Chocolate Raised Doughnuts

A doughnut or donut is a type of fried dough confectionery or dessert food. The doughnut is popular in many countries and prepared in various forms as a sweet snack that can be homemade or purchased at specialty outlets

A chocolate-glazed doughnut and cup of coffee is a match made in heaven for many of us, but wait!  Something new is happening in the doughnut world: boutique bakeries are popping up everywhere, and "designer doughnuts" are all the rage. The best news of all is that they're actually easy to make at home. And really, is there anything more scrumptious than a fresh doughnut? Here’s a simple and easy recipe for Chocolate Raised doughnuts.

Ingredients:

Water, warm - 1/2 cup

Active dry yeast – 14 gms

Milk, lukewarm - 3/4 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup + 1 tsp.

Salt - 1 tsp

All-purpose flour / Refined flour, sifted - 4 cup

Butter (unsalted) -  1/2 cup

Eggs - 2

CHOCOLATE GLAZE

Milk, warm (may need more to thin, but thicker is better) - 1/4  cup

Coco powder - 1 Tbsp

Confectioners' sugar / Icing Sugar - 1 cup

Butter, room temperature – 1/4 cup

Nuts( Almonds / cashews / walnuts) for garnishing

Method:

1.     Soak yeast in 1/2 cup warm water - 5 minutes. Add 1 tsp. sugar in with this to quicken the yeast activation process.

2.     Heat the milk in a sauce pan and melt the butter along with it.

3.     Pour the milk into a bowl and add sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Make sure this mixture is warm, not hot.

4.     Now add 1 cup of flour, eggs and yeast mixture. Beat until smooth. Then add the remaining flour to make a soft dough. When dough leaves sides of bowl, turn out onto lightly floured board.

5.  Knead until dough becomes smooth and elastic. Place in lightly greased bowl. Grease top of dough and cover with waxed paper. Allow to rise in warm place until doubled. This might take about 1-1/2 hours.

6.  Now you find your dough has doubled in size. Give it some punches to release the air that has built up in it. Then roll out the dough to 1/2 inch thickness and cut-with a cookie cutter and also a small size cookie or doughnut cutter to make the center hole. Remove centers.

7.    Leave this on a baking tray to rise again for about 30 minutes. Heat oil for frying and fry the doughnuts till they are just barely brown. Turn once again when browned sufficiently.

8.     Drain the cooked doughnuts on an absorbent paper.

Chocolate glaze:

          Mix all the ingredients under the glaze into a creamy consistency. Now dip               the doughnuts into the glaze mixture or dust each doughnut with granulated            or confectioners' sugar.