These glazed donuts are a love song to Krispy Kreme donuts. They're light and flavorful and coated in thin, crackly glaze that'll have you licking your fingers clean. Wonderful homemade donuts to enjoy on a lazy weekend day.
1.65ozneutral vegetable oil47 grams or 1/4 cup, I use avocado oil
1teaspoonkosher salt5 grams, I use Morton's
several gratingswhole nutmegabout 1/4 teaspoon (optional but lovely in doughnuts)
16ozall-purpose flour1 pound, 454 grams, or about 3 1/2 cups
For the Glaze
2ozunsalted butter1/2 stick, 57 grams, or 1/4 cup
8ozpowdered sugar226 grams or 2 cups
heavy pinchsalt
½teaspoonvanilla extract
boiling waterenough to thin to a "drippy" glaze
Instructions
To Make the Dough
Place all the ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment and mix on low until all the flour is incorporated. Scrape the bowl as necessary.
Once the dough has come together, knead on medium speed until the dough is smooth, shiny, and very stretchy, about 15 minutes. Note the dough is very soft, so it won't clear the bottom of the bowl. Think of it more as a very thick batter rather than a dough.
Scrape any dough from the sides of the bowl, spray the top of the dough with pan spray, cover, and let rise in a warm spot for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume.
While the dough is proofing, cut a sheet of parchment into 12 squares, about 4"x4" and arrange them on half sheet pan so they're touching but not overlapping. Set that aside until the dough has finished rising. Have
To Shape the Donuts
Heavily flour your work surface, and scrape the proofed dough onto the flour. Flour the top of the dough and press the dough out until it's about 1/4" thick. No need to use a rolling pin--the dough is soft and easy to work with.
Cut out donuts using a 3 1/2" donut cutter or two round cutters, a larger one to set the diameter and a smaller one for the holes. Place each proto-donut on one of the pieces of parchment, spray them all lightly with pan spray, and set in a warm place to proof in a cozy place until puffy, about an hour.
Cut the scraps into 1" pieces. These will fry up into larger holes. I don't recommend rerolling the dough. The resulting donuts end up much heavier than the first rolls. Place the scraps on their own piece of parchment, spray and cover them, and let them rise as well.
To Make the Glaze
In a medium-sized, microwave-safe bowl. melt the butter. Whisk in the powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla as well as you can, and then whisk in boiling water until you have a thin, drippy consistency. This will be a glaze that sets up so thin you can barely see it, so it'll need to be much thinner than a cake glaze. When it cools, it will thicken up, so right before you're ready to glaze, microwave it for about 30 seconds to thin it out again. You will have to do this periodically as you glaze your donuts.
To Fry and Glaze
Arrange several thicknesses of paper toweling on a half-sheet pan (or a convenient space on the counter near the stove).
Heat about 1" of vegetable oil in a large skillet to 360F/180C. Make sure you don't fill the skillet more than half full. I use my 12" cast iron skillet. You could also use a saute pan.
When the oil is hot enough, turn the heat down so it doesn't get too hot, and carefully slide 1 donut and the parchment it's sitting on into the oil. Use tongs to grab the parchment, slide it out from under its donut, let excess oil drip back into the pan, and then discard.
Fry for about 1 minute per side, using a knife to carefully flip the donut over once the first side is done. Your donut should have a pale line running around its center. If it doesn't, cover the rest of the donuts and let them rise for an additional 15 minutes. If this is the case, take the oil off the heat, then resume frying activities.
Continue frying, 3 donuts at a time, until they're all golden brown and lovely. When done, remove each one from the oil with a spatula, allow excess oil to drip off for a few seconds, and then place them on the paper towel-lined pan.
Once all the donuts are cooked, fry up the donut holes and the cut scraps. These will take less time to cook, so keep an eye on them.
Set a large rack over a sheet pan or cookie sheet. Reheat your glaze and whisk it well. Take each donut, one at a time, and press it down into the glaze until it starts to come up through the hole. Flip it with a knife and, keeping the knife in the center of the donut hole, sort of stir it around so the donut does a bit of a hula hoop in the glaze, ensuring the entire thing is covered in glaze. Hold the donut up using the knife, and let the glaze drip off back into the bowl so the glaze is just about transparent. Place the glazed donut, prettiest side up, on the cooling rack. Repeat with the rest of the donuts. Don't forget to reheat the glaze periodically to keep it nice and thin.
Repeat with all the donuts, donut holes, and scraps. You should have just enough glaze to give everything a nice, thin coating. Allow the glaze to firm up and set so you can experience the "crackle" of the thin glaze, and then dig in.
Donuts are best the day they're made, so do your best. If there are leftovers, cover them tightly and serve them the next day, reheated in a toaster oven until warm.
Notes
A Note About the Amount of Flour
If you are used to working with slack dough, cut back on the flour to 14.5 oz/411 grams. The dough will be wet like thick batter, so it's a bit hard to work with, but the reward is that your donuts will be super light. Just make sure to flour the counter heavily and liberally flour the top of the dough before patting it out. Using 16 ounces sacrifices a bit of the ethereal quality of a Krispy Kreme for the sake of ease. Trust me, your doughnuts will be delicious, either way.