Table of Contents
Today we continue the series of recipes that you can make with the little ones. As I mentioned in the case of Homemade Jam Biscuits, Chocolate Biscuit Log or Homemade Gingerbread Cookies, when we cook together with children, we should not expect the most spectacular dishes, but rather enjoy the quality time spent together and the strong bond that is created between us and our kids.
Homemade fluffy donuts is an extremely popular dessert all over the world is supposed to have its origin from olykoek (“oil(y) cake”) Dutch settlers which brought with them to early New York (or New Amsterdam).
Today I will present you a recipe for easy donuts made from scratch, which can be made with or without filling. Also, for a kids friendly version, we will significantly reduce the amount of sugar used and we will analyze how we can decorate these simple homemade fluffy donuts to obtain a healthier version for this fluffy and delicious dessert.
As I mentioned, homemade fluffy donuts can be filled with various creams or fruit jams, or they can be prepared simple, possibly glazed or dusted with a little sugar on top.
History of Donuts
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, fluffy donuts are similar to what the Dutch settlers brought to New York, during their migration of the 17th and 18th centuries.
However, these oily cakes did not have the well-known shape of today’s doughnuts, which is the ring shape, but were simple, basically some deep-fried dough balls.
Even today, I like to prepare them simple, but my daughter Sofia is fascinated by the ring shape of the donuts that can be bought in the store, so I also made ring shaped homemade fluffy donuts, to resemble as much as possible to the donuts from patisseries.
Essential Ingredients for Homemade Fluffy Donuts
For my recipe for old-fashioned deep-fried donuts, which is the same one that my grandmother used to make 20 years ago, I used a short list of simple ingredients, available to anyone:
- 500 gr flour
- 375 gr of milk
- 30 g of sugar (I significantly reduced the amount of sugar, for kidfriendly donuts)
- 2 eggs
- 50 gr of melted butter
- 50 gr of sunflower oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 25 grams of fresh yeast or 8 grams of dry yeast
- 1 pinch salt.
In addition to these ingredients, you will need a significant amount of oil to be able to deep-fry the donuts and, depending on what kind of homemade fluffy donuts you want to make, you can choose to fill them with homemade donut filling or you can leave them simple and decorate them with a little sugar or cinnamon, as I did.
Homemade Fluffy Donuts Recipe – Step-by-step
I made these amazing fluffy deep-fried donuts using the Thermomix to help me in achieving the perfect dough. But it is not necessary to own this wonderful kitchen gadget in order to get a delicious result. Feel free to use a mixer or a kneading machine, if you find it difficult to knead the dough by hand.
Old-fashioned homemade fluffy donuts – Cooking with kids
Equipment
- 1 Thermomix / Mixer / Kneading robot
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Pot
- 1 Skimmer Spoon
- Paper towels
Ingredients
Dough
- 500 g flour
- 375 g of milk
- 30 g of sugar I significantly reduced the amount of sugar, for kids friendly donuts
- 2 pcs eggs
- 50 g of melted butter
- 50 g of sunflower oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 25 g of fresh yeast or 8 grams of dry yeast
- 1 pinch salt
Deep-frying
- 600 ml Vegetable oil
Decor
- 2 tbsp Ground cinnamon or fruits jam/ ice-cream
Instructions
- First, place the yeast into the mixing bowl of the Thermomix, add 1 tsp sugar and the milk and mix them well using 1 MIN – 37o C (98.6o F) – Speed 2; If you use a mixer or a kneading robot, mix these ingredients using medium speed;
- Leave the mixture to rest for 5 minutes into the bowl covered with the lid;
- Place the remaining sugar and the rest of the ingredients needed for the dough (without the flour) into the bowl;
- Add the flour into the bowl, by using a sieve;
- Knead the DOUGH – 10 MIN; Do the same if you are using a mixer or a kneading robot;
- Place the dough into a large oily bowl or leave it into the bowl you already used, if it’s large enough and cover it with plastic film or a kitchen towel, to rise for 1 hour;
- During this time, the dough with double its volume;
- Now, using a floured surface or a silicone mat, stretch the dough using a rolling pin;
- Using a glass a with its edges dusted with flour, cut the dough in circles;
- If you want to achieve that popular ring-shape for the donuts, use a narrow glass with its edges dusted in flour or a bottle cap to cut the middle hole of the donuts;
- Leave the shaped donuts on the floured surface for extra 30 minutes to rise once again;
- Now, pour the vegetable oil into the pot and heat it;
- Once the oil is heated, start placing the donuts into the pot for deep-frying;
- Try not to overcrowd the pot, because if you overcrowd it, the donuts will lose their shape;
- Deep-fry each donut for maximum 2 minutes, until they get a golden crust;
- Using a skimmer spoon, take out the deep-fried donuts from the pot and place them on a tray covered with paper towels to absorb the excess oil;
- After a few minutes you can sprinkle some cinnamon on top of them and place them into a large bowl;
- Serve the donuts warm with your favorite topping.
