Daring Baker's October Doughnut Challenge

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.

This was the first Daring Baker's challenge I have participated in. It was great-I would never have tried making doughnuts....deep frying kinda scares me. So, I am really glad that this challenge came up and that I faced my fear of scalding hot oil!

I decided to make the traditional yeast doughnuts which was an Alton Brown recipe. They were soooo yummy! I made a few alterations to the original recipe after reading a few reviews and I think these changes were great. You can see the original recipe by clicking the link below. They really do need to be eaten within a couple hours as they loose their crispiness pretty quickly!

Yeast Doughnuts

Recipe from Alton Brown (Food Network)

Prep time:
Hands on prep time: 25min
Rising time: 1.5hrs
Cooking time: 12min

Yield: 20-25 doughnuts, depending on size.

Ingredients

1.5 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
2 pkgs (4.5tsp) Active Dry Yeast
1/3 cup warm water
2 large eggs, beaten
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
23oz plain flour
Vegetable oil- enough to fill your frying saucepan/dutch oven 3in deep.

Directions:

Place milk in a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat, just until warm enough to melt shortening. Place shortening in a bowl and pour warmed milk over. Set aside.

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let dissolve for 5 min. It should get foamy. After 5 min, pour the yeast mixture into a large bowl of an electric mixer and add milk and shortening mixture (ensure the milk mixture has cooled to lukewarm).

Add the eggs, sugar, salt, cinnamon and half the flour. Using the paddle attachment of your mixer, combine the ingredients on low speed until the flour is incorporated. Increase speed to medium and beat until well combined. Add remaining flour on low speed and then increase to medium speed and beat well.

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 (3-4min). The dough will be wet- do not add more flour.

Transfer to a well-oiled bowl, cover and let rise for 1 hr until doubled in size.

On a well-floured surface, roll out the dough to 3/8in thick. Cut out dough using a 2.5 in round cutter and a 7/8-in. ring for the center hole (I used an apple corer).



Set on a floured baking sheet and cover lightly with a tea towel. Let rise for 30min.

Preheat the oil in a deep fryer or Dutch oven to 365*F/185*C. Gently place the doughnuts into the oil, 3 to 4 at a time. Cook for about 45 seconds per side until golden brown. Transfer to paper towels on a cooling rack. Allow to cool for 15-20min prior to glazing, if desired.

Chocolate Doughnut Glaze

Recipe from Alton Brown, 2004 (Food Network).

Makes enough to glaxe 20-25 doughnuts.

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup whole milk

1 Tbsp light corn syrup/golden syrup

2 tsp vanilla extract

4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped.

2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted.

Directions

Combine butter, milk, corn syrup and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat until butter is melted. Decrease heat to low, add chocolate, and whisk until melted.

Turn off heat, add the powdered sugar, and whisk until smooth. Place the mixture over a bowl of warm water and dip the doughnuts immediately. Allow the glaze to set for 30min before serving.

These dougnuts were really, really good. The cinnamon gave them a slightly deeper flavour and they were not too sweet. The glaze provided the perfect amount of sweetness and tasted amazing! These doughnuts were actually dangerous for me to have around- I ate way too many.

And since I made them on Halloween, I decided to decorate a couple with candy corn....

Overall, a really fun challenge and a highly recommended recipe!!