By Kevin Williams
Really, few baked goods are more synonymous with Amish cooks and bakers than homemade doughnuts. Amish doughnuts are made using the baking basics of butter, flour, sugar, milk, and maybe sometimes yeast. The Amish do basic baking very, very well and that's why doughnuts are so ubiquitous in Plain kitchens.
Some of the best Amish doughnuts I've had were at a tiny bakery in an Amish settlement in western New York. The Conewango Valley of western New York is home to a beautiful, sprawling Amish settlement that is pretty conservative. One of the nicest people I met on that journey was Barbara Miller who runs a bakery on Route 62 outside of Cherry Creek. The Miller bakery is known locally for its spare-tire-sized maple-dipped doughnuts, coffeecakes, whoopie pies and other confections. Like many of the Amish businesses in the area, the bakery doesn’t have a name.
“Oh, we’re just called the `bakery on Route 62’,” Barbara Miller says, matter-of-factly when asked the bakery's name.
Quick and Easy Amish Doughnuts
The spring and summer seasons bring plenty of tourists into the area, many stopping by the bakery for one of Barbara’s doughnuts. But a second busy season occurs at the bakery in the weeks prior to Thanksgiving when her pies are the prize. In the Conewango Valley we collected recipes for several different maple confections, all of are in my new book Amish Cooks Across America.
The Amish doughnut recipe that Barbara uses is your pretty standard doughnut recipe. Below is a recipe from Emma Raber, an Amish woman in Pennsylvania. Barbara’s maple glaze recipe is below so you can make your own at home! Some of you may notice that Barbara uses maple extract in her doughnut glaze as opposed to pure maple syrup. Anyone have any guesses as to why? If you suggested expense, you are right. Pure maple syrup as an ingredient would probably make the doughnuts too cost-prohibitive, but you can use it at home.
I've made homemade doughnuts before and there really is nothing like them. I remember making them about 20 years or so ago. I don't think I actually used a doughnut cutter, so my doughnuts were kind of funky-shaped, but when it comes to doughnuts, who really cares what they look like (a local bakery to me makes a doughnut called and "Ugly" and, true to its name, it's nothing to look at, but tastes amazing!)
Get your ingredients in order first for a project like doughnuts. Always helps. Above is the doughnut ingredients, below are the glaze ingredients.
What I like about glazed doughnuts is you can add any sort of flavoring you want to it and not go wrong: maple, caramel, I've even added a splash of orange juice. Gives it a nice flavor meld.
A good doughnut cutter will allow for a great-shaped doughnut, look at these batter beauties!
When I have fried doughnuts before, it's always just been in a deep oil-filled pot, so a little messy!
Once you have your warm doughnut, time to roll it in the glaze, that is my favorite part! Often I'll double and triple-dip it so that it has a nice thick glaze.
Now, the above is where you can REALLY get into trouble, while the glaze is hot, you could roll it into crushed Oreos, Lucky Charms, brown sugar, or basically anything sweet to make it even sweeter.
So, let's get started with this and move onto the recipe!
🍩 Ingredients
Doughnut Batter
- 1 1 /2 cups milk scalded
- 1 /2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 /2 cup margarine
- 1 1 /2 cup warm water
- 1 /2 tbsp sugar
- 2 packages of yeast
- 2 eggs
- 8 – 10 cups bread flour
Maple Glaze
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ tsp maple extract
- ½ cup milk
📋 Instructions
Doughnuts
- Add sugar, salt, and margarine to hot milk.
- Cool to lukewarm.
- Add yeast and sugar to warm water.
- Let rise for 5 minutes.
- Pour both liquids together plus eggs and add flour,
- After last flour has been added knead for 10 minutes.
- Let rise 1 hour and knead again.
- Let rise 1 hour and punch down and roll to 1 /2 inch and cut.
- Put on floured pan, let rise and deep fat fry at 350. Glaze while still warm
Maple Glaze
- In a small bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar, maple extract and milk; stir well.
- Add additional milk, if needed, to reach desired consistency.
- Drizzle over donuts.
🍩 More Tasty Amish Doughnut Recipes
> Amish Homemade Yeast Doughnuts
> Amish Mashed Potato Doughnuts
> Mrs. Chupp's Fresh Doughnuts
> Gallery of Amish Donuts & The Big Daddy Doughnut
📖 Full Recipe
Amish Doughnuts
Ingredients
Doughnut Batter
- 1 1 /2 cups milk scalded
- 1 /2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 /2 cup margarine
- 1 1 /2 cup warm water
- 1 /2 tbsp sugar
- 2 packages of yeast
- 2 eggs
- 8 – 10 cups bread flour
Maple Glaze
- 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
- ¼ tsp maple extract
- ½ cup milk
Instructions
Doughnuts
- Add sugar, salt, and margarine to hot milk.
- Cool to lukewarm.
- Add yeast and sugar to warm water.
- Let rise for 5 minutes.
- Pour both liquids together plus eggs and add flour,
- After last flour has been added knead for 10 minutes.
- Let rise 1 hour and knead again.
- Let rise 1 hour and punch down and roll to 1 /2 inch and cut.