Nutrition
Different types of homemade fluffy donuts
Depending on the types oh homemade fluffy donuts that you want to make, you have two main options:
- If you choose to fill the donuts, I recommend you to use homemade donut filling, which can be vanilla or chocolate pudding, or a homemade fruit jam.
- If you choose the simple version, which is my favorite, I recommend you to sprinkle homemade donuts with cinnamon or icing sugar, depending on your preferences. These is the easiest way to make easy donuts from scratch.
As for the shape of these homemade donuts, you have two options here:
– you can make ring shape homemade donuts, in which case I recommend you also use those homemade donut holes, which you deep-fry and achieve some mini donuts that you can enjoy with ice cream, homemade pudding or homemade fruit jam topping;
– you can go for the simple version, in which you cut the donut dough into simple circles, without the hole in the middle.
As I already mentioned, I use a very small quantity of sugar, because I wanted to achieve kids friendly homemade donuts. I know that the ones bought from stores are way much sweeter, but my purpose is to achieve a delicious and healthy dessert.
Cooking appliance useful for homemade donuts
Cooking homemade donuts at home does not require the use of specific appliance. Although, using a Thermomix could really use your cooking. But, if you don’t own this amazing kitchen device, you could also use a hand mixer or a kneading robot, to ease your work for achieving this wonderful dough for fluffy donuts.
Also, it is extremely important to use a large pot, where you will deep-fry the donuts. Also, you can cook air-fryer donuts, but their texture will be a little different from the deep-fried ones. The same argument is valid for oven-baked donuts.
If you deep-fry the donuts, it is extremely important to use a skimmer spoon to take out the donuts from the heated oil and them place them on a tray covered with paper towels, to eliminate the excessive oil from the surface of the homemade donuts.
Also, to achieve that fluffy dough it is important to add the flour in the bowl by using a sieve. This way, the sifted flour will significantly help you to obtain an airy dough. Besides this, respecting the amount of ingredients in the recipe is absolutely necessary.
Common mistakes to avoid when cooking homemade donuts
In my opinion, the biggest mistake you can make when preparing homemade donuts, which is valid for any type of dough, is using too much flour.
Therefore, to obtain fluffy donuts, we must use proportional amounts of flour and milk. For this, I recommend you use a kitchen scale, or for those of you who use Thermomix, please use the weighing function.
Please take into account that this dough can also be used to cook Romanian Sweet Bread or Hanklich dessert, by simply adapting the quantities of ingredients to the amount of dessert you want to bake.
Only using the exact amounts suggested in the recipe, we will get fluffy donuts, regardless of whether we choose to make a hole in the middle or not.
Using too much flour, compared to the amount of milk, will make us get some hard, dense doughnuts, which are not aerated on the inside and slightly crunchy on the outside.
This is one of the reasons why I never buy donuts. I prefer to cook them at home, because the ones from the store seem much too dense. This is an additional argument compared to the one related to the ingredients used. When you cook at home, you have total control over the ingredients, but when you buy an already cooked product, you don’t know the quality and quantity of the ingredients used.
Another thing that you have to be careful about is not to overcook the donuts. If they are deep-fried for too long, they tend to be too crispy, and this is something you don’t want.
