Easy, Fast, Homemade Donuts

I've made yeast fried donuts once or twice, and as delicious as they were, they were a lot of work.

I learned about this "recipe" (which can hardly be called such, in my opinion) from my sons, who learned it at Scout Camp! I've never done this in a dutch oven, but I hear they taste even better-- because (say it with me:) everything tastes better when you're camping!

First, assemble your ingredients:
I use canola oil in when I fry, but I think you can also use coconut oil, which is even healthier.

Any kind of biscuits will work. I had a coupon for these, so this is what I bought. 

Pre-cook Prep: Lay a couple of brown paper sacks on a cookie sheet, and top that with a cooling rack. 

Step 1- Pour about 1 inch of oil into a pan (I use a cast iron skillet, but you can use a basic pot-- I wish I had this one from www.overstock.com! If you do deep-fry, you'll need more oil) and turn it on to medium-high. 

Step 2- Mix up your glaze- whisk together about 11/2 cups powdered sugar with about 1/4-1/2 cup water (add a little at a time) until a thin syrup consistency.

Step 3- Lightly flour your work surface and flatten the biscuits either with your hand or a rolling pin. Cut out the centers. I have a little biscuit/cookie cutter, but you can really use anything that is the right size, or even a butter knife. 

 

Step 4- Once the oil is about 375 degrees, drop dough in, a few at a time. Cook until they float and you can see light golden edges, then flip them over until golden on both sides. 
    TIPS: Don't crowd them. It will make them too hard to flip and cool the oil down. Also, if you don't have a thermometer, you can test your oil by dropping a few drops of water into it. If it pops, it's hot enough. Your first donut might need to be a "test", just to make sure it's not too hot, however. 

Step 5- Remove the donuts from the oil and put them on the cooling rack.

A couple got a little dark, because I was distracted by taking pictures...

Step 6- Dip them into the glaze, flip gently, then put back on the rack.

You can see a few of mine have dark spots. My oil wasn't deep enough at first and they burned on the PAN! Duh. 

These are really yummy warm, but also quite good after they've cooled. They taste very similar to yeast donuts, but without all the fuss!