Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts

If cupcakes are so 2011, it would appear that doughnuts are in a good position to dominate 2012. Granted, neither cupcakes nor doughnuts are great for you, but my belief that making something homemade (even if it’s indulgent junk food) is better for you remains as steadfast as it did last year. To make homemade doughnuts, you need only go to the blogosphere’s resident expert, Lara Ferroni. Her recipe will allow you to make unbelievable doughnuts that put your favorite doughnut joint’s productions to shame.

This is my first attempt to make something from her wildly successful first book, Doughnuts, and if this recipe is any indication of the whole book, I am expecting to permanently inhabit my stretch pants. Her advice and guidance is concise and easy to follow, so my first attempt gave me wonderful doughnuts. A simple topping of cinnamon sugar is perfect to highlight the sweet, bouncy doughnut dough and light buttery, yeasty flavor.

Now, I know this is going against KbK tradition a bit and not showing the step-by-step for making the dough. I really was that apprehensive that I would not succeed in making doughnuts the first time around, so I did not take any pictures until I saw how nicely the dough rose. Lara has posted a variation of the recipe she used in her book, so I would follow that to get here, where this post begins.

My personal advice is to prepare the dough the day before you want to consume the doughnuts because it can be a bit time consuming.

I used these trusty biscuit cutters, which I need to use more often. They are very sharp!

Roll out the dough…

And use another sheet to make doughnut holes!

(I don’t know why this picture makes the dough looks so much more yellow-y…)

Make sure to let the dough rise again after you roll it out before putting them in the oven.

I let mine stay in the oven 1-2 minutes longer than needed so they actually had a bit of a crustyness, which was pretty tasty. While the freshly baked doughnuts are hot, brush on some melted butter.

Before the butter cools, dip the doughnuts in a small bowl of cinnamon sugar. Be generous!

Very generous. Maybe dipping twice, if you made a lot of cinnamon sugar!

Eat immediately.

The thing about homemade doughnuts is they they harden more quickly than store-bought doughnuts (preservatives, anyone?). You should eat them all on the same day, or if you choose to save them for the rest of the week–like I did with the doughnut holes–they have more of a cinnamon roll consistency.

Get Lara’s book here.

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