Hello friends!

Let me start with a confession: I don’t love doughnuts. To be sure, I’ll eat them if they are on hand, but I don’t seek them out. I seek out ice cream. I seek out chocolate chip cookies. I don’t seek out doughnuts.

I don’t love making doughnuts, either. I don’t hate making them, but standing in front of a hot fryer isn’t my idea of a good time. And let me quickly add, regardless out what you see on the internet, if it’s not fried, it’s not a doughnut!

So why post about doughnuts? Because they’re so popular! Currently, I produce cake doughnuts every Sunday morning for Sunday brunch at the club where I work. And every week, some co-worker or another will make the comment “you know, Owen, these doughnuts are the best part of working on Sunday.” As I think about it, that may not be such a compliment. There aren’t many good things about working on a Sunday to compete with.

Regardless, I have had some success with doughnuts on dessert plates, also. Bomboloni paired with gelato makes a very nice plated dessert, and sugared cake doughnuts served over individual dishes of creme anglaise have served beautifully on a buffet.

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300 grams cake flour

200 grams bread flour

175 grams granulated sugar

10 grams baking powder

7 grams salt

1 1/2 grams baking soda

Optional: pinch of nutmeg, allspice, or ginger

Optional: finely grated orange or lemon zest

44 grams shortening or oil

250 grams buttermilk

40 grams egg yolks

8 grams vanilla extract

Begin by mixing the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a mixing bowl. If any optional ingredients are being used, now is the time to add those as well.

When the dry ingredients are evenly blended, add the shortening or oil. Blend this thoroughly into the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl, mix the buttermilk, egg yolks, and vanilla. Fold these wet ingredients into the dry; then spend a few moments folding the dough over onto itself, so that it becomes a smooth mass.

Roll out the dough on a well-floured bench, to a thickness of approximately three eighths of an inch thick. This may seem a little thin, but these rise nicely in the fryer. Using a doughnut cutter, or a set of round pastry cutters, punch out the doughnuts.

Fry at 375. These will sink at first when they are first dropped into the oil, but will quickly rise. After about thirty seconds, flip the doughnuts over, and fry to proper color. Remove from fryer, and leave on a wire screen to drain.

While they are still warm, toss them in cinnamon sugar, plain granulated sugar, or glaze.

To finish these with powdered sugar, allow them to cool more.