I was kneading the Dough and Yati found out, that mommy is making donuts today. There was this instant happiness that ran through her on the very name of Donuts. This is amazing how food tickles our emotions, and it made my girl so happy.

Food is emotional, it makes memories. When I was a girl, I had this fascination with holding the whole donut to myself, and not sharing was the only target in mind.

That was a time, we use to buy donuts, and the excitement was different, now I make them home.

You will be happy to know that, doughnut making is easy and turns out freshest, fluffiest when made at home. It brings a satisfaction + you are careful about the quality of ingredients being used and you can make as many as you want (greedy Pooja). Believe me, a small dough ball can produce so many donuts, when made at home.

I know, I am naming this post as a Valentine recipe on FB and starting it with kids. But the fact is once you have kids, there is no valentine celebration without them.  Being alone with Pranav on the day and celebrate our love is just an illusion, I can have now. Lol

You think, that you can’t make donuts at home, then think again. Yes, it’s a little time-consuming process, but you will have to minus the time when the dough is resting for a rise. If you calculate the active time needed to make donuts at home, you will realise its really less work.  On the whole a great recipe with yumlicious happy results, and less work.

Here are couple of more recipes for your Valentine celebration

Red Velvet Lava Cake which is a super quick recipe and I am making same for Pranav this Valentine.

Eggless Red Velvet Cupcakes, which will be super cute and easy, to make at home.

Let’s get the important points first. Then I will take you through the recipe.

1. The donuts are not very sweet, Its soft and pillowy fried rings of dough. And are the perfect canvas for endless variations, I mean fill them up with your favourite jam, chocolate sauce, caramel or even Nutella. Coat them up with cinnamon Sugar or sugary glaze and sprinkles.

I had some of them coated with cinnamon sugar, and some glazed and some of them filled. Satisfied every one at home.

2. Know your ingredients- its flour that when kneaded will be little sticky to handle. If you have a machine, go ahead and use or you can knead the dough with hand too. The machine will make the life easier, but this can be done by hand also.

Flour provides structure, I have used simple all purpose flour (maida works just fine).  Mix together the flours, sugar, and active dry yeast in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and pour in the warm milk and butter. Work the milk and the dry ingredients together with your fingers.

Kneading – At this point you can either knead the dough by hand for 10-15 minutes until smooth and elastic or you can put it in your stand mixer and knead with the dough hook for 10 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Rising – When the dough is smooth, elastic and easy to handle, transfer it to a large clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or overnight. The dough should be doubled in size.

Under refrigeration, the dough continues to rise, just much more slowly. This means you can mix the dough up to 12 hours ahead, let it rise slowly overnight, and wake up ready to fry in the AM.

3.  If you don’t have a donut cutter just use any shape edge bowl and a bottle cap to cut the size you want. It’s important to make sure the hole in the middle is large enough — if it’s too small, it will “fill in” when the dough hits the fryer. When you cut out circles or regular doughnut shapes, you’re going to end up with scraps. These scraps can be re-rolled

I also like to cut square doughnuts (no scraps!), using just a pizza cutter— 2 inches x 2 inches is a good base size.

4.  Using a good quality oil is the key to a non-oily doughnut. Use a flavourless oil like canola oil or vegetable oil.

5.  Heat the oil over medium-high, the temperature must be around 190* C. It is very important to maintain the temperature while frying. If the oil is too hot the doughnuts will get too brown and crisp outside, while the inside will not be done. Conversely, if the oil is not hot enough, the doughnut will absorb too much oil and the texture will be soggy and greasy. To check just throw a small piece of the dough in the frier, if it sizzles and rises to the surface you are good to go.

6. If you plan to coat your donuts with sugar- As they are out from the frier, let them drain on a tissue for 30 seconds and immediately toss the donuts into the sugar. If they cool, the sugar will not stick.

7. If you want to apply glaze – Let the donut cool for 3 to 4 minutes, then transfer on the wire rack and pour over the prepared glaze evenly. Remember the thinner glaze will run more than the thicker glaze. The thicker glaze is more precise and holds the place. Sprinkles should be used on the top of the glaze before it sets.

INGREDIENTS

1.  1  1/4th cup of all-purpose flour

2.  1/4th cup of butter ( room temperature)

3.  6 tablespoons of sugar

4.  2 tablespoons of milk powder
Nestle Everyday Dairy Whitener, 400g Pouch

5.  2 tablespoons of instant dry yeast
Urban Platter Baker’s Active Dry Yeast, 50g

6.  2/3rd cup of milk

7.  A pinch of salt

8.  Oil for deep frying

For the filling vanilla custard:

1.  300 ml of milk

2.  50 ml of fresh cream ( Amul  will do )

3.  1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

4.  25 gm of sugar

5. 2 tablespoons of cornflour

For the icing glaze:

1.  1 1/2 cup of icing sugar

2.  4 teaspoons of milk

3.   2 teaspoons of light corn syrup
Karo Light Corn Syrup with Real Vanilla, 473ml

METHOD

In a large bowl; add the flour, salt, sugar, and yeast. In another bowl mix together butter and lukewarm milk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk and butter mixture. Knead with your hand to bring all together until you have a ball of dough. You can add a spoon full of flour if necessary. Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a ball and place it in a large lightly greased bowl. Cover the dough with a plastic wrap and place it, in a warm place for an hour. Or until the dough is double in size.

Once the dough has doubled in size, transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently punch the dough to release the air. With a lightly floured rolling-pin, roll the dough to the thickness of 1/2 inch. Using a doughnut cutter; cut the shape.

Place the doughnuts on a lightly floured baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. Cover the doughnuts with a kitchen towel and keep them in a warm place to rise again. This might take 30 to 40 minutes.

In a deep heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the oil for deep-frying. The amount of oil you need depends on the frier you are using. It should be deep enough so that it allows the doughnuts to float on the top. Heat the oil and bring it to the temperature almost 190* C. Carefully place the doughnuts into hot oil. About 2-3 at a time, do not overcrowd.  Fry each side till nice golden colour. Each donut bite will take approx. 30 seconds in the oil. Carefully remove the fried doughnuts from the hot oil and place them on a paper towel.

To make the Vanilla Custard – In a saucepan add 2 tablespoons of milk and incorporate cornflour into the milk. Make sure you don’t have any lumps left in. Add in the rest of milk, cream and vanilla. Turn the heat to high and bring the mixture to boil while stirring continuously.

Once the custard comes to boil, turn the heat to low and add the sugar. Let the custard simmer but keep whisking until the mixture thickens. The custard can very quickly form lumps, so be careful. Once ready, transfer the prepared custard to a bowl and cover with a cling wrap, (place the cling wrap on the top press gently with your fingers; so that it touches the top layer of the prepared custard). This will prevent the skin formation on the top of the custard. Cool the custard completely before filling the donuts.

To make the Glaze – Put the sugar in a bowl and add the milk. Stir until there are no lumps of sugar seen. Stir in the corn syrup and mix well. Then use few drops of food colouring to colour the glaze.

Once the donuts are fried, inject in the prepared vanilla custard making a small hole on the side of each donut bite. You can use a piping bag with a long nozel. Then dip each prepared donut into the food colour icing of your choice and decorate.