Yeast Doughnuts

  3.7 – 38 reviews  

This recipe for light and fluffy yeast doughnuts makes a wonderful Christmas treat. If you want, you can drizzle them with chocolate glaze or top them with candy sprinkles.

Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Additional Time: 1 hr 45 mins
Total Time: 2 hrs 45 mins
Servings: 9
Yield: 18 doughnuts

Ingredients

  1. 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
  2. 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
  3. ¾ cup milk
  4. ¾ cup white sugar
  5. ¼ cup butter
  6. ½ teaspoon salt
  7. 2 large eggs
  8. 2 quarts oil for deep frying
  9. 1 cup confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Instructions

  1. Combine 1 3/4 cups flour with yeast in a large bowl. Heat milk, sugar, butter, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat until butter melts. Add milk mixture and eggs to flour mixture; beat with a heavy-duty electric mixer on low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds. Increase speed to high and beat for 3 minutes. Add remaining flour, a little at a time, stirring with a spoon until a firm but pliable dough forms.
  2. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and supple, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer to an oiled bowl. Cover and let dough rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
  3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, punch down dough, and roll out to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut out doughnuts with a floured doughnut cutter; re-roll trimmings and cut them into doughnuts. Transfer doughnuts to baking sheets, cover, and let rise for 45 minutes.
  4. Heat oil in a deep fryer to 360 degrees F (180 degrees C).
  5. Working in batches, fry doughnuts in hot oil, turning several times, until golden all over. Use a slotted spoon to remove doughnuts to a wire rack to drain and cool completely.
  6. Dredge cooled doughnuts in confectioners’ sugar.
  7. We have determined the nutritional value of oil for frying based on a retention value of 10% after cooking. The exact amount may vary depending on cook time and temperature, ingredient density, and the specific type of oil used.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 542 kcal
Carbohydrate 69 g
Cholesterol 57 mg
Dietary Fiber 2 g
Protein 8 g
Saturated Fat 6 g
Sodium 191 mg
Sugars 31 g
Fat 27 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Jonathan Rose
They really helped Easy to find quick understanding it was wonderful
Nicole Sanchez
Me and my dad made these together and we couldn’t be happier!! We added some chocolate glaze and some sprinkles too. Yum!:)
Leslie Collins
Made these. When using the oil, always fry in small batches (4max) to ensure they cook evenly. When they come out, place them on a wire rack to get the oil off.
Bradley Williams
great! I added a little orange zest and cinnamon, and yes make sure you leave time to let rise twice!
Megan Nguyen
Me and my family live in Chile and sell these doughnuts to the public. It did take a little getting used to, the first couple times we made them they were rather hard and un-risen, but now they are just as fluffy as store-bought. I strongly suggest this recipe.
Richard Anderson
i think this recipe is very very easy to make
Jeremy Jacobson
There are several reasons why this might be tricky: using yeast always is. The disasters some have noted almost certainly occurred because the yeast was dead (stale). It might be advisable to proof the yeast before making the recipe: dead yeast will never leaven anything. Also, if one wishes a fluffier or lighter doughnut, don’t bat the dough down completely: fluffier dough means a fluffier outcome. I must say I make this with sugar substitutes (being diabetic): xylitol or Diabetisweet (an Isomalt product) works fine: indeed, xylitol can be bought in powdered “confectioners'” form. It also helps to add some “nonbulk” sugar substitute also, Splenda (Sucralose) being preferred, in addition to the xylitol or Diabetisweet (which should replace granular and confectioners’ sugar on a one-to-one basis): I would suggest four or five packets per recipe. Keeping your yeast alive and happy till baking is, I would say, key.
Anthony Werner
I’m pretty sure I’m done trying different doughnut recipes. This one turned out just how I like them. I put a basic glaze on them and sprinkled my left over holiday sprinkles on them for the kids.
Christina Dalton
I couldn’t get the dough to rise so these didn’t make very good donuts. But what I came up with when I was done was a very good tasting “pretzel”.
Angela Ray
I really had high hopes for this recipe, but I think you’ve really got to have a good feel for bread making to get this one right. I do ok with bread, but I’m not amazing at it. Like several others, I had serious problems with the dough rising properly. It took me three tries and letting it sit out over night to finally get it to rise. I am sure I killed the yeast the 1st time. I was careful to temp the milk-sugar-butter mix the 2nd time, but it did not work. After that, I tested my yeast and my thermometer to make sure that was not the issue. The 3rd time, I was very very careful with the temp of the milk mixture, and finally after letting it sit out all night, it did rise, but not well. The resulting doughnuts were dense and difficult to fry with out burning, but they tasted alright. Not amazing by any means, but good, especially with a sugar glaze. I do not plan on using this recipe again.
Doris Jones
I followed directions perfectly and waited 3 hours for the dough to rise. Never did. Will throw this recipe out. Never will try this one again. It does not even rate a 1 star.
Sean Weaver
Not quite what I wanted in a doughnut. I was looking for a lighter, less bready texture, and definitely a little sweeter. I’ll keep looking. Not bad, just not my doughnut.
Linda Navarro DVM
Not bad. A tad too heavy for me, but still good none-the-less.
Christian Daniel
The recipe did not rise. Someone might happen get some good results possibly from this, but very bad directions.
Carol Elliott
The first time I used this recipe I found them delicious, however they did not rise well. So the second time, I did the milk, yeast, and sugar together then followed the recipe. They were much better. Instead of dusting I made a choc glaze and a vanilla glaze.
Allen Gonzales
These are Great!
Emily Wilson
delicious
Joseph Martinez
Great recipe it’s very similar to one I have been using for years. A tip for first timers: the side that you have facing up while rising turn them over and deep fry that side down first and it will help the doughnuts rise better and they wont turn out as cake like.
Jason Snyder
This is a good recipe for anyone wanting to make donuts similar to your local donuts shop. They are not cake donuts and if they turn out like that, then you didn’t make them correctly. I recommend microwaving the milk, butter & sugar one minute or until luke-warm to avoid killing the yeast when you add it to your dry ingredients. You may need to let the doughnuts rise longer than the recipe calls for. Also make sure that you are using good yeast that hasn’t expired. It’s all about the rise and that they are cooked properly. I recommend using a thermostat controlled deep fryer to accurately fry these doughnuts just a little bit past golden brown. Let them cool down before you coat them. They are excellent with glaze, powdered sugar & various flavors of cake icing.
Michael Mcdaniel
I followed the direction to a T and they tasted more like cake doughnuts. They weren’t soft and and chewy in the inside they were more cake like. My husband liked them as for me I like the taste of actual yeast doughnuts.
Jeffrey Hill
do not overbake these! once i learned not to overbake, they taste like the ‘real thing’.

 

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