The Best Maple Glazed Doughnuts
Prep
30m
Cook
15m
Total
45m
Bigly says
Listen. We are doing doughnuts. Maple glazed doughnuts. The BEST maple glazed doughnuts ever fried in a pot in a kitchen on this planet, and I don't say that lightly, I say it because I've had doughnuts in every state of this country — twice — and a few states I'm not even sure are real, and not one of them touches what we're about to make. Not one. It's not even close. It's a slaughter.
Let's talk about the doughnut crisis. Most doughnuts you buy — and I'm being generous — are STALE the moment they hit the case. Fried at 4 a.m., sitting under a heat lamp like a sad amusement park hot dog by noon. That is not a doughnut. That is a punishment. A real doughnut is FRESH, still warm, the glaze barely set, the inside tender, and when you bite into it the room goes quiet and you remember that life can, in fact, be good. The big chains forgot this years ago. A disgrace to dough. And the OAT MILK doughnut situation — who is asking for this, the doughnut is already mostly flour and sugar, let it BE.
The maple glaze is the move. Real maple. REAL maple — not maple FLAVOR, not maple SYRUP that's actually corn syrup with a costume on, real dark amber maple, the kind that costs you eleven dollars and you wince but then you taste it and you say, 'okay, the trees were right.' That's the glaze. And the doughnut underneath is yeasted, light as a cloud, fried at the correct temperature which most home cooks get WRONG and that's not their fault, nobody told them — my grandmother told ME, tough woman, she was the truth, she ran a fryer like a person who feared no one — and the number is 350°F. Three. Five. Zero. Not 325. Not 375. End of discussion.
Ingredients
- 1 cupwhole milk, warm (about 110°F)
- 1/4 cupgranulated sugar
- 2 1/4 tsp (1 packet)active dry yeast
- 2large eggs
- 4 tbspunsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 1 tspkosher salt
- 4 cupsall-purpose flour(plus more for rolling)
- 2 quartsneutral oil for frying (canola or vegetable)
- 2 1/2 cupspowdered sugar
- 1/3 cuppure dark amber maple syrup(REAL maple. The pancake-aisle stuff is corn syrup wearing a costume.)
- 2 tbspunsalted butter, melted (for glaze)
- 2-3 tbspwhole milk (for glaze)
- 1/2 tspvanilla extract
- a pinchkosher salt (for glaze)
Steps
- 1
In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk the warm milk, sugar, and yeast. Let sit 5 minutes until foamy. If it doesn't foam, your yeast is dead — start over with fresh yeast.
- 2
Add the eggs, melted butter, and salt to the yeast mixture and whisk to combine.
- 3
Attach the dough hook. Add the flour and knead on low for 6-8 minutes, until the dough is smooth, soft, and slightly tacky but pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Add a tablespoon of flour at a time if it's too sticky to clear the sides.
- 4
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm spot for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until doubled.
- 5
Punch the dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll to 1/2-inch thick. Cut with a 3-inch round cutter and a 1-inch cutter for the holes. Transfer cut doughnuts and holes to a parchment-lined sheet pan, cover loosely, and let rise 30-45 minutes until puffy.
- 6
Heat the oil in a large heavy pot or Dutch oven to 350°F (175°C). Use a thermometer — guessing here is how you get raw centers or burnt outsides.
- 7
Fry doughnuts 2-3 at a time, 60-75 seconds per side, until deep golden. Fry holes about 30-45 seconds per side. Transfer to a rack set over a sheet pan to drain.
- 8
Make the glaze: whisk powdered sugar, maple syrup, melted butter, 2 tbsp milk, vanilla, and a pinch of salt in a wide shallow bowl until smooth. Add more milk a teaspoon at a time until the glaze is thick but pourable.
- 9
While the doughnuts are still warm (but not hot), dip the top of each doughnut into the glaze, lift, let excess drip off, and return to the rack. Let the glaze set for 5-10 minutes before serving.
- 10
Eat the same day. Doughnuts are not leftovers. Doughnuts are a moment.
One more thing
You bite into one of these while it's still warm — glaze just barely set, inside soft and yeasty, maple hitting the back of your tongue like a saxophone solo — and you understand why people have been frying dough since before the printing press. The Dutch were doing this. The early Americans were doing this. And now YOU are doing this, in your own kitchen, and the chain stores can't touch you. They never will. They don't care like we care, and caring is the whole secret. Tremendous.
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