It is probably obvious that I have a huge sweet tooth. I love cooking, but I love baking and making desserts 100 times more. Doughnuts are everywhere and easy to get, so why make them yourself? Because it is fun! They are super delicious fresh and you can make whatever flavor combos you like.
I went for simple chocolate glazed this time, with sprinkles of course. The dough for these doughnuts is a yeast dough enriched with egg and butter. This gives a rich texture to the doughnut dough that pairs perfectly with chocolate glaze.
As with any yeasted dough, the dough needs to rise, be shaped, and then rise again before you fry them. This takes a while so you can either get up early, or you can make the dough ahead of time and put into the fridge overnight, and then allow to warm/rise in the morning a bit before you cut and fry them. Or you can do what I did and serve doughnuts at 1 pm. 🙂
I used a simple glaze of milk chocolate melted with butter and corn syrup. I wasn’t paying attention and overheated my chocolate (big no), so it got grainy but I was able to bring it mostly back together by mixing in a few solid chocolate pieces and a bit of vegetable oil. Once the glaze set up it was perfectly fine. I coated the doughnut holes with cinnamon and sugar and those were yummy too!
Chocolate Glazed Doughnuts
Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
- 6 tbsp water
- 2/3 cup buttermilk room temp
- 1 egg room temp
- 1 1/2 tsp instant yeast
- 1/4 cup butter melted and cooled
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 3 1/2 cups AP flour give or take 1/4 cup
- 1 tsp salt
- Oil for frying
For the glaze:
- 6 oz semi sweet or milk chocolate
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp light corn syrup
Instructions
For the doughnuts:
- Combine the ingredients in a stand mixer with a dough hook and mix on medium and the dough comes together into a smooth cohesive ball. This can take anywhere from 5-12 minutes depending on your mixer. Feel the dough with a clean wet hand. It should feel supple and not at all dry. If it is super sticky, and won't come together, add a bit more flour. If it feels dry and isn't supple, add a bit more water.
- Knead until it is smooth and passes the windowpane test.
- Move to a rising container or bowl sprayed with cooking spray.
- Allow to rise until doubled 1-2 hours depending on the temperature in your house.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured countertop. Gently flour the top and roll to 1/2 inch thick, being careful not to roll or handle the dough too much as you don't want to deflate it much.
- Prepare two sheet pans with parchment paper. Using a 3 or 4 inch circle cutter and a smaller 1 inch cutter for the hole, or a doughnut cutter, cut out the doughnuts and place onto the baking sheets. If you don't have circle cutters you can cut into squares or rectangles.
- Cover with greased plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for 30 min to a hour until they puffy and well risen.
- Heat a large pot of oil to 350.
- Add a few doughnuts at a time and fry for 1-2 minutes per side until dark golden brown and cooked in the center. Drain on paper towels. After they are mostly cooled you can frost or glaze them.
For the glaze:
- Break up the chocolate and carefully microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring between each until the chocolate is melted. Add the butter and syrup and stir until glossy and smooth. Use to top your doughnuts and then add sprinkles.