Spiced-Up Orange Doughnuts

Cake or yeast? People can be pretty one sided on their doughnut — or donut — style. This recipe is for yeast doughnuts, but the glaze...ah, the glaze, that can work on yeast or cake, so take a whirl at these. 

Dough

• 1 1/4 sticks unsalted butter, melted and just cooled
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/8 cups whole milk, warmed
• 3 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 large eggs
• 4 cups all-purpose flour (you'll need a bit more more for surface dusting)
• 1/2 teaspoon Jack's Blend
• 4 cups vegetable oil, for frying (we used safflower oil)

Glaze

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup orange juice, fresh
• 1/2 teaspoon Jack's Blend
• 1/2 teaspoon orange essense
• Zest of one orange

You don't need anything special to make these, but a doughnut cutter will make things easier. We used our round cutters to make a variety of sizes. Definitely have your candy or deep fry thermometer on hand to get the oil at the right temperature.

These instructions are done in order to maximize the prep time. All told this will take about 20 minutes of active prep for dough.

1. Place butter on stove top to start melting.
2. While butter is liquefying, place warm milk* in a bowl, stir in and dissolve sugar, then add the yeast. Let mixture sit until the yeast starts to bubble (5-10 minutes).
3. Remove melted butter from heat, pour into mixing bowl, let cool for a minute.
4. Measure out flour and Jack's Blend.
5. Beat the eggs, add to melted butter in mixing bowl, whisking constantly.
6. Add in yeast mixture.
7. Using your mixer's hook attachment, set the mixer to low and add in flour and Jack's Blend. Mix for 5 minutes on low.
8. Lightly oil a bowl large enough for the dough to expand at least 2 times in size.
9. After 5 minutes on low, stop mixer, remove bowl, and let dough sit for 10 minutes.
10. Turn out dough into the lightly-oiled bowl, cover with a silicone cover, Bee's Wrap, or plastic wrap and refrigerate, 8 to 12 hours.

If you let it sit overnight, Good Morning! If you let it rest all day, you are quite the worker bee!

Now, get that gorgeous dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. Dough rises best somewhere warm. If your kitchen is drafty — like ours can be — you can warm the oven and place the bowl in the warmed, but now off oven with the door open. About 2 hours later, the dough will have risen.

1. Line a baking sheet with a mat or parchment and flour the surface.
2. Time to get in your workout! Place dough on floured surface, roll it out to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out doughnuts with your cutter or 2 concentric cutters — like we did.
3. Transfer the doughnuts and the holes onto the baking sheet.
4. Cover the doughnuts with tea towels for up to 2 hours to let them rise. 

Again, if your kitchen is drafty, try the oven trick. just make sure the oven is warm, not hot. The dough is a bit sensitive to any draft at this point and you will want these to really puff up.

Time to make the doughnuts! No, literally, it's time to cook them. 

Over medium-high heat, get the oil to 350ºF. Gracefully add the doughnuts to oil, they should quickly fluff and float to the top. Using a slotted spoon or chopsticks flip them over. Cook just over a minute each side. 

Place the doughnuts on rack to drain.

For the glaze, mix the powdered sugar, orange juice, Rubarama, vanilla, and orange zest until smooth. Drop in the doughnuts, one at a time, place them on a rack to allow excess glaze to drip off.

* To get yeast to bubble and froth, milk should be 100-110ºF. You can measure out the milk and place it in a water bath on the stove top if you want to be sure of the temperature.

What we used: Jack's Blend, Round Cutters Rimmed Half Sheet, and Silpat.