Happy Halloween! This week we are celebrating with one of the most traditional of mid-century Halloween Foods: The Homemade Doughnut!
And because I hate standing around frying things, this is a No-Fry (aka Baked) Doughnut!
AuthorRetroRuth
From Newspaper Clipping, 1976
Tested Recipe!
[cooked-sharing]
In large mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups flour. Blend for 30 seconds on low speed, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in remaining flour until smooth. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double (50 to 60 minutes)
Turn dough onto a well-floured cloth-covered board; roll around lightly to coat with flour. (Dough will be soft to handle). With a floured stockinet-covered rolling pin, gently roll dough about ½ inch thick. cut with 2½ inch doughnut cutter.
Lift doughnuts carefully with a spatula (*I just used my fingers, the spatula messed mine all up) and place 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Brush with melted butter. Cover; let rise until double, about 20 minutes.
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden in color. Watch carefully, they burn fast! Immediately brush doughnuts with melted butter and shake in sugar or cinnamon sugar.
Yield: Makes 1½ to 2 dozen.
Ingredients
Directions
In large mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups flour. Blend for 30 seconds on low speed, scraping sides of bowl constantly. Beat 2 minutes on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in remaining flour until smooth. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double (50 to 60 minutes)
Turn dough onto a well-floured cloth-covered board; roll around lightly to coat with flour. (Dough will be soft to handle). With a floured stockinet-covered rolling pin, gently roll dough about ½ inch thick. cut with 2½ inch doughnut cutter.
Lift doughnuts carefully with a spatula (*I just used my fingers, the spatula messed mine all up) and place 2 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. Brush with melted butter. Cover; let rise until double, about 20 minutes.
Heat oven to 425 degrees. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden in color. Watch carefully, they burn fast! Immediately brush doughnuts with melted butter and shake in sugar or cinnamon sugar.
Yield: Makes 1½ to 2 dozen.
Notes
It is also no-knead, as in you can make it in your upright mixer and don’t have to get your hands in the dough. Which makes it even easier.
No, no. No thanks necessary. I just love you guys that much.
This dough was so incredibly soft. It practically poured out of the mixing bowl. I am thinking that if you are lucky enough to have a doughnut pan laying around, you could probably just put this batter into a ziploc bag, snip of the tip and just pipe it straight into the pan.
Another side note, the floured pastry cloth or clean dish towel are necessary for this recipe. And if you can’t find a stockinet for your rolling pin (like me) just throw another floured cloth over the dough and roll your rolling pin on that.
Can you see the nutmeg in the doughnuts? If you’ve ever wondered what that “old-fashioned” taste is in a doughnut, that’s the nutmeg.
Speaking of old-fashioned, every year I get lots of emails asking me what a traditional Mid-Century Halloween party would look like, and the answer is: Homemade. This was the time to make doughnuts or cupcakes and have your children or party guests decorate them. The party was rounded out with hot cider, mugs of soup or chili and then popcorn balls, fudge or candied apples, also homemade.
Did you guys ever get homemade treats when you were trick-or-treating? I remember when I was very young we used to get homemade candy, doughnuts and popcorn balls, though we never got to eat them. It was right around the time that those urban myths about poisoned apples and razor-blade-filled homemade candies started circulating on the news, and so my parents always threw all our homemade treats away. I can vividly remember my mom looking sadly at a particularly neat and pretty popcorn ball before throwing it in the trash. A few years after that, the homemade treats dried up and all that was in our baskets were safe, sealed treats. But you can still carry on the tradition by making your own homemade treats!
Dipped in sugar and cinnamon sugar. Yum!
“How are they?”
“Soft and covered with sugar.”
“So are they delicious?”
“Totally.”
