Monday, May 18, 2009

Buttermilk Donuts

I don't love donuts. They are one food that I can have in the house and I will never even want to take a bite. They just aren't my thing. My husband on the other hand, can and will eat a dozen Krispy Kremes without blinking an eye. In less than 24 hours. How do I know this? He has done it before. The other day, my friend called me and said that she had found a really interesting recipe for donuts that didn't use yeast, didn't have any resting time for the dough, and she wanted to give them a try. I told her to come over and we had hot donuts less than a half an hour later. Seriously.

My friend found this recipe in an old, little booklet called Famous Mormon Recipes by Winnifred Jardine. She had been given the booklet by her grandmother and I realized I had seen this recipe in the local paper a couple of months ago. I have the link to the article below. I also realized that this compilation of recipes was put together by Winnifred Jardine, who wrote a meal plan/grocery list/ cookbook, that my mother used all the time when we were growing up. That really has nothing to do with this recipe, but it was interesting to me.
We were both amazed at the simplicity of this recipe. You stir together eggs, sugar and buttermilk (we even used low-fat buttermilk), mix together a few dry ingredients, combine those together and add a little melted butter. We did this all with a spoon.
Then you roll out the sticky dough on a floured surface, cut out the donuts and fry away. We fried them in an electric skillet, in about an inch of canola oil. The dough was quite thin, but when the donuts hit the oil, they puffed up beautifully. We drained them on wire racks, with paper towels underneath, and dusted them heavily with powdered sugar.
We had happy family members who came home from school and work to warm donuts.
We were both delighted by the texture and flavor of these donuts. They were very light, not too sweet, and the hint of nutmeg was perfect. The donut holes were perfect for my younger kids. Unfortunately, the true donut lover in my family was not here to taste them, but I just might have to make them again to get his opinion.
If you have wanted to try making homemade donuts, this is a really easy recipe to start with. Let me know how it goes!

here is the article that was in the local paper a couple months ago about these donuts

here are 3 different recipes variations of this donut

Brigham Young's Buttermilk Doughnuts (Modernized by Winnifred Jardine in "Famous Mormon Recipes")
This recipe belonged to Emily Dow Partridge Young, wife of Brigham Young and my great-grandmother. Because there was not a great variety of foods, when something was made it was generally made in large quantities and Grandmother Young's recipe was double this size. You may double the recipe or cut it in half and you'll find the doughnuts are as tender and crispy and delicious as anything made out of a modern cookbook. Nutmeg, incidentally, was the chief spice in the early days and was grated tediously by hand over tiny metal nutmeg graters.
2 cups buttermilk (we used low-fat)
2 large eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
5 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons (baking) soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/4 cup melted butter or shortening
Combine buttermilk, eggs and sugar and blend well.
Beat in sifted dry ingredients.
Then stir in melted butter.
Roll or pat dough on floured board about 1/4 inch thick and cut with 2 1/2-inch doughnut cutter. Fry in hot fat (canola oil) (375° F) till golden brown on both sides. Drain and sprinkle with sugar as desired. Makes two dozen doughnuts. (We had at least 40 donuts and lots of holes)
Coming Tomorrow- TWD- Fresh Mango Bread Muffins

19 comments:

Marie Rayner said...

Cake style donuts, as this type are known, are my favourite kind. You can keep the yeasty ones. These are just the best!

Barbara Bakes said...

Our family loves donuts of all kinds. They would be so happy to come home to these!

Steph said...

I'm not a donut person either. Although, I have to admit that when Krispy Kreme was still here, I would have a craving once in a while. Then I saw the episode of Paula making a sandwich using it and that totally turned me off. Plus, the whole greasy factor kinda grossed me out too when I started to notice it. I'm sure the homemade kind tastes much better though, but I'm scared about deep frying. I wish I had Matt's metabolism.

Meghan said...

I've been wanting to make donuts for a while now. These sound really good! I rarely eat donuts, but they are always so good when hot and freshly made. I will have to get over my fear of a big pot of hot oil :)

Kasha said...

Hmm the title of this recipe tells me we have a lot in common! Sounds delicious! I sure love your blog!
Kasha
http://grubandstuff.blogspot.com/

Mumsy said...

I don't love donuts either--well unless it's from Banbury Cross in SLC. Anyway...

I saw that recipe in the newspaper and it's been on my list of things to make.

They look great, Mare.

(BTW--the guy who researches pioneer recipes has a fun blog, if you are interested in that kind of thing. pioneerfoodie.blogspot.com)

Unknown said...

mmmmm They were so fun! Thanks for making them with me!

Sara said...

These look awesome. I can't resist a good donut.

Anonymous said...

I've been wanting to make doughnuts. They've been on my list forever. Your doughnuts look great!

Eliana said...

Donuts are so yummy. I made some for the first time recently and was also surpsied at how easy they are to make.

Maria said...

I don't like donuts either but my hubs sure does! Glad you liked the lemon angel food cupcakes. They are one of my new favorites. Thanks for all of your rhubarb suggestions!

Unknown said...

Wow, those look really fantastic! I love donuts so I'll definitely have to give these a shot. Thanks for sharing :)

Prudy said...

Yum! I was planning on making donuts this weekend for company, so maybe I'll give this one a go. If not, I'll save it and try it in the fall. I tend to make a ton of donuts around Halloween time.

Unknown said...

That's cool! I don't love donuts either, except right after Peyton was born I didn't want the huge roast beef lunch they brought me, just a krispy kreme pleasE! haha I do however want to try these.

Engineer Baker said...

I'm a sucker for simple glazed yeast donuts - carbs and sugar, yum! But those look wonderful, and are probably worth it given how little time they take!

vibi said...

Woahhh... these are much too pretty to be simple doughnuts!!! WOW! I feel lke Homer...

Kerstin said...

I'm like your hubby - I love donuts! On my 21st bday I ate about 16 over 24 hours in an attempt to make it to 21. (oh, to have a young metabolism again...). These look amazing and I love the buttermilk in them!

emiglia said...

Simple AND tasty? You got my attention!

A.J. Dub. (Amy) said...

These look much better than my attempts. Where did you get your donut cutter? So glad to see someone using these recipes! My Grandfather ran the publishing company that put these cookbooks out. We love the Auntie's Sugar Cookie recipe. They are a soft not-too-sweet sugar cookie.