Dunkin My Donuts.

I'm normally not the hugest donut fan. I feel like a lot of times they're too sweet or too sugary. I know I know, donuts are SUPPOSED to be sweet, but sometimes they're just too much. I found this recipe and decided that maybe these would be the perfect morning treat. My friend Lauren and I had a little cooking party in her kitchen last night and created the most amazing dinner salad (post for that coming later!) and these little gems.

Rich Refrigerator Donuts
(recipe courtesy of Sunset Magazine)

1 package active dry yeast
3 1/4 cups flour. Plus more for rolling and shaping.
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten.
1/3 cup butter, at room temperature.
Vegetable oil for frying.

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 1 cup warm water.

                                

Add 1 1/2 cups flour, sugar and salt. Beat for 2 minutes with a wooden spoon.

It's OK if the dough so far isn't perfectly smooth. Let's be real, it's pretty much impossible to get everything perfectly blended, especially with a wooden spoon.

Add egg and butter and gradually mix in remaining flour by hand until batter is smooth. NOW, I dumped all the flour in at once, because I tend to lose track of how much I put in if I am gradual with adding things in. They turned out fine!

Yes, that's red food coloring still on my nail bed from my red velvet party the night before. It wanted to hang out a little bit longer. Also, how stinkin' cute is my nail polish? It's Essie, given to me by one of my favorites, Zoe!

After you've blended the dough just as well as you darn well can, cover it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours and up to over night. It should look a little something like this.

When dough is good and cold, roll it out onto a well floured board. Now. You can use a cookie cutter to make full size donuts, but we went with donut holes. Why you ask? Well, we discussed the (very important) issue at length and decided that donuts can be a big commitment, and sometimes you just want a little taste! Holes it is.

Roll the holes into bite size balls, and remember, they grow when they're being fried so don't make them TOO big.

Heat about a cup of vegetable oil in a deep dish frying pan, or in our case, a wok! Who says those are only good for making stir fry? PS - Ikea has them for $4. FOUR DOLLARS. I love that place.

I suggest tossing one in first to test the oil. The recipe says one minute on each side, but we found they cooked a little faster than that so just be sure to keep an eye on them. The recipe also says to roll them in plain ol sugar straight from the pan but we decided to give it a little kick and do sugar AND cinnamon. Fancy!

Get your little station ready, fully equipped with a paper towel lined plate or rack for drying/cooling.

Use tongs to flip your holes. A spatula or spoon will cause oil to go flying, and no one likes a little oil splash. Yes, thats cinnamon sugar on our tongs. We were short a pair and a little sugar in the oil never hurt anyone!



You guys, seriously, this recipe is so darn easy/fun and most likely you already have the ingredients in your pantry. It was probably more fun because we polished off a bottle of wine!

It ends up yielding about 2 dozen donut holes depending on how large you make them. I took the left overs to work with me to win over my co-workers (Just kidding guys!) and they were a big hit.

You should all be proud of me. I didn't get flour all over myself like I normally do. See?

PS - My amazing friend Danielle made me a blog button that you'll see to the right of this post. I am not so HTML savvy and she whipped that beauty up in no time! Love her. Anywho, feel free to grab the link and post it to your blog. If you have one too, I would love to put it on here! Let's all be blogging friends! <3