OCTOBER DARING BAKERS CHALLENGE: Let's Go Nuts for Doughnuts!

The October 2010 Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Lori of Butter Me Up. Lori chose to challenge DBers to make doughnuts. She used several sources for her recipes including Alton Brown, Nancy Silverton, Kate Neumann and Epicurious.

I will only be providing the Alton Brown ones since that's the only one I've tried (so far). They are soooooo wet, I mean the dough prior to fry, making it almost impossible to handle keeping it's shape after you cut them. So be ware!



Equipment required:

• A Dutch oven or deep skillet (I prefer using a Dutch oven to reduce splatter)
• Deep fry thermometer, candy thermometer or any thermometer that will withstand and measure temperatures of up to 380 degrees
• Metal slotted spoon, metal slotted spatula or tongs (do NOT use plastic - it will melt!)
• Cookie sheets or a wire rack lined with paper towels to allow doughnuts to drain
• Electric hand mixer or stand mixer, or a bowl and a spoon if you are able to utilize a lot of elbow grease
• Doughnut or biscuit cutters or you can use a glass and a piping tip for the center
• Pastry bag (if you choose to make Bomboloni or any filled doughnut) or a squeeze bottle with a good tip that will poke a hole in your Bomboloni. Another way to fill a doughnut is to use the tip of a sharp knife to poke a hole in the doughnut and then use a ziplock bag filled with filling and cut on one corner to fill the doughnut.

Yeast Doughnuts:
Preparation time:
Hands on prep time - 25 minutes
Rising time - 1.5 hours total
Cooking time - 12 minutes
Yield: 20 to 25 doughnuts & 20 to 25 doughnut holes, depending on size
Ingredients
Milk 1.5 cup / 360 ml
Vegetable Shortening 1/3 cup / 80 ml / 70 gm / 2.5 oz (can substitute butter, margarine or lard)
Active Dry Yeast 4.5 teaspoon (2 pkgs.) / 22.5 ml / 14 gm / ½ oz (less if to be slow rosen in refrigerator)
Warm Water 1/3 cup / 80 ml (95°F to 105°F / 35°C to 41°C)
Eggs, Large, beaten 2
White Granulated Sugar ½ cup / 120 ml / 110 gm / 4 oz
Table Salt 1.5 teaspoon / 7.5 ml / 9 gm / 1/3 oz
Nutmeg, grated 1 tsp. / 5 ml / 6 gm / ¼ oz
All Purpose Flour 4 2/3 cup / 1,120 ml / 650 gm / 23 oz + extra for dusting surface
Canola Oil DEPENDS on size of vessel you are frying in – you want THREE (3) inches of oil (can substitute any flavorless oil used for frying)

Directions:
1. Place the milk in a medium saucepan and heat over mediuhm heat just until warm enough to melt the shortening. (Make sure the shortening is melted so that it incorporates well into the batter.)
2. Place the shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 minutes. It should get foamy. After 5 minutes, pour the yeast mixture into the large bowl of a stand mixer and add the milk and shortening mixture, first making sure the milk and shortening mixture has cooled to lukewarm.
4. Add the eggs, sugar, salt, nutmeg, and half of the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer (if you have one), combine the ingredients on low speed until flour is incorporated and then turn the speed up to medium and beat until well combined.
5. Add the remaining flour, combining on low speed at first, and then increase the speed to medium and beat well.
6. Change to the dough hook attachment of the mixer and beat on medium speed until the dough pulls away from the bowl and becomes smooth, approximately 3 to 4 minutes (for me this only took about two minutes). If you do not have a dough hook/stand mixer – knead until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
7. Transfer (pour) the sticky doughs to a well-oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.  *note that if you want you could refrigerate til up to 4 days at this point and let it slow rise in the refrigerator taking away a teaspoon of yeast for every day that it is to be refrigerated.

8. On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 3/8-inch (9 mm)thick. (Make sure the surface really is well-floured otherwise your doughnuts will stick to the counter).
9. Cut out dough using a 2 1/2-inch (65 mm) doughnut cutter or pastry ring or drinking glass and using a 7/8-inch (22 mm) ring for the center whole. Set on floured baking sheet, cover lightly with a tea towel, and let rise for 30 minutes. I cut mine with cookie cutter for the baked ones and just roughly rolled the ones that were to be fried.

10. Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365 °F/185°C.
11. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for 1 minute per side or until golden brown (my doughnuts only took about 30 seconds on each side at this temperature).
12. Transfer to a cooling rack placed in baking pan. Allow to cool for 15 to 20 minutes prior to glazing, if desired.

Served the fried doughtnut with jam, sausage and stir-fried eggs for breakfast.

**These doughnuts keeps well frozen if you've baked or fried too many. Just ziplock them right after cooled, throw in freezer. They stay very fresh for up to 3 days (that's how long they lasted in my family).