During a snowy day when I was a kid, my aunts, grandma, and mom made homemade donuts from scratch. They mixed the dough and rolled out the donuts by hand. They rolled out the donuts with a wooden rolling pin and cut them out with a hand-held donut cutter that could be used as a biscuit cutter by removing the center hole cutter.
Once they had the doughnuts cut out, they fried them in a large pot on a gas stove. They did have a few donut holes left over at the end of cutting them out and fried them too. They even made homemade glaze and frostings for the homemade doughnuts.
While they made the donuts from scratch, my cousins, brothers, and I went outside to play in the snow making snow forts, snowballs, and snowmen. We did during this time run in from time to time screaming, “Are the donuts done yet?”
We, kids, did this because we had to wait until all the donuts were being fried and iced before we could eat any of them. They also made homemade hot chocolate and coffee to go with the homemade doughnuts made from scratch. The made the homemade chocolate for us kids because we weren’t allowed to drink coffee.
This was the only day I remember them making homemade donuts and I am not even sure why they decided to make them that day. Whatever the reason was, it was a good way for all of us to spend time together.
While my family, including aunts, uncles, and cousins, really doesn’t have a holiday tradition, I think starting a family tradition such as this may be a great one to start. Think about it, during any winter season or a holiday, homemade donuts are a great way to get family and friends together to share what’s going on in their lives with hot and fresh doughnuts.
What would your family do when they woke up to the smell of homemade donuts on a cold, bleak, wintery day? The recipe that I am going to share is one that my mom had written down in a spiral notebook she gave me that they used that day I spoke about above. This homemade donut recipe can be made while the kids are out building a snowman or out sledding. What a treat they will have when they come in from the cold with fresh, hot homemade donuts.
Mom’s Homemade Donut Recipe
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup milk
3 tablespoons melted butter
2 level teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
3 cups flour
While you are mixing the dough for the doughnuts, heat up a large pan of oil or fryer to 360 degrees.
Sift flour, baking powder, nutmeg and salt together. Beat the eggs. Add the sugar, butter, and milk. Add in the flour mixture until stiff.
Flour a rolling board or other surface, put dough onto area. Place a bit of flour on top of the dough and roll out.
Once you have the donuts cut, fry the donuts in the hot oil. You will need to spoons, forks, knives or chopsticks to turn the donuts in the oil. By turning the donuts over, it will allow them to fry and become golden brown on both sides. Just make sure to fry them long enough for the dough to be cooked all the way through.
Let the donuts cool for a couple minutes so that you can handle them to frost. If glazing the donuts, place the donuts on a baking rack inside a cookie pan. You can drizzle the glazing on top of the donuts.
The glazing for the donuts is made with 1/3 cup of boiling water and 1 cup of powder sugar. You can add a drop of vanilla for flavoring. For chocolate frosting, you can add a teaspoon of cocoa powder to the mixture above. You can also warm a can of chocolate frosting to use instead. For powder sugar donuts, roll donuts in powder sugar until covered.
I hope your family and you enjoy these homemade donuts. Having a pleasant pastry that is made at home can bring a family closer together while sharing their day.
