Homemade Drop Doughnuts

Homemade Drop Doughnuts are the perfect sweet treat for a weekend morning, made with a quick, one-bowl batter that is fried until puffed and golden brown.  Dress your doughnuts up with your favorite toppings like cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar, and chocolate!

Several months ago, I decided that I wanted to write a blog post featuring a recipe for some easy to make doughnuts.  I typed up the recipe, save it to my drafts, and that's where it sat for months and months.  Now, normally, when I start a recipe, I finish it.  Nothing lives in my draft folder for too terribly long, so it was a little out of the ordinary for me to walk away from this one, so to speak.

I've now decided that the reason why I put off making these doughnuts must have been something akin to fate.  You see, I was destined to make them with my little lady on National Take Your Child to Work Day!

I didn't realize it at the time that I started planning the post, but theses delish little bites of fried dough were meant to be made with my girl.

We made this recipe on our second Take Your Child to Work Day together, and I couldn't have been more excited to share my work day with my daughter doing a job that I adore.  I am a recipe developer, food stylist, photographer, writer, influencer, and all around blogger boss lady here are The Two Bite Club!

My job is not conventional.  I am an entrepreneur of sorts.  I've created my own little corner of the worldwide web where I can let my creativity run amok in a somewhat constructive manner (that just so happens to bring in a paycheck).

l love teaching my daughter that if you truly love what you do, if you chose a career that brings you joy, you can spend your life earning money doing something that doesn't really feel like work at all.  That's my job as a food blogger in a nutshell!

Our Take Your Child to Work Day began by choosing the recipe that we would prepare together.  This year, I let my daughter navigate my editorial calendar which houses a section that is full of my upcoming post ideas.

I let her browse my list to see if anything struck her fancy, which is when she discovered my forgotten doughnuts.  It was the only recipe from the list that spoke to her, so it was a quick decision...we were making doughnuts!  To say that she was excited would be an understatement.

My daughter learned two very important lessons while making these doughnuts.

First, not everything is as easy as it first might seem.  You see, there was a learning curve when making these doughnuts.  The oil temperature is key, and a too hot oil resulted in our first few doughnuts burning to a crisp.   It wasn't a good start.

I explained that that kind of thing happens sometimes when you are testing a recipe, so we adjusted the oil temperature and tried again.  On attempt number two, we couldn't quite figure out the best way to drop the dough into the oil to get the round shape that we were after.

We were going for round and ended up with these alien-like shapes that were kind of like a cross between an octopus and a funnel cake, which you can see pictured above on the left.  They were actually kind of fun and tasted good, but not what we were trying to achieve.

Nevertheless, we persisted and, with a little bit of experimentation, we figured out how to make them round(ish), which you can see pictured on the right.

This is where the second lesson came into play.

My girl learned that sometimes it's okay to say that you messed up.  And sometimes you will have to start from scratch, even if you've tried your best, which is exactly what we had to do with our doughnuts.

While we were happy to have finally found the key to little round golden fried doughnuts, our testing fiascos had used up our entire first batch of dough.  Starting from scratch was not part of the plan, but sometimes you must admit defeat and try, try again!

If you know my daughter, you know is that she is a perfectionist to the core.  She strives to be the best and do her best in all things.  If things go awry and there is a bump in the road, she genuinely takes it to heart and has a hard time shaking her disappointment.

While in my mind I had envisioned smooth sailing for our day together in the kitchen, our burned up, freaky looking octopus donuts were the perfect way to teach my girl that sometimes things don't go as planned and that's okay.

While she struggled to accept that we had to start fresh, she saw me modeling the attitude of flexibility and resilience as I reassembled our ingredients and began mixing up a new batch of dough without missing a beat.  Soon her defeat turned into understanding, and then eventually joy as we pumped out two dozen perfect little round doughnuts.

That was when I knew our Take Your Child to Work Day was a success.

We garnished our doughnuts, some with powdered sugar, some with cinnamon sugar, and some with chocolate and sprinkles.  I then watched as my daughter confidently styled and photographed her donuts in the handmade bowl she crafted just for this very reason at a pottery class a few weeks earlier with her Grandma.

I was proud, she was happy, and then we ate doughnuts.  If that's not a successful Take Your Child to Work Day, I don't know what is.

I already can't wait for next year!

Homemade Drop Doughnuts

   

Yield:  Approximately 2 dozen doughnut holes

Ingredients

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• canola oil, for frying
• chocolate, cinnamon sugar, and powdered sugar, optional

Instructions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix all ingredients until combined.  Spoon the batter into a large ziploc bag.
2. Heat canola oil to 375 degrees.  Snip the corner off of the bag and pipe the dough into the oil in long strips.  Using a pair of kitchen shears, carefully cut the strips of dough in the oil into small sections. Fry until golden brown and cooked through.  With a slotted spoon, remove from the oil onto a paper towel-lined plate.
3. Dip in chocolate, cinnamon sugar, or powdered sugar, if desired.

Notes

• The doughnuts dipped in sugar will need to be double dipped to achieve the best coating.  
• If making chocolate-dipped donuts, allow donuts to cool slightly before dipping into chocolate.  Arrange on wax paper and freezer for 10 minutes before serving.