My friend Amanda has a real cooking blog (as opposed to this very halfhearted one!) and I found this doughnut recipe on her blog at http://www.girlplusfood.net/2011/10/doughnuts.html
These doughnuts were so delicious and not very hard, though frying them all was a bit time consuming. This recipe made 3 dozen 3 1/2 inch doughnuts. I ended up taking some to the neighbors because there was no way we could eat them all! Next time I'll either half the recipe or decide which neighbor needs bribing so they'll drive slower down our street!
Doughnuts
Ingredients:
2 pks. active dry yeast (1 package is 2 1/4 tsp)
1/4 cup warm water
2 cups warm milk
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup hot mashed potatoes (just cook potatoes, drain and mash up)
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
9 1/4- 9 3/4 cups flour
oil for frying
For the Glaze:
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 T + 2 tsp milk
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
Cinnamon/sugar mixture:
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Directions:
In your mixer, add all wet ingredients to bowl, add yeast and cover with sugar, let sit until foamy, about 5 minutes. Add 2 1/2 cups flour and mix with paddle for 30 seconds on low and 2 minutes on medium, switch to dough hook and add remaining flour until flour starts to pull away and the sides of the bowl are clean. It will still be sticking on the bottom a bit. I usually end up adding all the flour, the full 9 3/4 cups. Dump into a greased bowl, cover and let raise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
After dough has risen for an hour, dump onto lightly floured surface and let sit about 15 minutes. Roll dough to 1/2 inch thick and cut into doughnuts. I used a 3 1/2 inch doughnut cutter that I bought on Amazon.
Place on greased baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Cover with greased plastic wrap and let raise 45 minutes.
If you want glazed doughnuts, mix all glaze ingredients until combined and set aside. If you want cinnamon/sugar doughnuts, mix cinnamon and sugar in a bowl an set aside. I did both but I really liked the glaze the most.
Heat oil to 375-400, fry doughnuts a few at a time, flip and fry on both sides until golden. It's a little tricky to keep the doughnuts the right shape. I didn't worry about it too much (I was more worried about taste and haste) but my friend who's recipe blog I stole this from says to dip a spatula in oil and use that to pick the doughnut up with and put in the fryer.
Remove from oil and drain on paper towels for about a minute, either drop doughnuts into glaze and coat completely or drop into cinnamon sugar and coat completely.
NOTE: You can put this dough in the freezer to cook later. Just put the cookie sheet in the freezer and when the dough is frozen, transfer it to an airtight container. When you want to cook the dough put it on a greased cookie sheet, cover and let them raise about 3-4 hours and then proceed with the cooking and glazing.
