Homemade Donuts

Every fall in late October we make HOMEMADE DONUTS!  Now years later my grown kids still come back home for a warm homemade donut! 

Often times I have invited families or friends and even had groups of teen girls over for Donut Making! I’ve had so many fun donut making parties over the years and I have many fond memories of them all! 

I mean seriously……Everyone loves to make (eat 🙂 warm Homemade Donuts and have them with some Hot or cold apple cider, go here for my great hot cider recipe.😊

I have been making this recipe since my oldest son was about 5 years old, that was ALOT of years ago 🙂 It all began because I had a flock of young kiddos, and I needed something fun to do with them as it was halloween weekend, instead of taking them out trick or treating. I was never a fan of halloween period, plus it’s always cold, wet rainy, and we lived waaay out in the country, and so I thought hmmm I’ll make a batch of donut dough and see how it turns out! And thus it was started…. Homemade donut Making!!! 

Warm with glaze, dunked in chocolate, or even topped with sprinkles! I’d let them have fun making donuts in all those yummy ways as well as round ones, hearts, braids or tiger tails, as my boys would call them! So donut making became a family favorite to do together, every fall in late October! It even became known if you stopped over to our house, on that weekend you’d likely get to enjoy a warm, off the rack donut, and even get sent home with a few on a plate♥

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So once I made these yummy warm donuts they wanted to repeat this family fun night every Fall (of course)……and so we did, we made warm fall donuts every October. 😊 

Now donuts aren’t really hard to make, they just take bit time like making bread, but the dough is very very similar. All you do is just mix-up a batch of dough, let them rise, fry them up and I use my trusty ole cast iron dutch oven pan for heating my oil and frying them in, and then you dunk, dip, and EAT 🙂

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Mom’s Donut Recipe:
2 Tablespoons dry instant Yeast
1/4 cup water – warm
Dissolve in small dish and let set 3-5 min.  before whisking into the below.
In my large stainless kitchenaide mixing bowl I put:
1 cup milk – warm   (not hot or you’ll kill the yeast!)
1/2 cup white  sugar
3/4 cup  palm shortening (its a healthy choice vs other vegetable shortenings)
1 teaspoon  Himalayan sea salt
1 cup mashed potatoes- warm* (if you have leftover great if not, you can use instant)
Now on low beat these ingredients together and then beat in the above yeast mixture into this as well.
Ok last you Add:
2 eggs  – beat in with beaters and then start adding flour below
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour  –  I blend the flour into dough a cup at a time, until its a nice soft dough that forms. Sometimes you don’t need all that flour, sometimes you need a lil more. You want a nice soft dough, a tad sticky/moist. 

Now you Cover your bowl with clean kitchen towel and let it  rise until dough has risen up well and is airy-light and doubled (about 2 hrs usually).  Next take dough out of the  bowl and knead it a little, then roll it out thick. Next cut out circles of dough using a large drinking glass or a wide mouth canning jar works great.  For the donut hole: Use a small spice container or such to cut out the donut hole from the center of your donut.  Yay, now you have donuts and donut holes  😊

 Now you Place your soft donuts and donut holes on lightly greased cookie sheets and let them rise for about  30-40 minutes.
Next you need to get your oil hot.  I use my good ole black cast-iron dutch oven pot.  Cast iron pots are great for deep frying, because they hold the temperature well and its very easy cleanup with them.  I fill it 1/3 full or so, enough so the donuts will float well in it.  Then when the oil is about 366 degrees. (Now that’s about the perfect temp, so they cook, and don’t burn, and to much below 366 and they soak oil instead of cook) so keep it close to 366 degrees and you’ll pull out perfect golden donuts. Next gently slide in a couple donuts at a time and cook them for a couple minutes on each side.  Lift them out of the oil when golden, and set on paper towels.  Then we move to a cooling rack and while warm you can glaze them, roll in powder sugar or coat in cinnamon sugar or dunk tops in chocolate glaze.

This make about 15 donuts and 15 donut holes in which was never enough for the clan of kids and friends at our place, so I always doubled it.
*(Note: for mashed potatoes you can use leftover ones or you can use 1/2 cup of instant potato flakes with 1 cup of  very hot water added to it, to equal the measured amount of potatoes needed). You want your mashed potatoes on the thin side, not too over thick, so add water to them if needed, and then measure out your 1 cup thats needed. I typically always made roast beef and mashed potatoes the week I was going to make donuts…..just so I would have a cup of potatoes leftover. Later years now, I often have used a quick warm cup of instant potato flakes made up as mentioned above. Either way works well, but having the potato in your dough makes it ooooh so good for donuts!!!

Now note: HOT OIL is NOT FOR KIDDO’s to do. So Be wise here and be careful. In all honesty I don’t think anyone was ever burned making donuts, as we have great respect for hot oil and keeping everyone safe but still having fun!

You can top your donuts with chocolate glaze, sprinkles or anything else your heart desires.♥

Yeh, they really do still all come back often, for fall Donut Making night! ❤️

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Well over the years we have enjoyed them a lot of ways – but  its seems the good ole warm glazed ones are still the well favored!  I hope you Give these a try and enjoy a fun fall evening with friends or family, making and eating warm donuts together!

It really is a fun family thing to do! 

p.s…… Dont forget to add a lil fall to your kitchen window sil 🙂

its the perfect way to add your ‘toooo short of stemmed sunflowers from the garden’ to make a VERY cheerful spot for wahsing up alllll those memory filled dishes afterwards 🙂

Now if you want to see even more donut making fun, go here.

You might also like…Hot Cider or Turkey Cookies!