By Mark Bittman
- Total Time
- About 3 hours, mostly unattended
- Rating
- 4(300)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Where doughnut shops tend to rely on fluorescent red, sickly sweet jelly, you are free to use jelly (or jam, or marmalade, or whatever you like) that actually tastes good. The only specialty tool you’ll need is a pastry bag. But you can also poke a funnel into the side of the doughnut and spoon the jelly into the center of the pastry.
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Ingredients
Yield:About 1 dozen
- 1¼cups milk
- 2¼teaspoons (one package) active dry yeast
- 2eggs
- 8tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted and cooled
- ¼cup granulated sugar
- 1teaspoon salt
- 4¼cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling out the dough
- 2quarts neutral oil, for frying, plus more for the bowl.
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)
313 calories; 14 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 8 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 40 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 6 grams sugars; 7 grams protein; 216 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Heat the milk until it is warm but not hot, about 90 degrees. In a large bowl, combine it with the yeast. Stir lightly, and let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.
Step
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Using an electric mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, beat the eggs, butter, sugar and salt into the yeast mixture. Add half of the flour (2 cups plus 2 tablespoons), and mix until combined, then mix in the rest of the flour until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Add more flour, about 2 tablespoons at a time, if the dough is too wet. If you’re using an electric mixer, the dough will probably become too thick to beat; when it does, transfer it to a floured surface, and gently knead it until smooth. Grease a large bowl with a little oil. Transfer the dough to the bowl, and cover. Let rise at room temperature until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
Step
3
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and roll it to ½-inch thickness. Cut out the doughnuts with a doughnut cutter, concentric cookie cutters or a drinking glass and a shot glass (the larger one should be about 3 inches in diameter), flouring the cutters as you go. Reserve the doughnut holes. If you’re making filled doughnuts, don’t cut out the middle. Knead any scraps together, being careful not to overwork, and let rest for a few minutes before repeating the process.
Step
4
Put the doughnuts on two floured baking sheets so that there is plenty of room between each one. Cover with a kitchen towel, and let rise in a warm place until they are slightly puffed up and delicate, about 45 minutes. If your kitchen isn’t warm, heat the oven to 200 at the beginning of this step, then turn off the heat, put the baking sheets in the oven and leave the door ajar.
Step
5
About 15 minutes before the doughnuts are done rising, put the oil in a heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, and heat it to 375. Meanwhile, line cooling racks, baking sheets or plates with paper towels.
Step
6
Carefully add the doughnuts to the oil, a few at a time. If they’re too delicate to pick up with your fingers (they may be this way only if you rose them in the oven), use a metal spatula to pick them up and slide them into the oil. It’s O.K. if they deflate a bit; they’ll puff back up as they fry. When the bottoms are deep golden, after 45 seconds to a minute, use a slotted spoon to flip; cook until they’re deep golden all over. Doughnut holes cook faster. Transfer the doughnuts to the prepared plates or racks, and repeat with the rest of the dough, adjusting the heat as needed to keep the oil at 375. Glaze or fill as follows, and serve as soon as possible.
Step
7
When the doughnuts are cool enough to handle but still warm, roll them around in a shallow bowl of granulated sugar to coat. Fill with your favorite jelly.
Ratings
4
out of 5
300
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Cooking Notes
marlette
So, how do you fill the doughnut? I've seen them sliced in half and slathered with jelly but I'd like to actually fill the center like the bakery does.TIA
The Gourmet Foodie
Fill a pastry bag with your jam of choice (use the #4 tip).Using a wooden skewer, make a hole in the side of each doughnut. Fit pastry tip into the donut hole and pipe in 2-3 tsp. of jam.
jamberry
We made these today. After the first hour didn't see much rising so left another 1/2 hour. Still didn't see much but dough felt "right" so made the shapes, let prove and used a deep frying machine I bought 10 years ago and never used (even thought donuts were the reason I bought the thing). Crossed our fingers and lower them into the fryer and WooHoo. We have jelly donuts. Don't know why they didn't look risen but the proof (haha) was in the tasting. Great!
