If I were allowed to eat one thing without limit in this life, I would choose doughnuts. Soft pillows of freshly fried dough, I could eat them every day. Alas, I don’t eat them as often as I would like, but I eat them as often as I should, which is occasionally. Doughnut dreams are the best dreams and we remember them because they are special events.
Honey Dipped Doughnuts are Old Fashioned Treats
My favorite cookbooks are the ones that were written before 1975. We forget how few ingredients supermarkets used to carry – In those days, there were no macaroni and cheese dinners or pre-assembled salad kits. Basics such as flour, butter, sugar and salt were combined in thousands of ways to make something different. And (dramatic pause for emphasis) most of those old recipes were tested over and over again (SO IMPORTANT!) This doughnut recipe is adapted from an old Fleishman’s Yeast bread book. The cover has worn off, so I have no idea when it was printed. Mine is a 25 year-old photocopy of a friend’s beat-up copy. The paper may be falling apart, but the recipes are enduring.
Making yeast raised doughnuts at home isn’t all that difficult. But you have to be experienced with deep frying. A deep-frying thermometer is required, plus a heavy saucepan or Dutch oven as a frying pot. Don’t use a thin metal stock pot as it will be difficult to control the heat. Small electric fryers are ok, but make sure the kids and pets are far away when you use them. Spills would be dangerous.
The Ocassional Doughnut is the Best Doughnut
I recommend a 3” doughnut cutter, which in reality is a 2.75” (6.9cm) doughnut cutter. Once you fry the doughnut, it puffs to 3” (7.6cm). Fry the doughnut holes too as those are excellent little treats. I have a gargantuan 7” (17.7cm) doughnut cutter that I found in a junk shop in the Texas Hill Country. It was hand crafted by a skilled machinist and is absolutely ridiculous. I made a couple of doughnuts with it, as you will see in the photos. But if you only allow yourself one doughnut every now and then, it is the perfect size.
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