Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
Yeasted doughnuts fried until they wear a pale band around the middle, then rolled straight into cinnamon sugar while still hot enough to make it cling. The white band is the sign of a properly proved ring.
Photograph credit: Doughnuts by Worlds Direction · CC0 1.0 · Flickr
The pale band around a doughnut's equator forms because a well-proved ring floats high in the oil and that strip never touches it — its absence means the dough was underproved and dense. Frying at 180°C / 355°F is the narrow window where the inside cooks through before the outside darkens past gold.
Questions About Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
How long does Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts take to make?
40 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes of proving, so allow 3 hours 10 minutes to 3 hours 25 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 12.
Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts: Step by Step
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Combine the flour, sugar, yeast and salt in a stand mixer. Add the milk, eggs and vanilla and knead 6 minutes on medium.
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Add the butter a third at a time, kneading until each addition disappears, then knead 8 minutes more until smooth and elastic.
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Prove, covered, for 90 minutes until doubled.
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Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 1.5 cm thick and cut rings with a 9 cm cutter and a 3 cm centre cutter. Keep the holes to fry separately.
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Set each ring on its own square of baking paper on a tray, cover loosely, and prove 45 to 60 minutes until visibly puffy and slow to spring back.
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Heat the oil to 180°C / 350°F.
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Lower two or three doughnuts in on their paper squares; the paper releases after a few seconds and can be lifted out.
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Fry 90 seconds a side until golden with a clear pale band around the middle. Drain 30 seconds on a rack.
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Mix the cinnamon, sugar and salt in a bowl and roll each doughnut in it while still hot enough to steam.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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A Few Pointers
- The paper squares trick means you never have to handle and deflate a proved doughnut.
- Keep the oil at 180°C / 355°F with a thermometer. Ten degrees either way is the difference between greasy and burnt.
- Coat them hot. Cooled doughnuts will not hold the sugar.
What to Serve With It
Filter coffee · A glass of cold milk · Warm apple compote for dipping
Storage
Genuinely best within four hours. They keep a day in a paper bag; do not refrigerate, which stales them fast.
Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts Nutrition Facts
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (some ingredient lines cannot be read). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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