First Attempt at Donuts

I've been wanting to try homemade donuts for quite some time now and kept putting it off. I mean come on, we've got a great donut shop just up the road now so when I wanted a donut it was easy to get. Why dirty up my kitchen when they had already done the work for me? Still I wanted to make my own, use more organic and less processed ingredients. My goal was/is to make a great tasting product that I feel a little less guilty about my kids eating. So last night I put the dough together and put it in the fridge and this morning I finally took the plunge and made donuts.

I used whole wheat pastry flour, the flour that I use goes through a process that basically shatters the flour into an ultra-fine texture. The bran, germ and natural oils are still a part of the flour. Baking with this flour has been tricky at times, definitely different then regular processed flour. My family has been very patient with my learning curve but we are getting there. The donuts turned out pretty good this morning but I did made a few notes to tweak it a bit next time.
Headed into a warm oven for a quick rise.

For the longest time I did not own a cast iron skillet and now that I have one am wondering how I ever lived without it. One of my must-have items in the kitchen now. As soon as I put the donuts into the hot oil, I knew that this would not be the only time that I would be getting up and making donuts for the family.

Off to the side of the frying donuts I was making a glaze to dip the donuts into. I need to work on my glaze a bit and maybe make it ahead of time on my next attempt at donuts. I didn't pay attention to it, let it boil over, stirred too much air into it in a panic, relied on my candy thermometer instead of the softball method only to find out my thermometer isn't working right, cooked it a bit too long...good news is, however, that I learned a lot in the process! All that being said, it was still delicious!

Out of the hot oil and onto my cooling rack, see the cute little donut hole! I ate a few of those as soon as I could, those crunchy little bits of fried dough didn't need a glaze!
The chop sticks were perfect for turning the donuts over in the hot oil.

Getting ready to be dipped into the glaze...this is when I started to think about all of the other things I could put on this donut, maple glaze, chocolate glaze, right out of the hot oil into a dish of cinnamon and sugar, powdered sugar...let me know what your choice would be in the comments please.

Oh yeah, fresh donuts and a hot cup of coffee.
Well worth the effort!