Donuts

Weeks! It's been weeks since I've been  meaning to try making donuts again. The first time I made them, a few months ago, they were too heavy. I figured that making the dough with the breadmaker would help. AND IT DID!!! Plus I found a better recipe.

It is so simple, probably can be done a lot quicker than what I did. But I just wanted to make the dough the previous night, and then cook them in the morning. I combined a few different methods that I read about.

Some notes on the ingredients. You may be wondering why I used psyllium husk, ginger and citric acid. Or you may not, but I'm going to tell you anyway.

I few weeks ago, when I started baking breads, I read about bread improvers. I used a commercially available one which I thought was vegan, but then the manufacturer confirmed that one of the ingredients was not. So that ingredient was abandoned.

A lot of people who are not in Australia were also asking where to get a bread improver, so I did a little bit of research and found a home made one which I have been using a variation of,  in all my bread making.

This is the article about it. It uses lecithin granules, ginger, citric acid and wheat gluten. However I did not have lecithin granules, and I had read in another article that psyllium husk was a good bread conditioner. So I used that.

*Psyllium husk is quite coarse, so I blended a cup in a nut grinder (but you can use a blender) and have stored it in an air tight jar. I use it whenever I make breads now. I have also started using it for cakes, all recipes in experimental stage.

For those of you with little kids, psyllium husk makes a really great easy to do slime. My five year old loves it, and it's a lot better than the nasty chemical filled ones you can buy from the shops.

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Update - 16/10/2016
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I originally had the thickness of the dough at 1/4 inch, however this morning I tried it at 1/2-3/4 inch and it is a lot better. I have edited the recipe to that thickness.
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Ingredients

8 TBS aqua faba (from chickpeas)
1 cup of warm soy milk (I use Soy Milky)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup of sunflower oil

Sift together
4 cups of plain flour
4 TBS wheat gluten (vital gluten)
2 tsp psyllium husk powder*
1/8 tsp of ginger powder
1/8 tsp of citric acid

3 tsp yeast

Rice bran oil or other oil without strong flavour for frying.

Method

Breadmaker

1. Place ingredients in the breadmaker in the order listed above, starting with the aqua faba, and finishing with the sifted dry ingredients, and the yeast on top.
2. Start the dough setting, let the dough rise. The breadmaker I have mixes and kneads (30 minutes) and then rises (1 hour).
3. Remove dough from breadmaker. (if you want to make them right away, then go to step 5)
4. Punch down the dough, form into a ball and place in a large oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
5. Lightly flour your bench/table and place dough down. Punch dough down and roll out to about 1/2-3/4 inch in thickness. 
6. Cut into desired shapes and place on a baking tray lined with non stick paper. Cover with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to rise for an hour.
7. Heat oil in a deep pot or frying pan. You need enough oil so that when the donuts are placed in, they are floating and not touching the bottom. Pinch a small piece of dough and place it in the oil, if it floats to the top, with bubbling oil around it, the oil is ready for frying.
8. Place your donuts in the oil, and cook them on each side for a few minutes. If they start to brown too quickly then the oil is too hot.
9. Remove from oil, drain on kitchen paper, and then dust with sugar or fill as desired.

Hand Method

1. Place milk, sugar and aqua faba in a jug. 
2. Add yeast, and mix, set aside for 10 minutes to proof.
3. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients, and pour in yeast/milk mix, add vanilla and oil. Mix together to form a dough.
4. Knead on a floured surface for 15 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. You can do this on a stand mixer, as the dough is quite firm.
5. Place dough in an oiled bowl to rise in a warm spot for 40 minutes.
6. Follow steps 4-9 above if you are not making them right away, otherwise steps 5-9.

These can be filled with caramel, raspberry jam or rolled in caster sugar with cinnamon. I only fried half of the dough this morning, the rest of the dough is in the fridge for tomorrow. I will ice those with aqua faba icing, and put some sprinkles. I will share pictures when done.

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions.

Enjoy!!!