Battle of the Donuts–Fried Vs. Baked

Do you have a donut side?  Sprinkles vs sugar? Filled vs non-filled? Or more importantly fried vs. baked?

I’m a Canadian and we love our donuts.  More specifically we love our Tim Horton’s donuts.  So it only seemed right to give them a whirl.  I was a bit hesitant to try fried donuts because I love them so much  and that I knew I’d eat them all. Sadly, I almost did.   I also write this as I watch Donut Showdown on The Cooking Channel.  Sheer coincidence actually since I started this Friday but fun non-the-less.

I just made a simple yeast based dough and then made them both ways.  Saturday I made baked and today (Sunday) I made fried.  Same donut dough, same glaze different cooking technique.

Dough Recipe:

• 1 tablespoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 2/3 cup cold milk
• 5 1/4 cup flour, plus more for dusting
• 2 tsp tablespoons salt
• 2 whole eggs
• 6.6 ounces shortening

1. In bowl of a stand mixer combine all the ingredients together with dough hook.
2. Mix for 10-15 minutes on low.  The dough will become quite elastic.
3. Place in greased bowl, cover and refrigerate over night.
4. Remove from fridge and let dough come up to room temperature.
5. Roll out to 1/4-1/2 inch thick.  Cut using circle cutters or donut cutter.  Let rise 30 minutes.
6. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.  Remove from oven
7. or Heat 3 cups of oil in a medium sized sauce pan to 350 degrees.  Fry donuts 2-3 minutes until golden and then flip and repeat.  Remove from oil.
8. Dust with cinnamon sugar and drizzle with glaze. (1 cup icing sugar 1 tbsp milk).
9. Let cool for 5 minutes and then enjoy!!!

Both of these were awesome but it was a tie for which one my family liked better. Abby and Rob preferred the fried and Rowan and I preferred the baked. But when push came to shove, I’d eat both gladly :)

The baked ones were denser and didn’t have the traditional donut look, where as the fried were a more tradition donut texture with the rounded edges that most would expect from their donut.  Obviously the baked were a titch healthier but to be honest, neither were like eating your veggies :)

Go ahead and make your own decisions. Just be careful because one tastes like more ;)

Thanks for looking!