Kitchen Tips How To Baking How to Make Homemade Doughnuts America's favorite pastry is a cinch to make at home. By Carl Hanson Carl Hanson Carl Hanson is a Senior Editor at Allrecipes who has been writing about food and wine for nearly 20 years. He enjoys creating content that informs, entertains, and assists busy home cooks get nourishing meals on the table for their families. Allrecipes' editorial guidelines Updated on October 22, 2020 Trending Videos Close this video player Photo: Carson's Mommy Pictured: Crispy and Creamy Doughnuts Making Doughnut Batter A basic doughnut batter is pretty simple stuff: Flour, sugar, salt, yeast or baking powder, plus milk, butter, and eggs. We have dozens and dozens of doughnut recipes to choose from. 20 Different Doughnuts You Need to Know Yeast Doughnuts Add yeast to the batter, and you're making yeast doughnuts — also called ″raised" doughnuts because the yeasty dough needs time to rise. To make yeast doughnuts, you'll dissolve the yeast in warm water, and let the mixture stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy. Then stir the foamy yeast into the flour mixture, adding the remaining ingredients as the recipe describes. When the dough is firm enough, turn it out onto a floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 3 to 5 minutes. Place into an oiled bowl, cover, and, allow the dough to rise in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 30 to 45 minutes. Favorite yeast doughnut recipes to try: Glazed Yeast Doughnuts My Mom's Raised Doughnuts Crispy and Creamy Doughnuts Cake Doughnuts Add baking powder instead of yeast, and you're making cake doughnuts. With cake doughnuts, the dough goes straight from kneading and shaping into the hot oil (or oven) — no rising time required. Not surprisingly, they have a denser, cake-ier texture. Favorite cake doughnut recipes to try: Applesauce Doughnuts with Buttermilk Plain Cake Doughnuts Super Easy Doughnuts Doughnut Dough Shortcut Grandma would never cheat, of course. But Grandma's Doughnuts fudge things just a little by using refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough in place of batter! With this shortcut recipe, you'll have doughnuts prepped, fried, and on the drying rack in 20 minutes. Boost Your Batter Once you have a basic batter, you can kick things up a notch. Add chocolate chunks or funfetti to the batter. Or mix in pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin puree, or a little cinnamon and nutmeg, maybe a little orange zest, or give 'em the carrot cake treatment. Here's What to Do with Stale Doughnuts Baking or Frying Doughnuts Kelsey Pictured: Malasadas Equipment Whichever type of doughnut you choose, cake or yeast, you'll need a few things to make them. If you have a deep-fat fryer, use it. But you don't need a dedicated deep-fat fryer to make doughnuts; a heavy, deep pot works great.For round doughnuts with holes in the center, you'll need something to cut out the doughnut shapes: A doughnut cutter or round biscuit or cookie cutters.You'll also need a slotted metal spoon to ease the doughnuts into the hot oil and to retrieve them when done. The Basics for Frying Doughnuts Roll the dough out to 1/2-inch thickness on a well-floured surface. Photo by Meredith. Cut out the shapes. If you're using a doughnut cutter, you'll have one doughnut and one doughnut hole with each press. For yeast doughnuts, you'll roll out the dough, cut them, and then allow them to rise (about 30 minutes) before slipping them into the oil. Photo by Meredith. To the pot, add enough oil to submerge the doughnuts (about 4 inches) and heat the oil to 365 degrees F. Carefully ease the doughnuts into the hot oil with your slotted metal spoon. Don't crowd. Fry 2 or 3 at a time, moving the doughnuts around the oil with your slotted metal spoon, turning once. When they're golden brown, remove them to paper towels. For tips on frying, check out How to Deep-Fry without Making a Hot Mess. Photo by Meredith. How to Bake Doughnuts You don't need to deep-fry doughnuts. With a doughnut pan, you can turn your batter into beautiful baked doughnut rings. Pour the batter into the cups — about three-quarters of the way up. Then bake them in a preheated over until the doughnuts spring back to the touch. Photo by Meredith. Ways to Amaze with the Glaze Now for the finishing touches. Dunk 'em in glaze: vanilla, chocolate, maple, caramel. Or go bold! Try butterscotch or maple bourbon glazes, or cook down sweetened coffee or pineapple juice glazes. To apply the glaze, give your doughnuts some quick dunk-and-twist action in the warm glaze. Photo by Meredith. Top It Off Crown your creations with candy sprinkles, chopped nuts, shredded coconut, cinnamon-sugar (or powdered sugar), crushed Graham Crackers, cereal, bacon -- whatever you like. VIDEO: How to Make Crispy, Creamy Doughnuts See how it's done! This quick video for Crispy and Creamy Doughnuts shows you how to make yeast doughnuts from scratch. Browse our entire collection of Doughnut recipes. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit