Recipe

Yeast Doughnuts

Ingredients

3 to 3 3/4 cups flour
2 1/2-ounce package active dry yeast
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 stick butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Honey or Chocolate Glaze (recipes follow) or confectioners' sugar or cinnamon-sugar

In a large mixing bowl combine 1 3/4 cups flour with yeast. In a saucepan heat milk, sugar, butter and salt until butter melts. Stir milk mixture into flour along with eggs, beating with a heavy-duty electric mixer on low for 30 seconds, just to combine. Increase speed to high and beat 3 minutes. Add enough of remaining flour, a little at a time, stirring with a spoon to make a firm but pliable dough. Knead dough on lightly-floured work surface 4 to 5 minutes and transfer to an oiled bowl. Cover and let dough rise until it doubles in size, about 1 hour. Turn dough out onto floured surface, punch down and roll out to 1 /2- inch thickness. Cut out doughnuts with a floured doughnut cutter; reroll trimmings and cut them into doughnuts as well. Transfer doughnuts to baking sheets, cover and let rise 45 minutes.
Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 360 degrees. Fry doughnuts, in batches, turning several times, until golden all over. Using a slotted spoon remove doughnuts to a rack to drain. If using Honey Glaze, immediately glaze hot doughnuts; if using Chocolate Glaze, let cool first. Or let doughnuts cool and dredge in confectioners' sugar or cinnamon-sugar.