Homemade Doughnuts (Cake Style)

I wanted to make something as a treat for the kids today, and something that Bo could take with him in the car. Doughnuts. Doughnuts seemed like the perfect thing. So, off I went looking for doughnut recipes that I could quickly whip up. My first lesson: those soft, squishy, glazed doughnuts are yeast based and take hours of time to rise and make. They were out of the picture. Cake style it is.

My next choice: bake them or fry them. Of course, baking them should have been the answer. New Years resolutions and all. The problem was that I could hear Bo’s voice in my head Don’t you dare bake me a doughnut. So, frying it was. I’m not complaining though, they were delicious. I just didn’t eat as many as I wanted to, New Years Resolutions and all. In moderation though, well, they’re quite a nice little treat.

I made small ones, easy for the kids to hold, easy to throw a bunch in a bag, and frankly, I just have a thing for small food. You can cut them out to any size you would like though.

Alright, lets get to making some surprisingly easy doughnuts.

Whisk together some flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.

Pour in some melted butter, and give it a quick whisk until slightly crumbly.

Pour in the eggs and milk, and mix with a fork until it comes together.

This is the crumbly mess you’ll be looking at. Pour it out onto your counter.

Knead it quickly to form a ball. It’ll still feel pretty dry and crumbly at this point.

Then keep kneading until it turns smooth and a little sticky feeling. This takes about 2 minutes of good kneading, that’s it.

Throw down a bit of flour.

Roll the dough out to about ¼” thick. If you’re making bigger doughnuts, you might want to go a little bit thicker, say ⅓”.

Cut out your doughnuts to what ever size you want. Just use 2 different sizes round cutters. The quickest ones to my counter top are always the ones I use for buttertarts, so that’s what I used.

Now, get a big heavy pot and throw about 1½” of vegetable oil into it. That’s all you need. Add the doughnuts in batches.

Flip them over with tongs when they turn golden brown.

Then, take them out, drain on paper towel, and finish off how you like. I’m a sucker for tossing in some cinnamon sugar.

As good as they look!

Here’s your printable:

Homemade Doughnuts (Cake Style)

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 3 minutes

Additional Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

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Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp butter, melted
• ½ cup milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• vegetable oil for frying

Instructions

1. Heat 1½" of oil in a heavy bottomed pot to 375ºF.
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon. Whisk in the melted butter until crumbly, then stir in the milk and beaten egg until loosely combined.
3. Turn out onto a counter and knead until it comes together in an elastic and slightly sticky ball, about 3 minutes.
4. Dust your counter with flour and roll the dough out to a ¼" thick disk. Use a doughnut cutter, or two circular cookie cutters of varying size to cut into doughnuts.
5. Add the doughnuts to the hot oil in batches, being sure not to over crowd the pot. Once golden brown on the underside (about 1 minute), flip once using tongs to cook the second side. Drain on paper towels and repeat with remaining doughnuts.
6. If tossing in cinnamon sugar, do so while still hot, right after draining.