchen towel and let it rest for half an hour.
Heat the oil on low heat (180C / 360F). Fry each donut for about 1 minute each side, and let drain on paper towels.
Prepare the glaze by mixing all the ingredients in a large bowl.
Dip each donut in the glaze and let drain on a rack.
Serve while they are fresh (they are not very good the next day).