Amazingly Easy Homemade Donuts

I have blogged before about how important it is to us that our daughter fills her belly at each meal.  But sometimes she gets an idea in her mind about what she's hungry for and it can take a lot of persuasive work to convince her to eat something other than that.  We try to keep plenty of options in the house that we know she likes... for breakfast this is typically toast with cream cheese or peanut butter, blueberry waffles with cool whip, cereal, fruit, or muffins.  Sometimes she surprises us and asks for something we are not prepared for and this is when my creativity really gets put to the test.  Last weekend she got up and asked for donuts.  Donuts!  I had tried on another occasion to make donuts with some things I had in the house (not including typical donut making things like yeast or a donut pan).  They had turned out okay but they weren't amazing.  The taste was good but they were a little too sticky and crunchy on the bottom.  So when our daughter asked for donuts again I was kind of at a loss.  I figured I probably had about 10 minutes to try to figure something out before I would need to offer her a different alternative so I quickly started googling recipes and found one to try.

OH MY GOODNESS!  These donuts were perfect!  They were super easy and required minimal ingredients, all of which I had on hand.  They were the perfect taste and texture.  I was amazingly impressed with myself, I won't lie, but I shouldn't toot my horn too much because #1: I did not create the recipe and #2: these are not complicated at all and anyone could make them.  I promise if you make them you will love them and whoever you serve them to will be very impressed!  It took me less time to make these than it would have for me to drive someplace and purchase a dozen donuts (which I would not have done, FYI) and it was certainly less expensive.  Try them!  You will not be disappointed!

Ingredients for donuts:

• one can of biscuits (I used a small roll of 10 buttermilk biscuits 7.5 oz)
• about 1/2 cup oil (enough to cover half of the donuts while frying in a pan... add more if you need to)

Ingredients for icing:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• sprinkles, cinnamon sugar, or whatever you are in the mood for!

If the icing is too thick, add a tiny bit more milk, if it's too runny, add more sugar.  The thicker it is the more frosting-like it will be.  A little bit thinner and it will be more like a glaze.  

Directions:

• Cut circles in the centers of the biscuits (I used the cap from a soda bottle)
• Put oil in frying pan (enough to cover half of the donut pieces)
• Heat oil over medium heat
• Place donuts and donut holes in pan and let sit until golden brown on the bottom (just a couple of minutes.  Turn over the brown the other side.  Pay attention because these will get brown quickly!
• Remove from pan to a plate covered with a paper towel (to drain the oil)
• Dip in icing and decorate, or sprinkle with cinnamon sugar

You can find the original recipe here.

If you don't have oil, you can do a version with butter, baking in the oven (recipe here).  I liked these but like I said before, they got too crunchy on the bottom for our liking.  If this is all you have though and you need donuts pronto, they will work!

All of the ingredients for this recipe are things I already had on hand.  I use these same ingredients in tons of recipes so try to always stay stocked up on them.  If you don't keep these things on hand, you should!