Cinnamon Cake Donuts

Tartelette and Peabody are hosting a donut blogging event on February 13, which gave me the perfect excuse to use up a big jug of oil that I had purchased last year so I could make . . . donuts. Only I didn’t make them. I was too busy baking a ridiculous amount of cookies for Christmas.

After consulting with Master Chow, I decided to make cake donuts, because they are his favorite. I found a recipe that, surprisingly, required no yeast, in Beatrice Ojakangas’ book,Great Old Fashioned American Desserts.

This time, I told myself, I’m going to get everything ready. I’m going to be organized, efficient. No goof-ups. And then I discovered that I was OUT of all-purpose flour. Yes, a Daring Baker, out of flour. I have about ten different types in my freezer, but you do not make cake donuts with garbanzo flour. Or barley flour. So I had to resort to my bread flour. Therefore, I can now tell you not to use bread flour for donuts – they still taste great, but they sure are heavy.
I made a couple other changes to the recipe: I increased the amount of nutmeg from 1/4 t. to a 1/2 t., and instead of vanilla extract, I added a full teaspoon of Buttery Sweet Dough Flavor, which gave the donuts that unique bakery flavor.

It’s hard to go wrong with fried dough – people the world over just love this combination, so I encourage you to give a donut recipe a try!

In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients (except the ingredients that you will use to dust the donuts). Combine the wet ingredients (except the oil for frying) in a large measuring cup. Stir the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients, just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Knead dough briefly until it loses its stickiness. I found it helpful to refrigerate the dough for an hour before rolling and cutting, but the recipe doesn’t require you to do so.

Make sure you have 2 to 3 inches deep of oil in a heavy pan. Preheat the frying oil to 375 F. Roll out the dough about 1/2 inch thick, and cut out with a floured donut cutter. Be sure to make that center hole big enough, or it will close up when you fry the donut. Carefully transfer the donuts, just a few at a time, to the hot oil. Fry them for about a minute on each side, until a deep golden brown. Set aside to drain, then dust in cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar.

P.S. You can find Beatrice Ojakangas’ book for a great price over at Jessica’s Biscuit.