Yeast Doughnuts

Corey has been going to the Village Pantry beside our apartment on Sunday mornings for a couple doughnuts. Of course with our work/sleep schedule it is more like really, really late Saturday night. Which is cheaper since from 4pm until midnight doughnuts are half price. Anyway, I've been telling him I would look for some doughnut recipes to try. I have tried two within the past couple weeks. One was more like a biscuit, the other was very close to the VP, but not quite. So I guess my search for a recipe that will satisfy Corey continues.

Glazed Yeast Doughnuts

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
1/4 Lb butter
3/4 cup boiling water
4 packets yeast
2 beaten eggs
5 1/2 cups flour

Glaze

1 Lb powdered sugar
1 Tbsp flour
hot water

Melt butter in hot water. Add milk, add yeast, add remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly. Pat onto floured pastry cloth in the thickness desired. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter and set on greased cookie sheet. Cover with a towel and set in a warm place for 1/2 hour. Heat grease to 350 degrees, two inches deep. Fry to golden brown. For glaze, mix powdered sugar and flour. Add water to desired consistency. Dip doughnuts.

**The glaze was good. I used the glaze recipe for the other doughnut recipe I tried.
**This recipe is the one that was more biscuit like. I think they would have been good cut open and smeared with butter. Of course that is just my opinion.

The next recipe was better. I found this recipe at foodandwine.com. If you try this recipe you will need lots of time, so plan ahead. There are two rises of two hours, and then another rise of 20 minutes right before cooking.

Fluffy Doughnuts

1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon solid vegetable shortening
2 packages active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling
1/2 cup sour cream, at room temperature
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 extra-large yolk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
About 5 cups sifted all-purpose flour, plus more sifted flour for dusting
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Chopped nuts, toasted coconut, and sprinkles, for decorating (optional)

In a small saucepan, warm the milk with the shortening over low heat until the shortening is almost melted. In a large bowl, stir the yeast into the warm water, sprinkle with a pinch of sugar and let stand until foamy, about 3 minutes. Stir the warm milk mixture into the yeast along with the 1/2 cup of sugar and the sour cream, the whole eggs, egg yolk, salt and vanilla. Gradually stir in 4 3/4 cups of the flour until a soft, sticky dough forms. Scrape the dough out onto a floured surface and use a pastry scraper to knead the dough until smooth, adding as much of the remaining flour as necessary. The dough should be soft and slightly sticky, but smooth and elastic.

Gather the dough into a ball, transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a sheet of oiled plastic wrap. Let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free spot for 2 hours. Punch down the dough and turn it over in the bowl. Cover and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours or overnight.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the chilled dough 1/3 inch thick. Using a 3 1/2-inch doughnut cutter dipped in flour, cut out as many doughnuts as possible and transfer them to a sheet of floured wax paper. The scraps can be rerolled once to cut out more doughnuts. Loosely cover the doughnuts with wax paper and let rise until soft and billowy, about 20 minutes.

In a large, heavy skillet, heat 4 inches of vegetable oil to 365°. Line a rack with several paper towels. Working in batches, fry the doughnuts until golden brown, about 1 minute per side. Check the temperature of the frying oil to make sure it doesn't get too hot or cool. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the doughnuts to the paper towel-lined rack to drain. Serve warm or let cool before glazing with the Dark Chocolate Glaze or the Vanilla Glaze and decorating with chopped nuts, coconut and sprinkles.

MAKE AHEAD The recipe can be prepared through Step 2 and refrigerated overnight. The finished doughnuts can be made up to 4 hours ahead. NOTES VARIATION: To make jelly doughnuts, cut out 2 1/2-inch rounds of dough with a biscuit cutter. Fry as instructed above. Once the doughnuts are cool, use a piping bag to squeeze jelly into the sides of the doughnuts.

Dark Chocolate Glaze

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Salt

Place the chopped chocolates in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan, combine the heavy cream with the sugar and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves. Pour the warm cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes; whisk until smooth. Whisk in the butter, vanilla and a pinch of salt. Let the dark chocolate glaze cool until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.

Vanilla Glaze

5 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, whisk the confectioners' sugar with the milk and corn syrup until smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Variation: To make a frosting suitable for piping, stir 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar into the glaze.