Yeasted Glazed Donuts

Donuts are my favorite, which really shouldn’t come as a surprise, as “fried” is my most beloved food group. I love all donuts, but yeasted hold a special place in my heart, despite the tiny bit of extra work they require. And by work, I really just mean they require patience, as the dough needs to rest twice before frying.
But because this glazed donuts recipe calls for instant yeast, as opposed to active dry, it does not need to be dissolved in water prior to using, but instead can be added right in with the dry ingredients. Moreover, these are overnight glazed donuts, which means that the second rest is done in the fridge while you are sleeping (or binge watching Netflix before sleeping) and so, really you need only be patient for one hour – I know, I know: I’m not patient either and an hour sounds like an eternity.

But here’s the thing: the final product, that puffy, yeasted, ring of breakfast deliciousness, fried to a golden brown and then dribbled with a sugar-y glaze (the dough is not sweet, so don’t worry about a heavy-hand with the glaze), will teach you the power of patience (or at least it did me . . . kind of), I promise.

Yeasted Glazed Donuts

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4.67 from 9 votes

Overnight Yeasted Glazed Donuts

These puffy donuts are fried to golden-brown perfection and finished with a tasty sugar glaze.

Recipe Author Jessie Sheehan

Ingredients

• for the donuts:
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup bread flour
• 2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup potato starch
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature
• 1 tbsp shortening
• 1 cup buttermilk and a bit more as needed, room temp or warmed slightly in the microwave or on the stove top (just to take the chill off)
• 1 large egg room temperature
• for the glaze:
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 tsp table salt
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Instructions

• in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flours, yeast, sugar, salt, and starch, and mix until incorporated. on medium-low speed, add the butter, shortening, buttermilk, and egg, and continue to beat until a shaggy dough forms.
• remove the paddle, replace with the dough hook attachment, and on medium-high speed, continue to beat the dough until a smooth mass forms that comes off the sides of the bowl and sticks only a bit to the bottom, about 4 to 6 minutes. if your dough is not sticking at all to the sides or bottom, when you begin kneading it with the dough hook, add more buttermilk, a tablespoon at a time, until the dough is wet enough to stick a bit.
• turn the dough out into a medium bowl that has been greased with butter or sprayed. turn the dough ball over in the bowl to coat it in butter/spray, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set aside to rise for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until it has practically doubled in size.
• remove the dough from the bowl, place it on your work surface (you should not need to flour it, but do so lightly, if the dough is too sticky to work with) and pat the dough or roll it out until it is about 1/2" thick.
• flour a 3 1/2-inch cookie cutter and a 1-inch cutter, and begin cutting out doughnut shapes (cut out all the large shapes first and then go back and cut out the centers with the smaller cutter), re-flouring your cutters as needed.
• transfer the doughnuts to two parchment-lined baking sheets as you work. once you have cut all of your doughnuts, and holes (i recommend rolling the holes a bit in your hands to make a proper ball), you may re-roll your scraps and cut out additional doughnuts/holes. yes, the doughnuts made with scraps will be slightly tougher, but they are still awfully yummy (and you could always feed those to the kids - or their friends . . . ).
• place the baking sheets of doughnuts/holes in the refrigerator, covered in plastic wrap, overnight (and up to 24 hours). if you are making your donuts right away, let them rest on the counter until they have doubled in size (ish) about an hour.
• frying your donuts:
• when ready to fry, let the donuts from the fridge warm up to room temp on the counter, about a half an hour. fill a large, heavy pot with 2-inches of oil, attach a candy thermometer to the side of the pot and heat the oil on medium-high heat until the temperature reaches 350 degrees, or a bit above (the temperature will drop when you add your doughnuts, but while frying, you want your temperature to stay at 350).
• while the oil heats, make the glaze: combine all of the glaze ingredients in a medium sized bowl and whisk to combine. if your sugar is lumpy, you may need to sift it.
• line a cooling rack with a thick layer of paper towels, about 4 thick, and place it near your pot.
• once the oil is at temp, carefully transfer a couple of doughnut holes to the oil (you may need to roll them in your hands before placing them in the oil to help them get back their round shape).
• i fry the holes first so i can see what the temp of the oil is and to get a sense of how long it will take to fry my doughnuts. fry the holes for 1 to 2 minutes, using wooden chopsticks or any two thin utensils, to gently flip the holes over after one side has browned. when both sides are nicely browned, using a slotted spoon, carefully transfer the holes to the prepared cooling rack and to prevent the doughnuts/holes from absorbing extra oil, gently pat them with additional paper towels. continue frying the holes and then move onto the doughnuts.
• i fried one doughnut at a time to avoid crowding, but this takes a while. depending on the size of your pot and your patience level, you may fry one at a time, or many.
• dip one side of the warm donuts in the bowl of glaze, letting the excess drip off (or not . . . ) and let set before eating.
• the doughnuts will keep for a day or two - and i for one never turn down a doughnut - even a slightly stale one - but they are best eaten on the day they are made.