SOFT SUGARED FRIED DONUTS without butter in the dough are an indulgent recipe — everyone has had one at least once and fallen in love at the first bite!
Super soft and fragrant donuts covered in plenty of sugar that sticks to your face when you eat them; kids and adults love them and they are the perfect sweet to make at Carnival to enjoy alongside all the other typical fried treats of this celebration, like frappe, chiacchiere, castagnole, etc…
With my easy recipe for sugared fried donuts you can’t go wrong: just combine dry and wet ingredients in two separate bowls and then mix everything until you have a soft, fragrant dough. They will always turn out perfect, very fluffy and delicious for breakfast or an afternoon snack for the whole family.
Now follow me through the recipe to make these sweet fried donuts — I’m sure once you try them you won’t stop making them!
Also read:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Very inexpensive
- Rest time: 3 Minutes
- Preparation time: 20 Minutes
- Portions: 12 pieces
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons, Carnival
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (00) (250 g)
- 2 cups Manitoba flour (250 g)
- 5 tbsp granulated sugar (about 60 g)
- 2 eggs (at room temperature)
- 7 g active dry yeast (about 2 1/4 tsp (one packet) — use 25 g if using fresh yeast)
- 3/4 cup milk (175 ml, at room temperature)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 orange zest (grated)
- as needed peanut oil (for frying)
- as needed granulated sugar (for coating)
- 4 tbsp sunflower oil (about 60 g / 60 ml)
Steps
In a large bowl, pour the two flours (00 and Manitoba), the dry yeast and two teaspoons of sugar taken from the total; mix the dry ingredients together well so they are fully combined.
In another bowl, pour the milk, oil, eggs, sugar, vanilla and the grated orange zest; whisk the liquids with a hand whisk or fork until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the liquid bowl a little at a time, mixing first with a fork and then with your hands. When the dough becomes firmer, transfer it to the work surface and, if necessary, dust with a little flour and knead until you obtain a soft, smooth and homogeneous dough ball. Place the dough ball to rise until doubled in size — it will take about 2 hours — in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and a cloth.
Once the dough has risen, transfer it to the work surface and, with the help of a little flour and a rolling pin, roll it out to a thickness of 1.5 cm (about 5/8 in). From this, cut out the donuts; I used a donut cutter but you can use a glass and a bottle cap to make the hole in the center. Consider a donut diameter of about 8 cm (about 3 1/8 in).
Place each donut on a square of parchment paper, then put them all onto a couple of baking sheets. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let them rise for another half hour.
After the half hour of final proofing, heat plenty of peanut oil in a small saucepan. When it reaches 165°C (about 329°F) it is ready for frying the donuts. If you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, you can dip the tip of a toothpick into the oil and when you see small bubbles forming around it, the oil is hot enough.
Carefully place the donuts into the hot oil still sitting on their parchment squares, then remove the paper as soon as it detaches. Fry the donuts, turning them once or twice, and when they are puffed up and golden, remove them from the oil and let them drain well. Place them on paper towels and while still very hot, immediately roll them in granulated sugar to coat all sides.
