Name: Doughnuts (Yeast-Raised Rings)
Prep time: 2 h 30 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 2 h 55 min
Yield: 12 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 400 g bread flour; 50 g sugar; 6 g salt; 7 g instant dried yeast; 180 ml milk; 2 pcs eggs; 60 g unsalted butter; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 1.5 L neutral oil; 220 g icing sugar; 45 ml milk; 0.5 tsp vanilla extract; 1 pinch salt; 100 g sugar; 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Ingredients

12servings

Dough
bread flour · plain flour works but gives less chew400 g
sugar50 g
salt6 g
instant dried yeast7 g
milk · lukewarm, about 35C; hot milk kills the yeast180 ml
eggs · room temperature2 pcs
unsalted butter · softened, added after the dough comes together60 g
vanilla extract · optional1 tsp
To fry
neutral oil · deep enough that they float rather than sit; high smoke point1.5 L
Glaze
icing sugar · sifted220 g
milk · added a little at a time to reach the right thickness45 ml
vanilla extract0.5 tsp
salt · so it is not only sweet1 pinch
Sugar coating (instead of glaze)
sugar100 g
ground cinnamon · optional1 tsp

Steps

Stir the yeast and a pinch of sugar into the lukewarm milk and leave 5 minutes. No foam means dead yeast — start again.
⏲ 5 min
Mix the flour, remaining sugar and salt, add the yeasted milk and eggs, and knead. Once it comes together, add the butter and knead another 8-10 minutes to smooth. Butter added at the start prevents gluten from developing.
⏲ 15 min
This is a rich dough — butter, eggs and sugar — so it sticks to your hands. Do not add more flour: a stiffer dough gives hard doughnuts. If it is unmanageable, 30 minutes in the fridge makes it much easier.
⏲ 5 min
Put it in an oiled bowl, cover, and give it a first rise of 60-90 minutes, until doubled. Around 27-28C is right.
⏲ 90 min
Roll to 1.2cm thick and cut 8cm rings with a 2.5cm hole. Re-roll the scraps, but only twice — beyond that they turn tough.
⏲ 15 min
Set them on parchment for a second rise of 30-40 minutes. Err on the under-proofed side here: a fingertip press should spring back slowly and only halfway. Over-proofed doughnuts collapse the moment they hit the oil and drink it.
⏲ 40 min
Bring the oil to 175-180C. Without a thermometer, a scrap of dough should rise within two seconds with fine bubbles around it. Too cool and they absorb oil; too hot and the outside burns before the middle cooks.
⏲ 10 min
Lower them in on their parchment and fry 60-90 seconds a side, turning exactly once. Every extra turn means more oil absorbed. Two or three at a time only — a crowded pan drops the temperature.
⏲ 3 min
Check for the white band around the middle. A properly made doughnut floats while it fries, so the waist that never touched the oil stays pale. A clear band means the proof and the temperature were both right; uniform brown with no band means it was over-proofed, or the oil was too hot.
⏲ 1 min
Cool on a rack for about 5 minutes. Glaze them while warm — barely warm to the touch. Hot, the glaze runs off and disappears; fully cold, it sets thick and shatters.
⏲ 5 min
Whisk the icing sugar, milk, vanilla and salt into a glaze that ribbons slowly off a spoon. Dip the tops, let the excess drip, and set them on the rack. For sugar-coated instead, roll them in sugar (with cinnamon) while warm.
⏲ 10 min

Tips & Variations

Variations

Cake doughnuts are a different dough. A stiff batter raised with baking powder rather than yeast, with no proof — mixed and fried straight away. The result is dense and crumbly with a cracked surface. Expecting the light chew of a yeast doughnut from it is a mistake.
Filled doughnuts (jam or cream) are shaped as rounds without a hole, fried, then piped full. Being thicker, they need 90 seconds to 2 minutes a side.
Twisted doughnuts — Korea's kkwabaegi — are the same dough rolled long, twisted, fried and rolled in sugar. Easier to handle than rings, so a good way to practise.
Baked works (190C, 12 minutes) but gives you a small bread rather than a doughnut surface — and no white band, of course.
An overnight cold rise is the most practical route: 8-12 hours in the fridge for the first rise firms the dough so cutting and moving it is far easier, and deepens the flavour.
The same yeast-dough family includes pretzels and croissants; the same fried-dough family includes churros and hotteok.

Tips

The white band is your report card. It is the most useful signal in the dish, and most recipes never mention it. A well-proofed doughnut is light enough to float, so one stripe around its waist never touches the oil and stays pale. No band means either the dough was heavy and sank — under- or over-proofed — or the oil was hot enough to set the surface instantly (deep frying).
Under-proof rather than over-proof the second rise. This is the opposite of bread. An over-proofed doughnut has a weakened gas structure, collapses as it enters the oil, and takes oil in where it collapsed (fermentation basics).
Sticky dough is correct. It is rich with butter and egg. Adding flour to stiffen it gives hard doughnuts; chill it instead (dough and gluten).
Butter goes in late. Added at the start, the fat coats the flour and gluten never develops. Wait until the dough is one mass.
Hold 175C. At 165C they drink oil and turn heavy; at 190C the centres stay raw. Each doughnut drops the oil 10-15C, so fry two or three at a time and let it recover between batches.
Turn once. Every turn costs you more absorbed oil. Flip at deep gold, then lift out.
Use bread flour. The chew is what separates a doughnut from a bun; plain flour gives something softer and slacker (choosing flour).
Glaze them barely warm. Temperature is the whole thing: hot and it runs off, cold and it sets thick. A pinch of salt in it keeps it from being only sweet (what sugar does).
Doughnuts are a same-day food and change noticeably within hours. To get ahead, freeze them unfried after shaping, thaw overnight in the fridge, and pick up at the second rise.

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