For the comparison between home cooking and eating out, I suggest you to read the article dedicated to this topic – Eating Home vs Eating Out: How to Balance Your Budget, Health, and Social Life.
Storage Tips
The way you can store donuts depends primarily on the type of donuts you choose to prepare.
For example, donuts with filling require special storage conditions, because the filling considerably softens the donut dough and if it is a filling that contains egg, it must definitely be kept in the refrigerator.
For simple fluffy donuts, the storage conditions do not require much effort. Therefore, I recommend that you keep them in a bowl covered with plastic wrap or with a lid, in a place protected from heat, such as for example in the pantry.
Obviously, the texture of the donuts is different the day after they are prepared, than when they are fresh. Even so, I do not recommend heating them, because then they risk becoming too soft, or on the contrary, too dry.
Serve the cold donuts for 2-3 days, with a glass of milk or with the topping you prefer, either as a dessert or as a sweet snack.
I hope you will try this amazing homemade donuts recipe. I am curious about the result. So, please remember to write down all your thoughts, reviews and suggestions in the comments section.
Until the next easy and delicious homemade recipe, I wish you all a great time spent with your loved ones. Bye 😊
FAQs
How to make homemade deep-fried homemade donuts?
To prepare homemade donuts, you need to make a simple dough, based on flour, milk, eggs, a little butter and a little oil, to which you can add various flavors, depending on your preferences. After the dough has risen, cut it into donuts shapes and then deep-fry them in vegetable oil.
How to deep-fry donuts?
Using a large pot and heating a generous amount of sunflower oil in it, simply insert the donuts already cut into shape and deep-fry them for a maximum of 2 minutes.
How long to deep-fry donuts?
If you want to achieve fluffy donuts on the inside, but a little crispy on the outside, I recommend you to deep-fry them for maximum 2 minutes.
What’s the most suitable oil to deep-fry donuts?
In my opinion, the perfect oil to deep-fry donuts is the sunflower oil. I know that many restaurants and patisseries use palm oil, but I don’t consider it a healthy oil. Moreover, sunflower oil has a neutral taste, which will not affect the taste of your donuts.
Is deep-frying the only way to make donuts?
No. Donuts can be cooked by using the deep-frying method, but they can be also baked in the oven or in an air-fryer.
Are donuts better fried or baked?
In my opinion, donuts are the best when deep-frying them. This cooking method helps them achieve a fluffy texture on the inside and a crispy one on the outside.
What ingredients are donuts made of?
The main ingredients required for homemade donuts are: flour, milk, eggs, melted butter, sunflower oil, vanilla extract, sugar, and depending on the topping that you want to use for your donuts, you can choose between ice-cream, fruits jam or pudding. For the simple homemade donuts I like to use icing sugar or grounded cinnamon on top of the deep-fried donuts.
What makes donuts soft and fluffy?
There are more factors that can help you achieve soft and fluffy donuts. On one hand, it is important to use the quantities of ingredients indicated in the recipe. On the other hand, the flour should be sifted into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients, by using a sieve. In the end, but very important, it is to leave the dough for the donuts to rise enough time before deep-frying them.
What flour is best for donuts?
I recommend using Superior White Flour (Type 000) for all kinds of pastry, including the donuts. Also, I think that Self-Rising flour could also be a good choice, if you don’t want to use yeast for the donuts dough.
Are donuts unhealthy?
If you eat homemade donuts, you have control of the quality and quantity of ingredients that you use. In this case, by considerably reducing the sugar required for donuts and by using a quality sunflower oil, that has not been used before for other dishes, I think the donuts can be considered a good choice for dessert.
Is donut a junk food?
Donuts could be considered junk food, if you buy them from stores. But homemade donuts are not junk food, they are a good dessert, made with the ingredients that you can control, both in quality and in quantity terms.
Why do my donuts taste like oil?
Your donuts can taste like oil if you don’t deep-fry them properly. Please take into account that you need to use a generous amount of oil to deep-fry donuts, you need to pay attention not to overcrowd the pot with oil with many donuts and also, it is important to place the deep-fried donuts on a tray covered with paper towels after cooking, to absorb the extra oil from their surface.
