How to Make Doughnuts
Doughnuts don't just come in bakery boxes by the dozen. If you've got a couple cans of refrigerated biscuit dough, some oil, and plenty of sweet stuff for toppings, you're already well on your way to discovering how to make doughnuts in your own kitchen.

When you make your own doughnuts, not only do you get the sweet satisfaction of enjoying the finished product, but you also get to "frost" them yourself with glaze, icing, sprinkles and other toppings. As you might imagine, this is great fun for little ones, which is precisely why this particular recipe is called "Cooking-With-Dad Doughnuts." Think of it as an interactive family breakfast.

While you could absolutely make your dough and toppings from scratch, this recipe takes all the right shortcuts--from the canned biscuit dough to using pre-made chocolate frosting as part of one of the glazes. There are three toppings suggested below, but feel free to break out the sprinkles, the food coloring, different icing flavors and let your imagination run wild!

Transcript
Hi, I'm Miranda with recipe.com, and today, I'm gonna show how to make cooking with Dad Doughnuts. Now, these doughnuts are sure to become a new family favorite. It's a great little breakfast threat. They're fun, they are fast, they're easy, and of course they are delicious. So, I won't waste anymore time. Let's get started cooking. I have ingredients all laid out here. So, let's start for doughnut themselves. We have 2 packages here of small refrigerated buttermilk biscuit. So, they are the small kind. You can see this is like 7-1/2 ounces. So, I've got those all laid in the plate here, and then for actual cooking, we have 5 cups of vegetable oil here that has been heated to about 365 degrees. So, you can either use, you know, like either tabletop frier or you can use a skillet. I have a nice big cast iron skillet here that I'm gonna use today. Definitely, I wanna make sure that you have tongs and slotted spoon, really important tools, and then over here are 3 different icing variations that we're going to do, so delicious. We're gonna do a vanilla, a chocolate, and a cinnamon. So, what you'll need is 1 cup of powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of milk or half in half, 3/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 1/3 cup of semisweet chocolate chips, 1/2 cup of chocolate frosting, 1 cup of granulated sugar, and 1-1/2 tablespoons of cinnamon. So, to begin, let's prepare our doughnuts. Let's get these all ready. We're just gonna smooth out the edges of these buttermilk biscuits, soon to be doughnuts. So, they are little bit flat right now, you can see, and we just want them to be a little more rounded like a doughnut shape. So, just kind of round out those edges, and then we're just gonna poke a whole in the middle because of course we like our doughnuts with holes. So just poke a little hole in the middle, large enough that it doesn't close back up again, but that's good and frankly now you're done is you can make them however you like. So, I'm just gonna go through until we've done that with each of them and you will get ready to fry. Okay, so here we go, look at our beautiful plate of ready to go doughnuts. They are ready to go in our oil. We are ready to cook folks. So, using either slotted spoon or you can use just tongs like this, we're just gonna lower it into the oil and watch as it gets golden brown. Flip, this happened really fast. So, our oil is a little bit warm perhaps and I'm just placing it over here on a wire rack. Under the wire rack, I put like a backing sheet with paper towel. So, I'm just gonna let this sit for like 5 to 6 minutes. It's gonna drain and cool and I'm just gonna continue with the rest of my doughnuts. So, I'm just gonna let this cool now here. Let them drain a little bit for like to 6 minutes, and we're gonna get started on our different icing variation. So, we have really yummy stuff to dip this in Alright, so for our different icings, let's start with our vanilla. So just in this bowl, I'm going to combine the powdered sugar, the milk, and the vanilla. I'm just gonna whisk this around using wire whisk to introduce that vanilla in and just keep whisking until this is all dissolved and deliciously combined. Beautiful, delicious vanilla icing, fantastic. Let's set this to the side. Next step is our chocolate frosting. I'm gonna melt this chocolate chips in the microwave until they are just melted and then mix these together. Stick them back in the microwave for just a few seconds until it's nice and running. Alright, so, our chocolate frosting is done. Last but not the least, we have our cinnamon and sugar, simple enough, just toss in the cinnamon, the sugar, give that a little stir to make sure its nice and combined. We are good to start frosting and icing and dipping our delicious doughnuts. This personally other than eating is my favorite part. We're gonna start with the cinnamon and sugar because it's a good idea to dip the doughnuts when they are still warm. It will help the sugar kind of hold on. So, just drop them in and give them a nice little shake around. Look how gorgeous this looks, delicious. Put it on a plate. I'm gonna do one of each. Demonstrate one of each and then I'll keep on going. So, for the vanilla, and just gonna kind of depth so you can those nice little runny on the side that we all know and love. Look how good this looks and you made it. Isn't it so exciting. No need to go to a doughnut store after all. The chocolate frosting, a quick note, the cooler it is, the thicker it will be. So, if you want a super, super runny frosting, just continue to microwave at short little intervals, but like mine to kind of hold up a little bit. Look how gorgeous that looks, yummy, and there you go. Now, you know how to make quick and easy doughnuts.
What You'll Need
  • 2   packages refrigerated buttermilk biscuits, small 7.5 ounce
  • 5  cups  vegetable oil
  • Icing Variations...
  • 1   cup  powdered sugar
  • 3  tablespoons  milk or half and half
  • 3/4  teaspoons  vanilla extract
  • 1/3   cup  semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 1/2  cup  chocolate frosting
  • 1  cup  sugar
  • 1 1/2  tablespoons  cinnamon
Step By Step
1
Pre heat oil in a skillet or electric counter-top fryer to 365 degrees F.
2
Open biscuit package, round the edges of biscuits and poke a hole in each one. Lay biscuits on a tray or plate.
3
Place biscuits one by one in hot oil. With a skewer or tongs, check the color of the underside of each biscuit and turn when they reach the desired light golden brown color (approx. 35 to 45 seconds). Check the bottom again and remove donuts when they have evenly browned on both sides.
4
Drain donuts on a baking rack for 5 to 6 minutes and dip in glaze or desired topping. If sprinkles are to be applied do so before icing or glaze dries.
5
Vanilla Donut Glaze - in a small mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and whisk with a wire whip until well blended.
6
Chocolate Donut Frosting - in a glass mixing bowl, heat chocolate chips in microwave until melted. Add frosting and whisk with a wire whip until smooth. Reheat for a few seconds until frosting is slightly runny. Thicker frosting will translate to thicker coverage on donuts. To thin frosting, reheat periodically.
7
Cinnamon Sugar Donut Coating - combine all ingredients.
Of course, the most important ingredient in how to make doughnuts can be summed up in three short letters: F-U-N.
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