• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer
CASA Veneracion

CASA Veneracion

Filipino food for the 21st century

  • About
  • Devour Asia
  • Renaissance Mom
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch / Dinner
    • Main Courses
    • Side Dishes
    • Soups
  • Noodles
  • Snacks
  • Drinks
  • Sweets
  • Christmas
  • Slow Cooker Recipes
  • About Us
  • Privacy
  • Devour Asia
  • Renaissance Mom
  • Breakfast
  • Lunch / Dinner
    • Main Courses
    • Side Dishes
    • Soups
    • Noodles
  • Snacks
  • Drinks
  • Sweets
  • Christmas
You are here: Home / Bread & Breakfast / Is it donuts or doughnuts? Whatever. These are homemade.

Is it donuts or doughnuts? Whatever. These are homemade.

Depending on my mood, I like my donuts plain or fancy. When I’m feeling nostalgic, I spell them as “doughnuts.” Whatever the spelling, and whether plain or fancy, I have to have them with coffee. I’ve come to think of donuts and coffee as things that naturally and logically go together. You know, like Antony and Cleopatra. Or Phineas and Ferb.

When we were still living in the city, around the time that the girls were in pre-school, there was a phase when, almost every night, Speedy would go out on his scooter to buy donuts. There was a Dunkin’ Donuts stand a few minutes away and he’d go there, come home with a box of donuts and we’d go donut crazy. Then, Mister Donut came along, we liked Mister Donut donuts better than Dunkin’ Donuts and we shifted brands. Not long after that came Country Style Donuts with its signature apple fritters and we forgot all about Mister Donut.

We were Country Style Donuts loyalists for a long, long time. We dabbled with other brands like Gonuts Donuts (new flavors like pastillas de leche were hard to resist) and Hot Loops for a while but we always went back to Country Style Donuts. When Krispy Kreme came along, my heart didn’t flutter even a bit. By that time, I already knew that, like anything else, a good donut is not the result of massive advertising and marketing. Good donuts are made, not hyped.

So, what makes a good donut? Sam and I decided to find out a couple of weekends ago. I mixed the dough, patiently waited for it to rise, Sam cut the dough into rings then we fried them. By the end of the process, we learned that good donuts are made with a lot of love, patience and fun. And whole mountain of mess.

The first batch of donuts, I simply rolled in a mixture of sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Yeast-raised homemade donuts | casaveneracion.com

The second batch… Well, there was some leftover ganache in the fridge, Sam reheated it until gooey and we started dipping the donuts in the chocolate. Not quite content, Sam took out the sprinkles and started decorating the chocolate-topped donuts with them. She is so creative. Much more so than I am.

Recipe adapted from 17andbaking.com.

Is it donuts or doughnuts? Whatever. These are homemade.

The prep time does not include the rising time for the dough.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes
Servings: 12 to 15
Author: Connie Veneracion

Ingredients

  • 2-1/2 teaspoons instant dry yeast
  • 2 tablespoons warm water
  • 3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter - softened to room temperature
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 4 cups vegetable oil - for deep frying

Instructions

  • In a small bowl, stir together the yeast and warm water. Leave until frothy, about 10 minutes.
  • In a large mixing bowl, put the flour, milk, butter, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and salt. Pour in the yeast mixture and mix until everything starts to come together.
  • Form the dough into a ball. It will be rather sticky but don’t be tempted to add more flour or you will have very dense instead of soft and airy donuts. Place in a clean bowl, sprinkle the top with flour, then cover the bowl with a kitchen towel. Leave to rise until double. Depending on the room temperature and humidity, this can take anywhere from two to three hours.
  • Sprinkle the work surface with flour. Turn out the dough. Dust your rolling pin with flour (unless you have one of those pretty non-stick models) and roll the dough to about half an in thick.
  • Yeast-raised homemade donuts
  • Using a three-inch round cutter, cut out circles.
  • Yeast-raised homemade donuts
  • Use a smaller cutter to cut out the holes. If you have a donut-cutter, the process would be simpler. We don’t so we just used the multi-sized steel cutter that we have (and which I keep forgetting to take photos of so I can show you).
  • Yeast-raised homemade donuts
  • Lift the dough so that only the cut pieces are left on the work surface.
  • Yeast-raised homemade donuts
  • Sam re-rolled the dough and made donut twists.
  • Heat the cooking oil. The ideal temperature is 350F but I don’t have a thermometer for that job (the only ones I have are for meat and to measure the oven temperature). To test if the temperature is correct, drop a piece of dough into the hot oil. The dough will sink to the bottom, if it does not rise after a few seconds, the oil is still not hot enough.
  • If the dough browns too fast within seconds from touching the hot oil, the oil is too hot. Lower the heat and wait a few minutes.
  • Yeast-raised homemade donuts
  • Fry the donuts in batches, two to three at a time, depending on the size of your pan. One minute per side is quite enough. Flip them to brown the other side.
  • Scoop out the browned donuts and drain on paper towels.
  • Roll them in plain sugar (or add cinnamon and nutmeg to the sugar for more aromatic donuts) or dip one side in ganache for chocolate-topped donuts.
Do you like seriously Asian food?Check out Devour.Asia!

If you cooked this dish (or made this drink) and you want to share your masterpiece, please use your own photos and write the cooking steps in your own words.

Yeast-raised homemade donuts | casaveneracion.com

Yeast-raised homemade donuts | casaveneracion.com

More Modern Filipino Recipes to Try!
Filipino chicken picadillo soup

Chicken Picadillo Soup

Bagnet sinigang in serving bowl

Bagnet Sinigang

Mango Melon Milkshake

Mango Melon Milkshake

Molo soup (pancit Molo) recipe

Molo Soup

Chicken inasal, rice, salad and dipping sauce on a blue plate

Chicken Inasal

Sinigang na kanduli sa miso (catfish in miso sour soup)

Catfish and Miso Sour Soup

09/25/2011 : See more in Bread & Breakfast, North American

About Connie Veneracion

Hello and welcome! I'm a retired lawyer and columnist, wife for 29 years, mom of two, and a passionate cook. What is this blog about? Recipes for dishes we have cooked at home since 2003.

Previous Post: « Turon with bacon and cheese. Salty, crisp bacon bits contrasting vividly with the sweet and mushy overripe bananas. Then, the surprising touch of gooey cheese. We drooled. Turon (banana spring rolls) with bacon and cheese
Next Post: Fettuccine with chocolate and bacon Fettuccine with chocolate and bacon »

Sidebar

RSS Devour Asia

  • Thai Chicken Curry
  • Tonjiru (Butajiru): Pork and Vegetables Miso Soup
  • Smoked Salmon and Furikake Onigiri

RSS Renaissance Mom

  • Cheesy Potato and Bacon Casserole
  • Corn and Cheese Mini Muffins
  • Corn Muffins a la Kenny Rogers
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact

Everything © Connie, Speedy, Sam & Alex Veneracion. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.