The Verdict: Totally Delicious
From The Tasting Notes –
Though these strangely resembled bagels when they came out of the oven, these were actually pretty good substitutes for a fried yeast doughnut. They don’t have the thick, moistness of a cake doughnut, or the fried taste of a real yeast doughnut, but they were still very good. They were more like really light and very fluffy cinnamon rolls. They were absolutely delicious while still warm from the oven and dipped in the sugar. In fact, when I make these again (because I will) I will add more cinnamon and probably make a glaze for them rather than just dipping them in sugar. Or maybe I will just go all the way and make them into actual cinnamon rolls rather than doughnuts. If you decide to make these as part of your Halloween party or evening, I would suggest making a glaze, putting out bowls of candy and letting everyone decorate their own doughnut while it is still warm from the oven. ‘Tis the season!
When I was a not-too-little girl (11 or 12, in the mid 70s) my mom used to make homemade caramel corn to give to the kids who lived closest to us – they knew us, so knew it was safe. We still had to check all of our treats, even the sealed ones, and we never ate the apples that we got!
These doughnuts look really good – I think I will have to try them this weekend!
Oh, these look so good! I am going to have to try this! Yeah, I never got to eat the homemade treats or apples, either. :-/
I, myself, am mid-century modern, having been born in 1956. LOTS of homemade popcorn balls given out to trick-or-treaters when I was still making the rounds. Also, one dear old couple would invite us in, then make us fresh popcorn which we ate sitting at their kitchen table every year.
Minor typo. The milk needs to be ‘scalded,’ not ‘scaled.’
I never liked popcorn balls so I was okay when they got thrown out.
Those look so good! And god, I’m with you. The whole standing around frying thing is enough to make a person weep. I’m going to try these. How would you make a glaze? Powdered sugar and….water? I’m new at the glaze thing.
Fixed! 🙂
Lisa! That sounds like it was so much fun!
I hope you enjoy them, Jeanine!
Yeah, pretty sad, huh??
Yep, you can use water and just add it to a bowl of powdered sugar a little bit at a time until is as runny as you want it and then dip your doughnuts in. More water= thinner glaze, less sweet. Less water = thicker glaze and sugar overload. You can also use 7up or lemon juice instead of water if you want!
These look surprisingly easy, especially without the step of frying — I never considered donuts as a possible homemade thing, but I MUST make these 😀
my grandma made these exact donuts when I was a kid. I remember them being delish!
After reading this a couple of days ago, I could not stop thinking about making them, and finally did! They are exactly as you describe, look like bagels, taste like donuts. It’s definitely the nutmeg. They didn’t rise as much as I expected, were surprisingly lugt nonetheless. Also baked the donut holes! Thanks for this recipe!
I’d love to make these to take (fresh) to work – could I keep the dough in the fridge overnight & let it rise in the morning? If so, how long would it rise.
I made these last night. Came out really nice. For more of the classic donut flavor use mace instead of nutmeg. Yes, same flavor but more spicy/sharp. I baked mine at 450 to get more of a brown exterior. It didnt get as dark as I would like. The butter keeps the outside to soft and doesnt allow for a deep color crust. Next time I will use an egg wash. One wash when placed on the pan to rise and a second right before going into the oven. This will give a deep color and nice sheen to the donut. It will also give the crust more support when handling during a glaze dunking. Mine were soft and I had issues giving them a dunk in the glaze. Great website, keep up the good work Ruth!
I made these and they wouldn’t rise properly. Came out weird. I followed the recipe exactly, should I use a specific brand of yeast? I used the active dry yeast and proofed it as I usually do with breads. It was a flop for me…I am a little frustrated. Only thing I can think of is I got some bad yeast. 🙁
Ah, nuts. Sorry about that, Alisha. Yeast baking can be the pits sometimes. I’ve gotten quite a few batches of bad yeast, so I know the feeling. I usually use Fleischmann’s yeast in the small packs now. I tend to avoid the jars. I’ve also had some bad experiences with Red Star, so I tend to avoid them. Keep us posted if you decide to try again!
I remember popcorn balls and can imagine us eating them while we were trick or treating cuz we were so greedy! I do remember a neighbor who we didn’t know had a haunted house thing from the front door to the back door and we didn’t even think twice about doing it. This would have been early 70s. My brothers were epic trick or treaters – who knows how many miles they walked to come back with huge hauls in the pillowcases.