Delicious doughnuts from Keim Family Market in the Wheat Ridge Amish community in Ohio.
By Kevin Williams
When you've been to as many Amish settlements as I've been to, you inevitably will taste a ton of doughnuts. Â Really, is there such a thing as a bad doughnut? Â I've not found one yet. Â There are some doughnuts though that really stand out to me. Â And, yeah, I'll join the masses who rave over the Rise N Roll Cinnamon Caramel Doughnuts in Shipshewana, Indiana. Â Man, one taste of those cinnamon dusted, caramel filled doughnuts will have you reeling. Â Interestingly, that isn't the first place I tasted them. Â I was visiting an Amish home in Milroy, Indiana and the Amish woman I was meeting took a box of the doughnuts out of her freezer. Â She had been in Shipshewana previous to my visit and picked up the doughnuts and frozen them so she could have a quick, easy dessert for company. Â And I fit that bill. Â Man, one taste of those....pure amazingness.
There is a small Amish-owned apple orchard in southern Michigan that serves the most amazing homemade "cider doughnuts" but they only do it, I think, on Fridays and Saturdays during the autumn apple season. Â But I'd put those at the top of my list also.
I've made these doughnuts before and they are awesome. Â For me, I've not worried in the past about using a "doughnut cutter" to get these perfect round doughnuts. You certainly can, but you can also just cut the dough into whatever shape you want, deep fry them, and glaze them. They won't be as pretty as the ones you see there, but they'll be no less delicious!
- 3 eggs
- 6 cups flour
- 2 cups warm water
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 4 tablespoons yeast or 2 compressed yeast cakes
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup lard (or shortening)
- Glaze
- 2 teaspoons white Karo
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 -3 tablespoons hot water
- In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in 2 cups of warm water.
- Add eggs, flour, salt, sugar and lard to yeast mixture.
- Mix well.
- Cover with a tea towel and let rise until doubled.
- Roll out to ½" thick, cutting with a doughnut cutter.
- Let rise again, 30-45 minutes.
- Fry until golden on one side then flip and do the other side.
- This takes just a few minutes per side.Drain on paper towels and dip in glaze.
- Glaze mixture:.
- Mix Karo syrup, vanilla, powdered sugar and 2 T. hot water together.
- If consistency is not thin enough, add the other tablespoon water.
- Roll doughnuts in glaze while still warm.
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Gail Peach
Could these donuts be baked instead of fried???
Kevin Williams
Baked doughnuts are tricky, but the recipe would probably worked for baking, just watch them carefully to not overbake.