Yeast Doughnuts

Here's a recipe for yeast doughnuts I made a while back. They were a lot of fun to make up.

Ingredients you need:
1 packages of instant yeast (they're like 1 Tbsp. each I think.. )
1 cup warm water (I used very very warm water)
4 1/2 cups flour
10 tsp unsalted butter (room temp.)
2/3 sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
Oil for frying-- (it takes alot of oil... because if the doughnuts are able to float in the oil then they won't get dark too fast by touching the bottom of the pan)
 
How to make them:
1. Combine the yeast packages and the warm water in a bowl.
2. Add 1 of the 4 1/2 cups of flour to the yeast and water mixture- stir it in with a spoon and let sit for about 30 minutes (I never wait that long!).
3. In separate bowl mix butter and sugar together, then add and mix 1 egg at a time.
4. Add salt, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg to butter/sugar mixture.
5. (after those 30 minutes are up) add the yeast and water mixture to the butter/sugar/spices mixture, along with the remaining flour. (start mixer on slow then work it up).
6. Grease a large bowl with butter or oil and transfer dough to that bowl. (hehe, I only have one random mixing bowl and I had to use both my large glass measuring cups and that mixing bowl, .. took the dough out of the big bowl and washed it and sprayed it with butter then put the dough back in.. just thought I would share that random piece of info)
7. Cover the dough bowl with plastic wrap and let rise 1 hour. (I find that putting my dough on top of the fridge helps it to rise fast. Or if you have an electric oven/stove you can turn on the oven and put your bowl on top of the stove.)
8. When dough is ready (don't worry, it will be sticky and it's okay) roll it or pat it until it is around 1/2-1/4 inch thick.

9. Cut out doughnuts with cutters (I used a little plastic tupperwear food container for the doughnut and the lid from the maple syrup bottle for the doughnut holes).

10. Put the cut out doughnuts on cookies sheets and let rise (put them on the fridge or on the stovetop with oven on..stovetop worked best for me- WORKS, I promise!)
11. Add oil to a pan or wok and preheat to 360* F. (I don't have a thermometer, so I just heated the oil on like medium-ish. I thought the oil had to be on like high heat and super hot, and the first few doughnuts came out super dark and not cooked through as good.. yah don't do that.)
12. Add doughnuts to oil and cook for like a minute on each side. (when you put them in the oil, watch them get big! It's really cool.)  

I held the pan  up a little bit to make a deeper pool of oil so I wouldn't have to use as much oil. The doughnuts shouldn't be touching the bottom of the pan or they'll burn.

 13. Recipe says to remove them with a slotted spoon. I have metal tong type things and they work great.
14. I used a bowl of sugar and a bowl of cinnamon/sugar to roll them in, and I also made a glaze for some.

Glaze:

1/4 cup whole milk 
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

Heat milk and vanilla in a pot on medium and then add the powdered sugar, stirring in well. Remove from heat. I did mine wrong (I used a mixer). I also added more powered sugar, but don't do that! I don't think it's suppose to be as thick as what my photo shows) I just dipped each doughnut right inside the pot of glaze.. after it cooled some.

Admire your little beauties then take a bite! 

mmmm.. They were really good! 

Don't they look so pretty in this cake stand?

Enjoy!