Doughnut Day!

As Homer on the The Simpsons would say," mmmmmmm...doughnuts...*drool*"

This morning in Piggy's Kitchen: Dairy-Free Doughnuts! 

I found this recipe a few weekends ago after daydreaming about the days when the hubby and I could go to Krispy Kreme and gorge ourselves on doughnuts. It's been years since we've set foot into a Krispy Kreme and I wondered if I could find a recipe and try them at home. Lo and behold, I came across This Guy. He had a recipe for Krispy Kreme-like doughnuts, and I thought, hey I'll give it a go. Here's the recipe : Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I tweaked it for making it dairy free, and they came out soo good. Now we can have doughnuts at our house again, without worries of milk allergies going crazy. Here's my tweaked version of the 99 Cent Chef's original recipe, with substitutions made to avoid milk and butter.

Doughnut Ingredients

(Approximately 1 dozen doughnuts)

1 package yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water (100 degrees)
2 cups flour
3/4 cup of warm milk (Soy Milk)
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 egg
1Tblsp. Crisco Shortening
A pan/pot to fry them up in with at least half an inch of oil.

Sugar Glaze Ingredients and Directions

1 Tbsp. Crisco Shortening

1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 tbsp. water (clear glaze) or milk (white glaze)
Melt Crisco and add to powdered sugar, vanilla and water. Mix well for a couple of minutes. Pour into shallow dish for dipping/coating warm doughnuts.

Directions for Doughnuts
In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water, then add warm milk, egg, sugar, butter and flour. Mix well for a few minutes (electric mixer for 2, or 5 minutes by hand). Cover dough for at least a hour, or overnight for breakfast doughnuts. (Overnight makes doughnuts that are more chewy textured)

On a lightly floured surface, roll out doughnut dough with a rolling pin about 1/2 an inch thick. Cut doughnuts with a cutter (I used a coffee cup), then a smaller cutter (I used an apple juice bottle top) for the centers. You can set aside the doughnut holes with the doughnuts or re-roll them for another doughnut or two. Let cut doughnuts set another half an hour to rise one last time before frying.

When doughnuts have risen, heat oil in a wide shallow pan to about 350 degrees (medium heat). Test one of the doughnut holes in the oil – it should bubble and quickly brown the doughnut hole. Fry one doughnut at a time until you get the hang of it – I burned a couple. Watch carefully, as doughnuts will begin to brown along the edge in a few seconds. Flip doughnut over to brown the other side. (I used some take-out chopsticks, made it really easy to flip)  It may take a few tries – a light to medium brown doughnut is done enough.

Let your doughnuts cool on a rack or on some paper towels to drain off the excess oil, then dip into your icing, let it harden a little bit and then enjoy! Fresh, Dairy-free doughnuts!

Tip: To keep the icing from getting dried out and crunchy in between dipping, I made my own double boiler out of two bowls to keep the icing at a nice warm gooey temperature. Just boil some water for your bottom bowl and plop your bowl with icing on top. A quick whirl with your whisk before dipping and the icing gets runny and smooth so you can plunk your doughnut down and give it a nice sugary coat. 

^.^ Piggy