Ok, are they really the best doughnuts ever? I’m not sure, but these are amazing. I’ve made sufganiyot (doughnuts) for years. And you know what – I can’t make them. I don’t know why. I’ve gotten recipes from lots of doughnut makers – people who have great success making doughnuts (I know, because I’ve eaten their doughnuts, and then I say, “can I have your recipe, I have trouble making doughnuts.” They then give me their recipes and their tips and are very nice about the whole thing and then I still get flat fried dough. It’s very sad. It’s almost like Charlie Brown and the football. Every year I try again. And every year I’ve been just a little disappointed – you can’t really be a lot disappointed, because for goodness sakes, we’re still dealing with fried dough with sugar, if you know what I mean.)
However, this time it was different. This year, Shira Perlman gave me a trick that is fool-proof. Or at least Bracha proof. I am now part of that elite group of people who get fluffy doughnuts when they try. Hooray! And, dear reader, you, too, can be part of this group. Read on, and make your own delicious doughnuts.
Her trick (drum roll please…) is dinner rolls. You say, “pass the butter?” Yes, those kind of dinner rolls – you can get them frozen in any grocery store (the one recommended was Rhodes White dinner rolls – 36 come to a package. These are small rolls and I thought they were a *great* size for doughnuts. Especially if you are trying to reduce the sugar intake for little people. One of the comments that I heard (and I agree with) was that these doughnuts are not overly sweet – they don’t have a lot of sugar in them (though with the filling and the topping, the finished products are sweet – just not too sweet). I actually felt that these are healthy fried doughnuts. I did feel that, as I was eating my 5th, 6th and 7th ones, I thought these must be healthy, and maybe even good for me. Maybe these are better for me then vegetables – who needs dinner. What, did you say you want the sprinkles? I can’t hear you, I’m too busy sprinkling and eating….
You can fill them with whatever you want, you can glaze them with chocolate, sugar or sprinkles and these get eaten up – fast.
Ingredients:
- 1 package of dinner rolls ( ! )
- 1/4 cup custard (can be bought in the store)
- 1/4 cup jelly
- Powdered Sugar
- 1/4 cup melted chocolate
- 1/4 cup Sprinkles
Directions:
- Defrost the rolls on a cookie sheet lined with foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Put each roll about 1 inch apart to allow the dough to rise. Then spray the rolls with the cooking spray – this stops them from drying out and doesn’t require you to cover them. It takes 3-5 hours for the rolls to defrost/start rising. So plan ahead and take them out at least 4 hours before you want to fry them.
- Preheat your deep fryer to 350 degrees. If you do not have a deep fryer – then put 2-3 inches of oil in a frying pan and heat up the oil until the dough bubbles upon contact. Fry until golden brown. If the rolls do not flip over (either in the saute pan or deep fryer) flip the rolls so that both sides are golden.
- Transfer doughnuts to a cooling rack lined with paper towels. Then have a piping bag with a tip ready filled with your favorite jelly (strawberry, raspberry, grape, whatever you like) or custard (that you can buy at the store)***. Pierce the dough and pipe some filling in the middle – when you see some filling come out – it’s full. Each doughnut takes approximately 1-2 teaspoons of filling. Then decorate the top of the doughnut with some melted chocolate, powdered sugar or a glaze (recipe below) and then put sprinkles on top.
Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoons melted margarine
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 pinch of salt – just a smidgen
- 2 teaspoons water or milk
Mix together the first 4 ingredients then add the liquid (either milk, water, lemon juice if you want a citrus-y glaze) 1/2 a teaspoon at a time until the consistency you would like – the glaze should easily coat a spoon.
Glaze II (allegedly similar to Krispy Kreme’s glaze)
1/2 cup melted butter
3 cups powdered sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons vanilla
6 -9 tablespoons evaporated milk
*** If you do not have any tips – what you can do is take a zip lock bag and put 6 pieces of scotch tape over the lower corner of the bag (so half the piece of tape is on the front side and half is on the back side). What you are looking to do is to make your own “tip” that can pierce the doughnut. So you have to add some strength to the zip lock bag. After your 6 pieces of tape, cut a triangle off the tip of the bag so that you have a circle, fill the bag with your chosen filling and then you can pipe it into the doughnut.