An Ode to Grandma's Donuts.

My love affair with homemade donuts started many, many years ago. My wonderful grandma would wake up at 5am to have hot, crispy, fluffy, powered sugar donuts waiting for us as a treat. She'd always double or triple the recipe - since there was usually at least a dozen people at her house. We'd sit around the table in shifts - with our plastic cup of milk and licking powdered sugar off our fingers.

Those were glorious mornings.

When we made them at our house for the first time - it was odd. As if out of the context of grandma's house, they were no longer as special. My almost-16-year-old (oh my gosh, I am so old!) sister is as obsessed with making food as I am, so we made some this weekend.

Here's the recipe - illustrated! [Give it a try - it takes some time, but mostly just waiting for things to rise. Perfect for a Sunday morning.]

Ingredients:
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup warm water
1 pkg active dry yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/4 cup soft shortening
3 1/2 (or so) cups flour

Bring the milk to a boil and then cool.

I'm so in love with these kind of cook tops. Sigh. I dream of a day when things don't get caught under my burner.

Dissolve yeast in warm water.

Add milk, sugar, salt, egg, shortening, and half of flour.


Mix with spoon until smooth.


Grab a cute sister to pose for you. {Promise sister you won't put picture on internet. Put it on internet anyway.}


Add enough remaining flour to handle easily; mix with hands.

Somehow, Emmie is bossy enough that I ended up doing this part. Which is kind of annoying, really, have your hands covered in sticky dough.

Turn onto lightly floured board.


Knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes)

I recorded an adorable video of little sister demonstrating kneading. Silly Flickr.

[Get distracted by fridge. Wait, is that what I think it is??]


[I love my mother. Who apparently loves Jim.]


Wait! Where was I? Oh, donuts. Yes.


Spray or grease bowl.


Place dough in bowl and then flip over, so it's all greasy. Yum.


Cover with damp cloth. Let rise in a warm place (85 deg.) until doubled - about 1.5 hours. (We had to put ours in a slightly-cooled oven since the house was chilly. After it rises, punch down and let rise for 30 more minutes.

{Halloween-esque towel is optional.}

Roll out dough 1/3" thick. Cut with 3" floured donut or cookie cutter (you could always cut it up into squares if you don't have a donut cutter. Pillows taste yummy, too!). Let right again for 30-45 minutes. Leave uncovered, so crust will form on the dough.


Drop into vegetable oil that is HOT (around 375 deg. or when the sizzle when you drop them in).


Flip them over when you start to see the brown edges (usually less than a minute).

Cook a bit on the other side, too.

Then drain on paper (or cloth!) towels.

For powdered sugar donuts (aka: pure heaven), place in a bag with sugar and shake.

Eat them before everyone else does.

Dang it. Now I'm all hungry and stuff.