- Put on floured pan, let rise and deep fat fry at 350. Glaze while still warm
Maple Glaze
- In a small bowl, combine confectioners’ sugar, maple extract and milk; stir well.
- Add additional milk, if needed, to reach desired consistency.
- Drizzle over donuts.
So why can't I copy the doughnut recipes, it sounds really good and would like a copy of it. If you have it on facebook then I click on it to see it then I should be able to copy it. could you please let me know how to copy it, without hand writing it all down.
Thank you very much !
Theresa Szeman
Theresa, try again, I made it so that you should now be able to easily print it out!
You can copy and paste by highlighting the text you want to copy. Hold down the Alt key and press C. This will copy the text. Go to your writing program ( I use Word) and while holding down the Alt key press V. This will put it into your program.
You can copy pictures by left clicking it with the mouse and a small window will open. Click on copy
I hope this helps you.
Thanks, Bev!
I highlight the recipe then right click & select copy. Then I go to my e-mail acct and hit compose new. In the message box I right click again and select paste. Then I send it to myself! I have a folder that is labeled " E-mail Recipes". They are all in one place where I can easily look it up!
I bought some of these today. I am ADDICTED and now MUST find a place in PA that sells them!
Hi Kevin,
I would love to try this recipe for LIGHT AS A FEATHER DOUGHNUTS however you do not say how many donuts it will make. Judging by the amount of flour it calls for, I must be many. Would you mind letting me know? Thank you! Mary Jaeger, mcjaeger68@yahoo.com
Could you please do a break-down of this recipe so I can make up to (one-two) dozen doughnuts!!!
Sincerely yours,
Sandy
Thank you so much!!!
FYI — The recipe calls for scalded milk. For the Amish this is requirement because they use their own raw milk. However, you get your milk from the store the homogenizing process has already been done for you, so you can skip this step.
Recipe looks great. Can't wait to try it.
Thanks!
Earl
That is a good point Earl, that'll save people a step, thanks for stopping by!
The warm milk activates the yeast.
I cant wait to try this recipe out!!
Aren't there any recipes for doughnuts that are not deep fried?
Linda, I should have a baked doughnut recipe to post soon!
plan to bake in my air fryer
If this is an Amish recipe, why with all the butter they have, would they use margarine?
You can use either, you'd be surprised how much margarine and other spreads have made inroads into Amish kitchens. Amish cooking is slowly changing....olive oil and canola oil are showing up on the shelves of Amish bulk food stores...lard is no longer the shortening of choice for many Amish cooks....the perception is that margarine is "healthier" so some Amish cooks have embraced it, but, again, either can be used. Thanks for stopping by Amish365, Karan!
Cindy, I sent you an email about this, please get back to me when you can! - Kevin
Kevin
Maple extract is that what you call home made maple syrup?
Diane, I asked the Amish baker the very question you did and, honestly, extract is just used because it is cheaper. An Amish baker selling large quantities of maple cookies would incur a lot of expense if they used pure maple syrup, but you can use either. As far responding to comments, I apologize..I do almost always respond, but it may take me a few days. I am trying to get faster, but I have a lot on my plate now. Thank you, though, for your comments and interest!
Hi Kevin - a couple of questions: (1) what size cutters did you use to cut-out the donuts? How long was the rise after cutting out? What oil did you use to deep-fry? And lastly - how many doughnuts does this make?
Sorry, John, I am behind on comments...They were like a 2" wide cutter, not very big, but you can use any. This makes two dozen depending on size and fry in canola oil, hope that helps!
What type of oil should the dough be fried in? Thank you.
Most Amish would fry in shortening....
May I put in a recipe request for Amish Spelt-Oatmeal Bread. As we were leaving our family in Evart, Michigan I stopped into their Dutch Pantry -- found the most amazing loaf of this bread and enjoyed it for many days in or motorhome. I have never found it since that time.
We have no Amish communities in western Washington. I miss those talented people.
Hope, I am going look through my archives on that...I know some Amish spelt farmers in Ohio who have wives thst make amazing spelt bread, so stay tuned, I'll try to get a recipe for you!
Hello, I am new to this Amish site and I'm loving it so far. We have a small Amish grocery store about 30 miles from here but I don't get to go there too often. I'm loving the recipes posted here. This recipe, I see someone asked about the margarine instead of butter. And Kevin told the person that margarine is considered "healthier" than butter. Sorry to disagree, I've read many articles on the unhealthiness of margarine, saying it's one molecule away from plastic, something I wouldn't want to digest, as would others. I am not rich by any means, a 76 y/o retiree on Social Security, but I use BUTTER exclusively. It really IS healthier than the alternative. I'm looking for the light and fluffy doughnut recipe now, would love to find it too. Thanks for posting these great recipes. God bless ya'll...
Thanks, Joanne, for stopping by Amish365 and hope you stick around. What Amish grocery is near you? I've been to, well, I won't say most, but many! On the butter, I actually agree with you, I use butter any time over margarine, I guess I should have worded it that there is a perception among some Amish that margarine is "healthier" than butter...but, yeah, I'd definitely go for the butter. I'll look for that doughnut recipe!