a Portuguese raised and deep-fried doughnut. In Southeastern Massachusetts, where I grew up, they are quite well-liked as fundraisers.
| Prep Time: | 1 day 6 hrs |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 day 6 hrs 30 mins |
| Servings: | 48 |
| Yield: | 48 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ cup warm water
- 1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
- 4 eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup lukewarm milk
- ¾ cup butter or margarine, melted
- 1 quart vegetable oil for deep-frying
- 1 cup white sugar for decoration
Instructions
- Dissolve 1 teaspoon of sugar in warm water. Sprinkle yeast over the top, and let stand for about 5 minutes to dissolve.
- In a large bowl, beat the eggs and 1 cup of sugar until sugar has completely dissolved. Stir in the salt and flour. Mix in the yeast mixture, milk and melted butter. A wooden spoon works well for this. Cover and set in a warm place to rise until doubled.
- Once the dough has doubled, punch down and knead a bit – a lot if you want. The dough should be elastic. Cover and allow to rise again. If you like, you may refrigerate overnight. My grandmother would let it rise overnight, and hers were amazing. When the dough has doubled, it is ready to use.
- Heat oil in a deep fryer or large deep skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Set a small dish of water to the side for wetting your hands slightly before touching the dough. This will help it keep from sticking. Only wet your hands a little, excess water dripping in the hot oil is very dangerous.
- With slightly wet hands, gather a small ball of dough about the size of a golf ball. Stretch the dough out a little bit while turning around until you have a disc about 4 inches wide. If you mess up, just throw it back in with the other dough, and start over. Tiny holes are fine.
- Carefully place the stretched dough into the hot oil. The doughnuts should puff up a bit as they hit the oil. Cook for about 3 minutes per side. They are done when they are golden brown. Remove from the oil using a slotted spoon, and drain on paper towels. Coat with white sugar while still hot. Serve warm.
- These freeze really well, warm them up in the toaster oven or microwave.
- The thinner you get them, the faster they fry and the less oil they soak up.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 121 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 17 g |
| Cholesterol | 24 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 77 mg |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 5 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
i grew up in new bedford, now im living in seattle WA. and these are just as i remember back home. awsome stuff
Amazing! I let it rise until double then put it in the fridge overnight. The dough was sticky, but the water trick worked to keep your hands free of dough. The hardest part was keeping the oil at the right temperature…the darker ones were nice and crispy though. 🙂
I combined the dusting sugar with li hing powder, 3 Tablespoons sugar to 1 teaspoon li hing powder. These taste very good! I only rate this a 4 because as written, it is difficult to combine the ingredients. In the future I will add all liquid ingredients to the egg and sugar mixture and then add the liquid mixture to the dry mixture. This is a soft dough, like thick/fluffy pancake batter. Rather than handling the dough I found it easier to scoop some dough with a spoon and push it into the heated oil with an oiled finger.
well It has been a long long time since I have had Malasadas…this brought back memories!Thanks for posting this-my gramma(vova) has passed since and my mom doesnt remember how to make. I can now make this for my children and some day my grandchildren. It was a little bit of trial and error for me getting the dough to rise and it was quite sticky to deal with but I would not add/change a thing! This was so DELICIOUS!! And authentic! 5 stars!
This recipe is a little off. I just made a batch and it was too loose. 3/4 cup of melted butter is too much in itself. 3/4 of a stick maybe? I was really looking forward to having these as I haven’t had a good malasadas in quite sometime. I guess I’ll just head to Fall River to find some. Please correct this recipe. Thank You.
the dough was sticky. let it rise overnight. only rose 1/4, not doubled(i think its the yeast).. so i punched in 1 tsp bakin soda into dough. my first batch was dense . it was 1cm thick. i made the rest into 1 inch balls and rolled about 1/4 inch. half was cinnamon. i froze them between wax paper and place in bowl. cover to stop the freezer taste. they thaw out really fast. didnt deep fry, just fry. use the paper bag method to coat in sugar. these puff really good when i fried them. i always let double for at least 6 hrs. easy and will always make. simply good.
These come out very light and airy. I like a fried dough that’s a little heavier, but my Portuguese grandparents thought they came out perfect. The dough is tricky to work with- it’s very soupy. I added 1 cup more flour and it was still the consistancy of pancake batter. Next time I think I’ll add some lemon zest to the dough for a little more flavor. All in all, a very good recipe.
My Portuguese mother made malasadas. Now I can share these wonderful delights with my friends in Ocala, FL. This recipe is perfect!
I followed recipe exactly but my dough never thickened enough to knead. It was more like a thick batter. I just dropped spoonfuls into oil.
Made this with my gluten-free flour and they turned out soooo yummy! Definitely time consuming though.
These were delicious. I made the dough up early in the morning, with counter-top rising rather than fridge overnight rising. The dough was too thin and sticky to work with by hand, so I just used two spoons to scoop the dough into the oil. I put the remaining dough in the fridge for 24 hours, and the donut consistency the next day was even better.
These turned out just like the way my mom made them. They were eaten up in no time by my husband’s family. Thanks so much for posting the recipe!
Tried it and I like It. I live at a higher elevation so add a extra 1 1/2cups of flour. dough was sticky but followed Intructions to wet fingures(WORK GOOD) I also let it rise over night in Frig. I fried up about 1/2 the batch and put the left overs in a greased Gal. ziplock bag. in frig. for the next day better the second then the first. Thank you for the recipe. I well make it over and over.
I ate too many of these, but I do not regret it. I think it would be really good with some lemon or orange zest added to the dough, or perhaps to the sugar used to coat the donuts. Cooking temp is very important.
I am from Fall River Mass and these Malasadas are what you find at your Portuguese bakery down the street 🙂
I made these malasadas. They were better than average. I am sure with some practice, they will get even better. The dough was a little soupy, so I added a bit of flour. I could have mis-counted the flour, but I really should be able to count to 8. We only have a half cup measure. I cooked them on the stove in a skillet and in a fry-daddy. The fry dadddy would only hold one at a time, but the temp was perfect 340 degrees. The pan on the stove help 4 at a time but was really hard to keep a constant temp. I used a digital temp probe (sneaky).