Why people love making donuts

One batch feeds a crowd.

A standard recipe makes 12 to 16, which turns a Saturday into an event for family, neighbors or the office.

The ingredients are cheap.

Flour, sugar, yeast and an egg cost a fraction of a bakery dozen, so you can practice a lot.

One dough, many finishes.

Vanilla glaze, cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar or a jam filling all start from the same rings and rounds.

It is quick feedback.

You see and taste the result of every change within minutes, so you get better fast.

A donut dusted with powdered sugar, vanilla cream filling showing at its side, on a dark plate — A powdered-sugar round with cream filling

Plain and sugar-rolled round donuts cooling on a wire rack

Kinds of donuts to try

Yeast, cake, baked or filled

Open a kind to see what to make first. All four start from the base kit; the donut pan, filling tool and baking powder sit at the end of the kit list for when you get there.

Yeast-raisedA soft, enriched dough that rises twice and fries up light and airy. The classic glazed ring, and the best place to start.

Start here

Make the King Arthur yeast-raised recipe this weekend: mix the dough after breakfast, cut rings after the first rise and fry them before lunch.

Yeast-Raised Doughnuts recipe

Fried cake donutsA sweet batter-like dough leavened with baking powder. Denser, crisp at the edges, and done in under an hour.

Start here

Fry a half batch of buttermilk cake donuts on a weeknight: chill the soft dough 30 minutes so it cuts cleanly, then fry at 365°F until both sides are deep golden.

Buttermilk Doughnuts recipe

Baked donutsCake batter piped into a donut pan and baked. No hot oil, quick to clean up, closer to a muffin in texture.

Start here

Grease the donut pan, bake a batch of cake donuts at 375°F for 10 to 12 minutes, then dip the warm tops in cinnamon sugar.

Baked Doughnuts recipe

Filled donutsYeast rounds cut without a hole, fried, then filled with jam, custard or cream through a small hole in the side.

Start here

Cut a few rounds without holes from your next yeast batch, fry them, then fill each one with jam once it is cool enough to hold.

Tested recipes for cake and baked donuts

Your first batch, step by step

Your first recipe, tested

King Arthur Baking: Yeast-Raised Doughnuts Tested first recipe: flour, sugar, salt, instant yeast, nutmeg, vanilla and frying oil from the kit, plus 1 egg, 1 cup milk and 2 tablespoons butter. Makes about 16, fried at 350°F

What you can make in your first month

Glazed yeast rings

The classic, and the best test of your dough and oil temperature.

Donut holes

Fry the centers you cut out and toss them in powdered sugar while warm.

Cinnamon-sugar rings

The same dough rolled in cinnamon and granulated sugar instead of glaze.

Twists

Cut leftover dough into strips, twist them, fry and sugar them so no scraps go to waste.

Rounds stamped out of rolled, floured dough, with the cut-out dough lattice around them — Rounds cut from rolled dough

Skills to practice early

Holding oil temperature

Watch the thermometer, not the clock. Too cool gives greasy, heavy donuts; too hot gives dark outsides with raw middles. Cold dough drops the temperature, so leave room in the pot and let the oil recover between batches.

Judging the proof

A risen donut should look puffy and spring back slowly when poked. Under-proofed rings are dense; over-proofed ones collapse and soak up oil.

Rolling and cutting

Keep the dough soft and flour the counter, not the dough. Roll to an even 1/2 inch and press the cutter straight down without twisting. Re-roll scraps only once.

Glazing

Dip donuts while warm but not hot, since glaze runs off a hot donut and will not stick to a cold one. Thin the glaze with a few drops of milk at a time until it coats a spoon.

Choosing the pot

A good frying pot is heavy (cast iron or thick enameled steel), holds 5 to 7 quarts, and has a lid that sits flat and tight.

Homemade ring donuts with chocolate drizzle and sprinkles on a wire rack over a sheet pan — Glazed rings setting on a rack over a sheet pan

Ring donuts frying in a wide pan of oil, turned with a long-handled skimmer

Deep-frying safely at home

Hot oil rules

Use a heavy, deep pot and fill it no more than about half full of oil, so it has room to bubble up when the dough goes in.
Clip a thermometer to the pot and keep the oil at a steady 350-375°F. If it climbs toward 400°F or starts to smoke, turn the heat down or off.
Never leave hot oil unattended, not even for a minute. Keep children and pets out of the kitchen while you fry.
Keep water away from the oil: dry your hands and tools, and never put wet or frozen food in the pot. Water hitting hot oil makes it spatter violently.
Lower each donut in gently with the strainer or by hand close to the surface rather than dropping it, so oil does not splash.
If the oil catches fire, turn off the burner and slide the lid over the pot. Never pour water on an oil fire and never carry the burning pot.
Let the oil cool fully, which takes several hours, before you move it. Then strain it into a jar to reuse, or seal it in a container for the trash. Never pour oil down the drain.

Kitchen fire safety

NFPA cooking safety Free home cooking fire safety tips from the National Fire Protection Association

What trips beginners up

Expect the first batch to be uneven. Some will be pale, some dark, and a few lopsided while you learn your stove.
Plan the day around the rises, not the frying. The frying itself takes about 20 minutes for a full batch.
Fresh donuts go stale fast. They are best within a few hours, so make what you can share the same day.
Skipping the test donut: frying one first and tearing it open shows you whether the middle is cooked before you commit the whole batch.
Frying in tired oil: oil that smells off, smokes early or has turned dark gives donuts a stale taste, so swap it for fresh.

About the shopping list

The essentials are the frying station plus everything shelf-stable the first recipe calls for, so the kit doubles as its shopping list. Add milk, butter and an egg from the fridge. The pot is the biggest cost; a heavy Dutch oven or stockpot of 5 quarts or more that you already own works just as well and brings the start well under $100.

Overhead view of glazed, cinnamon-sugar and berry-iced ring donuts on a wire rack in a sheet pan — One dough, many finishes

Six classic glazed ring donuts in a white box, seen from above

Box up the fry day

Frying station, pantry staples and later extras

The first twelve lines are the base kit: the frying station and every shelf-stable ingredient in the first recipe. The next three are worth adding for everyone, and the last three (baking powder, the donut pan and the filling tool) start out of the kit until you are ready for cake, baked or filled donuts. Clicking a card selects it in the kit, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out.

Heavy deep pot for frying

Essential · Core equipment

A heavy pot holds the oil temperature steady when cold dough goes in, and its depth keeps the oil well below the rim.

budget

Mueller DuraCast 6 Quart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven Pot with Lid

4.7(4,697)

$54.97

Donut Making

Why people love making donuts

Kinds of donuts to try

Your first batch, step by step

Skills to practice early

Deep-frying safely at home

What trips beginners up

About the shopping list

Box up the fry day

Heavy deep pot for frying

Clip-on deep-fry thermometer

Spider strainer for frying

Doughnut cutter

Peanut oil for frying

All-purpose flour

Instant yeast

Granulated sugar

Powdered sugar for glaze

Table salt

Ground nutmeg

Pure vanilla extract

Ground cinnamon

Wire cooling rack

Kitchen fire extinguisher

Baking powder

Nonstick donut pan

Donut filling injector