Tessa’s Recipe Rundown
Taste: Sweet goodness. Since the doughnuts themselves aren’t very sweet, the sugar coating isn’t too cloying, promise!
Texture: Perfect crunchy sugar coating and golden brown doughnut crust outside plus the tender and delicate inside is pure texture heaven.
Ease: Homemade doughnuts in less than 1 hour?! You will make a bit of a mess but this recipe is otherwise super simple.
Appearance: I love anything coated in sugar, it just sparkles and screams “eat me!”
Pros: Quick, homemade, and delicious copycat recipe. Will totally satisfy your craving for those Chinese buffet-style doughnuts without actually having to step foot into a buffet.
Cons: Very rich and indulgent.
Would I make this again? Mmmhmm.
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My grandpa, my dad’s dad, LOVED Chinese buffets. I could never understand why whenever we tried to organize a family dinner his first choice, and subsequently the place we ended up at, was almost always a Chinese buffet. Even for special occasions! Whether it was the food or the senior citizen discount he received, I will never know. Sadly he lost his battle to leukemia January 1st 2015, which was a rough start to the year for us. Those little things about him, like the fact that he loved Chinese buffets or that he was the only person to still call me “young lady” seem to stand out the most to me still.
Randomly last week I had a strong craving for Chinese doughnuts, the ones that seem to be in the dessert section of every Chinese-American buffet. I have no idea just how traditional or authentic these are to actual Chinese culture, but it was the only reason my brother and I were willing to make so many family trips to Chinese buffets as kids. We LOVED those damn doughnuts. Who wouldn’t? Fried balls of dough coated in sugar? It’s a kid’s dream, and apparently still my dream dessert to this day. So I decided to make them at home.
These doughnuts are ridiculously good. I mean, it’s just pure decadence so how could they not be incredible? Jared and I discovered a way to make them even more indulgent in the best possible fashion – they happen to taste fabulous with ice cream! This recipe basically takes a biscuit dough variation and deep fries them, finishing with a generous sugar coating. All the recipes I found online for homemade Chinese doughnuts used those premade refrigerated tubes of biscuit dough, but I wanted a homemade from scratch version and I’m thrilled with what I was able to come up with! The exterior crunch is marvelous, and the inside is soft, tender, and fluffy like a cross between a biscuit and a doughnut. I will say that the inside isn’t quite as light and fluffy like the buffet-style biscuits I remember, but it absolutely satisfies the craving nonetheless.
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A quick recipe note, be sure the doughnuts are cooked all the way through before coating with the sugar. You can use a cake tester or toothpick to check. During my last little batch of frying doughnuts the oil had dropped in temperature without my noticing and those ones ended up a little doughy in the middle.
Homemade Chinese Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 2 cups (255 grams) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 6 tablespoons (85 grams) cold unsalted butter, cubed
- 3/4 cup (170 grams) whole milk
- Canola oil for frying
- Granulated sugar for coating
Instructions
- Pour 2 inches of canola oil into a heavy bottomed pot with a deep-fry thermometer attached. Heat to 350°F.
- Meanwhile, in the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Add the butter and pulse several times to cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. You can also do this by hand with a pastry blender. Stir in the milk until combined.
- Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and dust the dough with flour. Gently pat the dough out until it’s a 1/2-inch in thickness. Use a 2-inch round biscuit cutter to cut out circles.
- Fry the doughnuts a few at a time, being careful not to overcrowd the pot. Fry until golden brown and cooked through, about 2 minutes per side, being careful not to let them burn. Let drain on a paper bag (or paper towels) to soak up the excess grease.
- While still hot, generously coat each doughnut in granulated sugar. Serve. Doughnuts are best served the day they are made.
Hi I know this is an old recipe but I just made these and they were great. Something I noticed was when the pieces of dough were less floured from rolling out they raise better in the oil.
The hubby and I had a late night craving for something sweet and it was a toss up between these and funnel cakes but we decided to try these donuts! And ohhh my god we’re they great. I cut the recipe in half since it was just the two of us and added 1/2 tsp of vanilla. I used a shot glass to cut the dough and they came out as little bite sized donuts. These are absolutely to die for and such an easy recipe, thanks!
I love that this recipe uses no eggs!!! My 6 year old loves to help. I let the butter soften for a few mintues after cubing it, then she was able to mix the dough by hand. We didnt have biscuit cutters, and we also wanted to make them smaller, so we rolled small amounts into balls and then flattened them to the descibed thickness. Thiss also left no waste!!!
Amazing recipe. Definitely became an instant family favorite!!!
My mom used to make a donut that had a marshmallow in the center. None of my sisters have a recipe for it & I was wondering if you might.
These turned out absolutely perfect! They came out a bit heavier but they were crispy on the outside, and fluffy on the inside! I made them a bit bigger, used carnation milk, used a nutribullet instead of a food processor and a profryer instead of a pot and they came out just as good as you said they would! 10/10 would make again
could I use water instead of milk and could I use salted instead of unsalted butter?
Tried to make this recipe not once but twice both times the dough didn’t cook in the center. Additionally, they looked nothing like the picture. The dough cooks too fast on the outside. I did gauge the oil temperature and still didn’t work.This recipe was a huge bust for me. Sadly now I am out double the ingredients.
followed instructions to get the free download for your top 5 donut glazes, but I haven’t received it. Shame, I was looking forward to experimenting.
Can you bake those? I am not big on frying 🙁
No, not traditional. Good lord are they yummy!, but not traditional. Chinese cuisine tends toward honey and fruit; white refined sugar is something adopted across the Asian map to appeal to western palates (as are most candy-sweet sauces you get on Chinese-American buffets).That said…I’m looking forward to trying the recipe!
Can these be made in an Air Fryer rather than fried in oil??? They sound scrumptious!
Thanks miss Tessa your recipe is good for chinese doughnut new innovation
bravo