Donuts

My elder son likes donuts. In fact, he likes almost every kind of cakes and breads and buns. He used to ask me to buy donuts from bakeries for him. But I did not like that idea because those donuts contain too much oil and I’m not even sure what kind of oil is used or if they [those who make the donuts] use the oil again and again just to reduce the cost. In short, those donuts don’t seem to be healthy at all. So my son kept asking and I kept reasoning and refusing.

Now that I’ve got myself a bread maker and discovered its fantastic ability to make dough, I decided to make a batch of donuts for my son. It’s not difficult to make donuts with the help of a BM, the only disturbing thing is that you’ll have to suffer from the heat when deep frying the donuts. In a summer day when temperature goes up high, and in a small kitchen without an air-conditioner, frying donuts becomes a tough task. Anyway, the way my son enjoyed the donuts made me think that it was all worth it :).

Recipe (from here)

Ingredients: (about 25 pieces with diameter of about 6cm)
- 150g bread flour
- 100g cake flour
- 10g milk powder
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 30g sugar
- 5g salt
- 1 3/4 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1 egg yolk
- 70ml cold water
- 70ml cold milk
- 25g melted butter

Sugar for coating:
1/2 cup sugar

Method:
1. Put everything in the bread machine according to what your machine's manual said (normally liquid first, then dry ingredients, then yeast last) and start the dough cycle. Once the dough cycle is complete you can start to shape it.
2. On a floured surface and with floured hands divide dough into 23g pieces and shape it into a ball. Pat it flat to about 1.5cm high and make a hole in the middle of the dough. To make the hole in the middle of the dough, I used a small O shape cookie cutter. You can also use a bottle cap. The dough you cut from the holes could be gathered then be made into some more donuts.
3. Prove the shaped dough for 30 minutes on a greased tray covered loosely with glad wrap in a warm environment.
4. Fill the wok with oil about 2.5 inches deep and fry the dough for 30 seconds on each side or till lightly golden brown. Drain well and pat dry with absorbent paper towel before coating them in sugar.
5. Serve warm.

Notes for those without bread machine:

- Mix all ingredients in a big mixing bowl except butter (do not melt butter but use room temperature butter). Mix well to form a dough.
- Add in the butter and knead into a smooth elastic dough. Prove in a covered mixing bowl for 60 minutes. The rest of the process you can follow step (2) from above.

I know, I know, this picture looks weird. I just want to show the texture of the donuts :)

To play it safe, I fried the donuts to the point that they turned a bit brown (not just light golden brown like the ones at the bakeries). They were soft and good when eating right after that, but they became harder (just a little bit, though) the next day, maybe because I fried them too much :-\. I did not coat them with sugar because I didn’t want my son to eat too much sugar, so the donuts were not too sweet.

I’m submitting this post to Aspiring Bakers #8 June 2011(BREAD SEDUCTION) hosted by Jasmine @ Sweetylicious.