Ingredients
For the doughnuts
- 3 cups (13.5 ounces) all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk), at room temperature
- Vegetable, canola, or peanut oil, for frying
For the chocolate glaze:
- 1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
- 2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
Directions
For the doughnuts:
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In a large bowl, mix together all the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.
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In a large bowl, use an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment to beat the eggs and sugar until thick and pale, about 5 minutes. Beat in the vanilla extract. On low speed, alternately add the flour mixture with the milk and melted butter, starting and ending with the flour. The dough will be soft. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, or until the dough is firm enough to handle.
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Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface. Roll the dough out into 1/4-inch thickness and cut with a doughnut cutter or with a large round cutter and a small cutter for the holes. Place the doughnuts on a lightly floured parchment lined baking sheet. Let the doughnuts sit at room temperature while you heat the oil.
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Heat the oil in a large, deep, and heavy pan to 350°F. Place three to four doughnuts in the oil at a time and fry until golden brown, about 1 minute or less per side (30 seconds for the holes). Do not overcook the doughnuts. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.
For the glaze:
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In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the butter, milk, corn syrup, and vanilla and heat until the butter melts. Decrease the heat to low and add the chocolate, whisking until melted. Turn off the heat and add the powdered sugar, whisking until smooth. Immediately dip the doughnuts into the glaze. If the glaze begins to set return the saucepan to low heat and stir until liquid again. Let the glaze set on the doughnuts for 30 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
The corn syrup in the glaze keeps it nice and shiny and thick, but feel free to omit it if you prefer not to use it.
Adapted from Joy of Baking
They could not look more perfect, Tessa! And that doughnut cutter is a must. I need to get one!
YUM! OMG YUM!!!
I want all of these. They look so delicious.
Made these and just dropped in the grease from the spoon and yummy. great recipe easy too. the chocolate icing was just right too.
can I bake them instead of frying?
I see that someone asked about baking instead of frying? Is that possible?
Thank you,
pamela
question: if the dough is going to be soft, should it be sitting at room temperature, especially for 30 minutes? that just seems like it would only make the dough softer and harder to work with
Km is equivalent to the standard cup flour
I’d tried 3 different plain donut recipes before this one and this one yielded the best results for me. Most recipes I’d tried rendered a dense donut, this recipe yields a light and airy donut that’s good for dunking in cold milk. After setting for a half hour, the dough was extremely user friendly, and much easier to handle vs the previous recipes I’d tried. The batch cooked quickly, and the count was dead on accurate, right down to the 14th donut too. I love fresh nutmeg so I used one whole pod. This is my permanent,go-to, plain donut recipe for life
I just made these and they are so good! I baked instead of fried, and they still came out great; I would guess the texture is a little more dense than it would have been if I had fried them. The glaze was a little thin, next time I’ll add a little less butter and milk and some more powdered sugar. Other than that these were really great!
I actually made these! Yummo! Makes more than 14 though! I counted about 25 + the donut holes! Thank you!
This recipe is the best donut recipe I’ve ever found. I used a half cup less flour than listed in the recipe. My thermometer said donuts should be fried at 360 to 375 degrees. I’ll never use another cake donut recipe!
I followed this recipe to the letter. Sorry donuts! The glaze, however, turned out well. 1 star for the donuts and 5 stars for the glaze.
Makes ya wonder what you did wrong if were sorry since everyone else loved them.
These were delicious, thank you for the recipe! My kids had fun cutting them out.
Does cake flour work better for the classic donuts like in the sour cream donut recipe? Just curious because they turned out so awesome. Thanks
These were awesome! Don’t leave the nutmeg out. You don’t taste it. I wouldn’t change a thing. Thanks for sharing!!!
Delicious and easier than I thought! I was afraid! Lol-at 66 years old I’ve never made donuts! The dough came together nicely and was so easy to roll out and work with. I made the chocolate glaze and also did some with cinnamon sugar-both were delicious! I’m scoring points with the whole family now since we are all donut lovers! Thank you for such a delicious, easy recipe with great directions. Quick question-can the glaze be made before frying the donuts? It was a bit hectic trying to get the glaze done in between frying. Thanks in advance!
Love the doughnut recipe! When I was young we would buy plain cake doughnuts, but instead of the chocolate glaze part here, we would just buy chocolate cake frosting and heat that in the microwave and spread it on the doughnuts with a butter knife. Sometimes we would add crushed nuts, candy sprinkles or coconut shavings on top.
Maybe too much flour. Did not fluff out very much.
Just made these this morning, used the frosting recipe too. Delicious! Donut was exactly how you described (and how I like), crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. I did use nutmeg and halved it…my kids are weird eaters. It’s the secret ingredient that Winchells uses. Thanks so much for sharing!
These were my first-ever try at making doughnuts and they turned out beautifully! Thank you!
The dough is too sticky can I add more flour so I can roll it out?
I made these donuts with just a few changes, I made it the original way first but accidentally burn them. The only changes I made was I added 3/4 cups of sugar and 3/2 tsp of nutmeg. Either way the original or my adjustments they taste just like donuts. Thank you so much for the great and easy recipe.
So happy this recipe was a success for you!
These turned out awesome. I added a quarter teaspoon of ground cloves in addition to the nutmeg. They remind me of the original “dunkin’ donut” that they used to have, with the little handle on the side. Those were my favorite and I miss them, so it’s nice to have this recipe. I used a chocolate ganache glaze instead of your icing recipe, also.
I omitted the corn syrup from the glaze so maybe that’s why, but the glaze was much too thin to use “immediately” after whisking in pwd sugar. Letting it cool and thicken for about 10-15min yielded much better results. Happy with the recipe otherwise, thanks!