Donuts

I'm not totally sure why I decided to make donuts this morning but I am sure glad I went through with it. It took a while but I ended up with 3 dozen donuts and 3 dozen Timbits, give or take the ones that disappeared before the inventory was completed.
The donuts were amazing... they had a little color and crisp on the outside and were light and fluffy in the middle. We made three glazes to coat them and they gave just enough sweetness to make sure you were eating a donuts but were not so sweet that you felt like your teeth were going to fall out (I'll put the glaze recipes in another post).

Ingredients:

• 1 tbsp dry active yeast
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 3/4 cup scalded milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 6 cups flour

 

Here are the victims before they hit the fryer.

Directions:

1. Bring the milk to a boil in a small saucepan and set aside to cool off (I guess this keeps an enzyme in the milk from killing the yeast).
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer add the warm water, yeast, and a tbsp of the sugar and allow to proof until it doubles in size.
3. I added the rest of the ingredients and 4 cups of the flour and started mixing.
4. Mix for a couple of minutes and add the rest of the flour until it no longer sticks to the bowl.
5. Cover and let rise for an hour.
6. Roll out the dough until it is half an inch thick and cut out the donuts.
7. Cover and let them rise for another hour.
8. Fry at 350 degrees F for two minutes.
9. Glaze them while they are warm and put on a rack to cool.