Homemade Doughnut Holes

Well hello there blog world. It’s been a little while, huh? I’ve got a few posts coming up that I can’t wait to share…I just need to get them all put together! For today, I’ve got a recipe that I’ve wanted to make for as long as I’ve been cooking.

Homemade doughnut holes!

They’re definitely not for the beginner baker, and I think even a very talented one would have trouble making these alone. My mom and I spent a Sunday afternoon making dough, letting it rise, shaping doughnuts, frying, and of course tasting them! 

I remember as a little girl we once made Indian fry bread and topped it with cinnamon sugar and it was the coolest thing I had ever eaten (I was a PICKY eater). Since then I’ve always wanted to try my hand at doughnuts. It only took years, but I can finally say that I made my own yeasty, sugary, homemade doughnut holes. 

The first thing to do is make the dough. Yes, it is a yeast dough, so yes, you have to let it rise. For my yeast I always use Red Star Yeast. It never fails to work like a charm and I have a load of it from a Christmas basket they sent me! I find that my dough rises best when I put it in an oven heated to 170F then turned off. It doesn’t kill the yeast but gives it a nice warm environment to rise beautifully. 

Once it’s doubled, about a half hour, turn it out onto a clean mat and start to heat up the oil. Once the oil is at 350F-375F, start frying! This is where you’ll need two people because it’s pretty much impossible to do this alone.

It’s a VERY sticky dough. What helps me is to keep my hands wet with water so the dough doesn’t stick. Start grabbing small pieces of dough and rolling them into a ball. Put them into the hot oil (be careful!) and let them cook for about a minute on each side, until they’re a nice golden brown. Have a baking sheet lined with paper towel ready, and put the cooked doughnut holes on it. You also want a bowl of cinnamon sugar on the side. Don’t roll the hot doughnuts in it right away, but don’t wait until they’re cooled either. Complicated, right?

Keep doing this for all the doughnuts. Make sure they aren’t too big, or they won’t cook in the middle which happened to a few of mine. Around golf ball size is good. Sprinkle powdered sugar on if you’d like. I just wanted to for the pictures.

The recipe yields about 4 dozen doughnuts holes, so you can eat a ton and still have lots to bring to friends!

And that, my friends, is how to make homemade doughnut holes. A huge thank you to Red Star Yeast for the recipe! If you want to share or end up trying them yourself, be sure to Instagram or tweet both of us! Use @redstaryeast and @theyoopergirl ?