Last week in the Monday calendar post a couple of you mentioned that donuts would be a fine idea and so the temptation grew all week until finally we made donuts… I did a bit of donut recipe searching and believe it or not it is the easiest thing in the world. I am so glad I didn’t know how easy they were I would have been making them for years already! There is also a South African Version of the donut which are called koeksisters and we made these as well. Koeksisters are plaited donuts that are dunked in a sweet syrup as they come out of the pan…
So this is what you are aiming for:
You need a basic bread recipe and you move on from there… We did ours in the bread machine. But any soft bread dough will do.
Let’s Meet The Players:
- 3 tsp Yeast
- 450 g white bread flour
- 1.5 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 3 Tbsp milk powder (I never have this and add a dash of milk to the water quota)
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 250 ml water
For the Donuts:
Cinnamon and Sugar to roll in.
For the Koeksisters:
These are the syrup ingredients:
- 400 g sugar
- 150 ml water
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
Let’s Play The Game:
Step 1: Make your bread dough as per instructions. we added our ingredients into the bread pan: yeast, sugar, salt, flour, butter, water and a dash of milk.
Then we left the dough on the “basic dough” setting to kneed and rest and rise and whatever else goes on under that lid!
Step 2: Now that your dough is ready divide it up into as many donuts as you want, we went for twenty. We rolled them into balls and left them on a floured tray, covered in plastic for about half an hour to rise.
Step 3: While these were rising we made the koeksister syrup. Put the sugar and water together in a pot on medium heat. Stir until the sugar is melted.
Take your sugar water off the heat. Then add your cream of tartar, ground ginger and ground cinnamon to the mixture.
Put it back on the heat and let it simmer and bubble away for about five minutes.
Pop it into the fridge to cool – it needs to be cold when you use it.
Step 4: By now your dough balls should have risen and it is time to make your donut shapes. We made traditional ones. I have seen fancy donut cutters on the web, but it was just as easy to roll and twist them – and I have a lot of help in this department!
Step 5: For the koeksisters you begin as for the donuts, but instead of twisting it into a donut, you roll it flat and cut two slits into the dough, not all the way through. Then plait the strips and pinch the ends closed.
Step 6: Once you have all your donuts rolled and your koeksisters plaited leave them for about twenty minutes to rest/rise on a tray.
Heat your oil in a deep pan and when a drop of dough sizzles you are ready to go. Fry a few donuts at a time – too many just cools the oil too much. Once they start to brown turn them. Once you have done both sides take out of the oil and roll them in the cinnamon and sugar.
Step 7: Fry the koeksisters as the donuts, but as you take them out dip them into the cold sweet syrup that you made in Step 3.
And you are done… Thanks guys for forcing me to learn the art. These were so easy that I will never buy them again! The hardest part in the whole process was the waiting!!!
just looking at those donuts makes my mouth water! Although, I don’t need any more temptation, thank you! All that oil is no good for my latest attempt at weight loss!!! 😉
Taryn’s last blog post..loads of learning!
Hi T, I tried to ignore the loaded fat content, since we almost never indulge in things like these and boy they were worth the treat!