Doughnut Delight

My children keep asking me to take them to Tim Horton's for Timbits.  I think there must be either a doughnut in a show they are watching or a Tim Horton's commercial playing repeatedly; either way, there has been multiple requests for some sugary fried dough.

I finally told my son that when I was a kid, I remember my mom making doughnuts.  This fabulous event was followed immediately by the entire family sitting on the front porch moaning from the joy of overeating amazing homemade doughnuts.  My son didn't believe me, so on Saturday, we decided to see if it would be possible to make a satisfying doughnut with my new best friend dextrose. 

I will tell you right up front that the results were worth the effort.  I personally have never made doughnuts (the family experience from my childhood was not often repeated) so I turned to my trusty friend allrecipes.com.  I found a fabulous recipe which you can find here and made the necessary adjustments to make a fructose-free doughnut.  The result was a fabulous doughnut which we glazed with dextrose glaze and or sprinkled with dextrose powder and cinnamon.  Here is the recipe and some tips for making your own fructose-free delights. 

2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (105 to 115 degrees)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
3/4 cup dextrose
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening
5 cups all-purpose flour

1 quart vegetable oil for frying

GLAZE:
1/3 cup butter
2 cups dextrose
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
4 tablespoons hot water or as needed

Directions (As Per Allrecipes.com)

1. Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water, and let stand for 5 minutes, or until foamy.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, and 2 cups of the flour. Mix for a few minutes at low speed, or stirring with a wooden spoon. Beat in remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl. Knead for about 5 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Place the dough into a greased bowl, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise until double. Dough is ready if you touch it, and the indention remains.
3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and gently roll out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut with a floured doughnut cutter. Let doughnuts sit out to rise again until double. Cover loosely with a cloth.
4. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in confectioners' sugar and vanilla until smooth. Remove from heat, and stir in hot water one tablespoon at a time until the icing is somewhat thin, but not watery. Set aside.
5. Heat oil in a deep-fryer or large heavy skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Slide doughnuts into the hot oil using a wide spatula. Turn doughnuts over as they rise to the surface. Fry doughnuts on each side until golden brown. Remove from hot oil, to drain on a wire rack. Dip doughnuts into the glaze while still hot, and set onto wire racks to drain off excess. Keep a cookie sheet or tray under racks for easier clean up.

 My Notes:

• I did use shortening in the dough and vegetable oil for the frying.  My concern over shortening and vegetable oil is growing; however, I stuck with them for this recipe.  I will keep you posted if I try lard for the dough and a different oil for the frying.
• This is a great dough to knead in a stand mixer as it is soft and won't put a strain on your mixer.  I used my Bosch mixer (which can handle anything) and let it knead in the machine for five minutes.
• Oil your hands to get the dough out of the mixer without needing extra flour.  Using too much flour at this point can lead to a tough dough.  I also oiled the counter and my rolling pin to keep from needing extra flour.
• I did use a doughnut cutter for half of the dough.  Then it started to hurt my hand and I didn't want to waste any dough so I rolled out the dough in a big rectangle to 1/2 inch thickness and sliced it with a pizza cutter into roughly 1 inch rectangles.  This created beautiful doughnut pillows that were fabulous - a lot like a French doughnut or beignet.  I fried them for approximately 1 1/2 minutes on each side.
• It is really a must to use a thermometer.  I started frying when the oil temp got to around 325 degrees and adjusted the stove to keep the oil below 350 degrees.  This worked well to make sure that the doughnuts were golden brown and cooked all the way through.  The temperature of the oil is a delicate balance between being too cool which results in the dough absorbing a lot of oil and being too hot which will result in a burned outside and a raw inside.
• I personally liked the doughnuts best with a sprinkle of dextrose powder mixed with cinnamon.  I did make the glaze as noted above with dextrose and it worked well.  My kids loved it but I thought it was a little sweet.  (I know - crazy.)
• Baked goods made with dextrose are best enjoyed the same day.  We did have a few left the next morning and they were still good but I don't think you can wait much longer before they will start to go stale.  As a side note, I think it is a testament to the fact that sugar is addictive when I realized that there is no way there would have been any doughnuts left for the next day if they had been prepared with regular white sugar.  Without the addictive draw of sugar, we ate until we were uncomfortable and then were easily able to stop and move on with life without feeling the need to really gorge ourselves. 
• And finally, this is a great recipe for making sure that you don't feel deprived of life's normal joys.  That said, it is not a recipe that should be used on a daily basis.  There is nothing low calorie about it, all that has been removed is the processed fructose.