Kate
These were great after freezing. I made a batch of the dough. Cut out the rounds, and froze them before the second rise (sandwiched between sheets of parchment). Took out just one, thawed it, let it have its second rise, and fried it (in my miniature size Dutch oven). Its really nice to be able to make just one or two on short notice. It was a bit of an experiment, but this recipe worked really great. The donut was delicious.
M
I just thought of something!, get a big medicine thingy and put the jelly in there and push it through.
Jenn
It says about one dozen right under the title of the recipe.
Brad
Late to the party but use a pastry bag and a piping tip. Fill the donut when it is cooled enough to touch but still warm to get the most filling.
Wanda
Use a pastry bag with a number 230 tip. It's a long tip that will go all the way in to fill doughnut completely.
Kadi
This is the perfect recipe! I love to make this recipe into apple fritters my family loves loves loves them
Debra
I have an electric cooktop so the oil temp was hard to regulate. Doughnuts were delicious, but were a lot darker than deep golden.
muffin
Delicious gone within a day
Julie Widrow
Filled these with seedless raspberry jam, rolled them in powdered sugar and cinnamon and served them as sufganyot for dessert tonight. They were gobbled up!
pastry bag
If you do not have a pastry bag, you can use a ziplock bag with one of the bottom corners snipped off.
Ellen Tabor
You'll need to insert a metal or plastic tip, though, no matter what kind of bag you use; the bags are not structured enough to insert the jelly without one.
KC
Agree with another commenter who noted that he/she had trouble with yeast not activating with the milk at 90* - suggest warming the milk to perhaps 110*. Stating the obvious, but the temperature of the oil is critical - use a quality device to measure it. That said, the donuts were terrific! I used a piping bag to fill the jelly donuts, and it worked great. I used grape jelly at room temperature. Great recipe and a lot of fun!
Sarah
These are wonderful! I followed the recipe exactly...except for the very first bit, lol. I tried 3 times to get my yeast activated. The milk was the exact temp of 90, my yeast fresh - nothing. I thought maybe because I was using 1% there was less sugar content? Then I looked on the bottle of yeast - to activate yeast you need a higher temperature (more like 110) and more sugar! I added a teaspoon of honey to the warmer milk and presto!
Chloe
Cooking only 45 seconds to a minute is not enough. It’s still gooey on the inside. Cook for about 2 minutes on each side and it’s done. If I make the oil hotter and cook for less time then it’s burnt on the outside and gooey in the middle.
Santa Barbara
I'm afraid I can't endorse this recipe. I followed it carefully, and the final product was dense and undercooked in the middle. A bit of research suggests that most recipes use a lower flour to liquid ratio. Plus, it seems like the instructions for frying a jelly doughnut should different than those for a regular doughnut, given that there is more dough and less surface area. Given that this recipe mentions doughnut holes, it was clearly not written for jelly doughnuts!
Gregg L. Friedman MD
They taste great with either raspberry or blueberry filling. By Gregg L. Friedman MD
Kate
These were great after freezing. I made a batch of the dough. Cut out the rounds, and froze them before the second rise (sandwiched between sheets of parchment). Took out just one, thawed it, let it have its second rise, and fried it (in my miniature size Dutch oven). Its really nice to be able to make just one or two on short notice. It was a bit of an experiment, but this recipe worked really great. The donut was delicious.
Kate
I let the dough rise longer than advised for both rises, but otherwise followed the recipe to a T. Fried 45 seconds or less per side. Used raspberry jelly. These were heavenly—so light and airy!
Grace
made this recipe exactly as written, they turned out perfectly - best doughnut recipe I have tried. and the family love them!
Rylee
Can these be baked?
M
It doesn’t say how much it makes. That is one thing you need to put on a cooking website.
Jenn
It says about one dozen right under the title of the recipe.
M
I just thought of something!, get a big medicine thingy and put the jelly in there and push it through.
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