Doughnuts with or without Yeast

Doughnuts the traditional way with the rising agent called yeast. Great for your church group meetings...........

1 teaspoon sugar
½ packet of dried yeast
3 fl oz milk, warmed to hand-heat
8 oz flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ oz butter, melted
1 egg, beaten
Raspberry or Strawberry Jam
Vegetable oil
3 oz caster sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Whipping cream


Place the sugar, yeast and warm milk in a small bowl and mix well. place in a warm place for about 30 minutes or until the mixture is frothy. Meanwhile sift the flour and salt together in a large bowl and then when ready pour and stir in the butter, egg and yeast mixture. Mix to a soft dough and then get stuck in and knead until smooth and elastic. Leave in the bowl and cover and place somewhere warm until the dough has doubled in size, I am in Africa in Tanzania at the moment so it does not take too long but can take up to 45 minutes.
Remove from the bowl and get stuck in again and knead it and divide into 10 equal pieces and roll 6 of them into sticks and 6 into balls. With the balls make a small indentation with the end of a wooden spoon into the centre of each and pop in some jam. Press the dough together well and make sure the hole is sealed. Place to one side somewhere warm and cover again until they have doubled in size.

while waiting heat some vegetable oil in a large deep pan until it reaches about 150°C – it should take about 1 minute for a cube of bread dropped in to turn golden-brown. Add the doughnuts a few at a time and cook until golden-brown you will need to turn them over with a slotted spoon probably and will take about 4 minutes before they are cooked and ready to remove from the oil. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon or sieve and drain well before rolling in the sugar and cinnamon that you’ve mixed together on a sheet of greaseproof paper.
Now the Stick doughnuts once they have cooled enough to handle slice them length ways about 1/3 depth and pull open, pipe whipped cream along the valley and then drizzle a line of jam along the top.

So now without Yeast..........

this is quicker than with yeast as you do not wait for all the rising in between....

1¼ lb plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons margarine
5 oz caster sugar
Water
Extra sugar

Sieve the flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon together into a large bowl. add the sugar and mix well. Now with your fingertips, rub in the margarine until you have incorporated everything and have a fine grainy mixture. Slowly add water bringing the dough together until you have a smooth ball.

Have an area ready with which is well floured and turn out your dough onto it and then with a rolling pin or clean milk bottle roll out to a thickness of about 15mm or 1/2 inch. Using a round pastry cutter or a reasonably sized glass cut out the doughnuts. Now the doughnuts can be any shape at all but not too large as this recipe expands in the hot oil! If you do circles you can cut out the centres for a traditional ring doughnut shape.


Heat a pan of vegetable oil. Test to see if it is hot enough by dropping a small piece of dough or ‘hole’ in. If it immediately rises to the top, the oil is ready. Cook the doughnuts just 1 or 2 at a time depending on space in the pan. The doughnut will sink initially but will soon start to expand and rise to the surface leave for about a minute and then turn over to brown the other side. Lift out of the pan using a slotted spoon or a strainer and allow to drain well and drop onto greaseproof paper covered in caster sugar. Roll the doughnut to cover and allow to cool slightly before eating.

you can do the cream and jam thing these ones as well if you made long instead of round ones!