Baking at home allows you to control the ingredients and this recipe yields the most deliciously, soft and satisfying donuts.
Mel’s Kitchen Cafe
Today we are going to tweak a very special recipe – the classic glazed donut.
When I tweak a recipe, I try my darndest to find the best recipe to start our journey. I love Mel’s Kitchen Cafe. She has been a safe place for years. Her website holds hundreds of recipes from Crème brule French toast to Thai peanut dipping sauce.
I am so grateful to her because she does not use processed ingredients in hardly any of her recipes. No cream of mushroom soup or packets of such and such seasoning. This makes it easy to adapt her recipes because I don’t have to reinvent the processed food wheel – no one wants to do that.
These donuts, she claims are the best homemade donuts on the planets and I trust her. She says she tried a million different recipes and this is the best. They really are so delicious.
Some of you might think, why even bother! It’s a donut! Just eat it! I totally agree. There are times I think and say the same thing. Is it really worth trying to make a donut healthier? I mean really, it is a donut.
For me, allowing all of my children to enjoy and participate makes the effort worth it. So stick with me if you also need options!
Grain Options
The first thing to address in order to tweak this recipe is the grain, or in other words the flour. Mel uses all-purpose white flour. What is all-purpose white flour? Typically, all-purpose flour is made with a combination of hard wheat and soft wheat. Hard wheat has a higher protein count thus a higher gluten content and is typically better for rising breads. Soft wheat has a lower protein content and lower gluten and is good for cookies, pastries and such.
All-purpose flour is a combo of both thus the “all-purpose” label. The bran and germ are both removed and then if the flour is bleached it is treated with chlorine gas to lighten the color.
I use unbleached, organic all-purpose flour for part of the grain in this donut recipe but I also love to add some whole grain as well. In order to keep the donut fluffy, I only replace part of the white flour with a whole grain variety. In the donuts pictured, I use 2 cups Einkorn flour and 4 cups all purpose flour. You can use more whole grain as well. I have yet to try a 100% whole grain donut but I’m sure it could work, it will just be more dense and take longer to rise.
Sugar, Yeast, Dairy Options
The second ingredient I change is the granulated sugar. I switch it out in equal parts for coconut sugar and the difference is not noticeable.
Next, we have yeast. We use sourdough as our riser. Several of my kids have a difficult time digesting wheat so we use sourdough to “predigest” the grain for us. All those little living bacteria are hard at work in my sourdough starter prepping the grains for my kids. I’m so thankful for them and while they are digesting those grains they create lovely bubbles of gas that rise donuts beautifully.
In place of the milk, I use canned coconut milk. The higher fat content of the coconut milk works wonders in this recipe. I haven’t tried other varieties of dairy free milk.
We use good quality eggs and salt.
The next ingredient to address is the butter. I have used both coconut oil and dairy free butter. The flavor of the dairy free butter was slightly better but the coconut oil worked well too.
Oil Options
Deep frying – do you have opinions? Are we nervous about the oil? One of my favorite parts of Farmer Boy, one of the Little House on The Prairie books is when the mother is making her weekly batch of donuts.
She complains about the new round shape instead of the original twisted shape which can’t flip over by itself. She doesn’t have time to spend flipping donuts over in that bubbly oil.
I wish I could stand in her kitchen and watch her fry those twisted donuts in her healthy grass fed lard. No thought that the oil she was cooking in might be an issue. She didn’t need to worry about it. We don’t need to worry in an excessive way either. Don’t eat donuts everyday. Use the best oil you can. Smile because you are doing something awesome and go and make yourself a donut.
If you have access to a good healthy grass fed lard, you can use that for frying. Refined coconut oil can also be used as well as avocado oil. Palm shortening might be a good option as well. Don’t let the oil get too excessively hot while you are cooking up those donuts.
Powdered Sugar Options
The last ingredient to address is powdered sugar. My littlest son can’t have any refined sugar. Sometimes he just eats his donuts plain. He thinks its great. I have bought organic powdered sugar. It is a little less refined but still refined.
I tried to make powdered sugar out of coconut sugar. It was not good. Turbinado made good powdered sugar. I just ran it in my blender for about 30 seconds and that worked well.
Maple sugar is my favorite option. I love the flavor of the maple sugar as well but it is pricey. Maple sugar is pretty fine so it doesn’t have to be blended but it can be if you want a more smooth texture.
Do the best you can. You can dip them in honey, maple syrup or jam as well.
The donuts in the pictures are covered in a maple sugar glaze.
The Best Sourdough Donuts
6-7 cups flour (I do part whole grain and part all purpose flour)
3/4 cup coconut sugar
1 – 14 oz can coconut milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup butter, dairy free butter or coconut oil
Glaze:
3 cups powdered sugar (turbinado made into powdered sugar or maple sugar work well, see notes)
1/3 – 1/2 cup warm water
Vanilla, optional
Directions
In the bowl of an electric mixer, I use a bosch, add 5 cups of flour, sugar, coconut milk, eggs, salt, water and sourdough starter. Mix until well blended. Add small amounts of flour until the dough begins to clear the sides of the bowl. This dough is soft and tender but not overly sticky. Once the dough is at this point, turn on the mixer to low and while it is running put in spoonfuls of the oil or butter, it will slowly incorporate into the dough.
Sometimes, at this point I have to add a small amount more flour, but you don’t want to over flour it. You should be able to pick up a small amount of dough and most of it will not stick to your fingers.
Remove the dough from the blender bowl and put it in a container or bowl to rise until it is doubled. I typically mix my dough up at night and leave it on my counter overnight until it is doubled. Once the dough has doubled, oil your countertop and roll the dough to 1/4 inch thickness or so. Cut out your donuts. My kids prefer the donut holes so we typically do a lot of those.
Got Scraps
I re-roll the scraps and cut more donuts. Some people say not to because the scrap dough will get more tough but I have not had that problem. You can also just fry up the scraps as they are or add them to a bowl of apples and cinnamon and make apple fritters.
Cover the cut donuts with plastic wrap. It will take an hour or two for them to double. If I cover them with a tea towel they get a little more dried out. Do what works best for you. Once the donuts are doubled in size, heat your oil to a medium low heat. Place the donuts in the hot oil and fry on one side until golden brown and then flip and repeat. I place my fried donuts on a plate covered with a napkin or paper towel. When frying donut holes, I just stir them around with a slotted spoon. They don’t typically flip well. Once they are (sort of) evenly golden, remove them with the same slotted spoon to the cooling plate.
Let the donuts cool slightly and then dip them in glaze. I am a one side glazer but if you are a double sided glazer that’s ok too. I place a cooling rack over a cookie sheet so the extra glaze can drip onto the sheet. Donut holes get tossed in the glaze and stirred as well. It makes it go much faster than dipping each one. Enjoy!
TWEAK IT NOTES
- POWDERED SUGAR – To make your own powdered sugar all you need is a high powered blender. I add about 2 cups of sugar at a time to the blender and blend on high for about 20-30 seconds until all the sugar has been ground finely. Use as desired. I have found that turbinado sugar works well and maple sugar as well but I tried to make powdered coconut sugar and the flavor is different. It wasn’t our favorite.
- GRAINS – I buy most of my whole grains through Azure Standard.
- SOURDOUGH – If you need a starter, chances are someone in your area has one. They are so popular now. You can also buy a dried one from Cultures for Health or make your own.
- GUAR GUM – if you need to avoid it, make sure the coconut milk that you use does not have it.
- COCONUT – If you can’t use coconut, try a different higher fat milk. I have not tried it with any other dairy free milk.
