Big Bunch Doughnuts

Big bunch doughnuts is the old-school yeast-raised recipe scaled up for church suppers, Hanukkah fritter trays, or just feeding a hungry crowd. The dough is rich and tender from a full pound of butter, a quart of milk, six eggs, and a generous four packages of yeast.

Scalding the milk and cooling to lukewarm is the traditional first step. Scalding kills enzymes that interfere with gluten development, giving the dough a softer, more uniform texture. Cool it carefully though, hot milk will kill the yeast.

The two to three hour rise is what creates the airy interior. Fried in deep fat until golden, then dusted with powdered sugar or filled with jelly or lekvar (prune butter), these are the doughnuts that made grandmothers famous.

Pro Tips

• Use a thermometer to keep the frying oil between 350 and 365°F (175 to 185°C). Too cool and they soak up grease, too hot and they brown before cooking through.
• Fry only a few at a time. Crowding drops the oil temperature and gives you greasy, pale doughnuts.
• Drain on a wire rack set over paper towels, not directly on paper. Direct contact steams the bottoms soft.
• For filled doughnuts, fry without cutting holes, cool slightly, then pipe in jelly or lekvar with a long pastry tip.

Variations

• Toss warm doughnuts in cinnamon-sugar instead of powdered sugar for a sugary-spiced finish.
• Glaze with a simple powdered sugar icing for shop-style doughnuts.
• Fill with vanilla pastry cream or chocolate ganache for Bavarian-cream and Boston-cream variants.