Yeasted Donuts (1 Dozen)
Sweet, soft, and fried to golden perfection

I’m heading back to the ship this week—where I made donuts for the first time! Honestly, it felt like a bit of a peak culinary moment. I’d always wanted to try making yeasted donuts, and when I saw they had a deep fryer onboard, I had to go for it. Being out at sea (I know—not ideal for frying, but still), cooking for a crowd, and having the right gear made it all come together.

That was months ago, and now after nearly five on land teaching spoon carving and focusing more on wood than flour, I’m shifting gears again. My carving workshops are on pause for a bit, and my kitchen life at sea is back in full swing. It’s a rhythm I’ve grown to appreciate—moving between land and water, carving and cooking.

This recipe makes just one dozen donuts. Perfect for a crew treat or a weekend splurge at home. Light, fluffy, and just sweet enough. Glaze them if you want, or roll them in cinnamon sugar while still warm. No deep fryer? A heavy pot and a candy thermometer will do just fine.

Ingredients (Makes 12 Donuts)

3/4 cup (180 ml) warm milk (about 110°F)
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (1 packet)
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1/4 cup (56g) unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups (420g) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
Oil for frying (vegetable or canola)

Optional glaze:

2 cups (240g) powdered sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Bloom the yeast: Stir the yeast into the warm milk with a pinch of sugar. Let it sit until foamy (5–10 minutes).
Mix it up: Beat together sugar, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. Add in the yeast mixture.
Flour & salt: Mix in flour and salt until a soft dough forms.
Knead: Knead on a floured surface for 5–7 minutes until smooth.
First rise: Let the dough rise in a greased bowl, covered, until doubled—about 1 to 1.5 hours.
Shape: Roll out to 1/2" thick, cut your donuts, and lay them on parchment.
Second rise: Cover and let rise again for 30 minutes.
Fry: Heat oil to 350°F (175°C). Fry donuts 1–2 minutes per side until golden brown.
Glaze: Dip warm donuts in glaze or toss in cinnamon sugar.

If you make them, let me know how they go. I’ll be somewhere off the coast again, likely flour-dusted and happy.

More wood and flour adventures to come soon.

Fried dough, also known as zeppoles, are easy to make with leftover pizza dough. If you participated in last month’s Full Moon Baking Club challenge, you’ll have no trouble making these Italian doughnuts because I used the same recipe. Instead of making pizza, cut the dough into little rectangle shapes and then fry them in a pot of oil. After, toss them in a bag with some powdered sugar for a slightly sweet coating. Mine got drizzled with some Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup circa 2017, cause I found a random bottle of it the back of the fridge and thought, heck, it’s 2020! It’s a year for taking risks. Or not… but does chocolate syrup even go bad?

Zeppole Dough Recipe

Ingredients for making the dough:

3 cups flour
2 tsp yeast (rapid rise and dry active are both fine)
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tbsp oil (for the dough mix)

Ingredients for frying the zeppoles:

1 quart of vegetable oil or another high heat oil for frying the dough
1 tbsp powdered sugar (or to taste) for tossing the zeppoles

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, make the dough by combining the dry ingredients.
Add the warm water and tablespoon of oil and start mixing.
Mix until the dough starts to come together and pull away from the bowl, and then dump out onto a lightly floured surface.
Knead the dough until it comes together and forms a ball.
Continue to knead for about 10 minutes until the ingredients are well combined.
Divide the dough into into 4 pieces and reshape into balls. Lay the balls on a greased sheet tray and then cover with a damp towel till they double in size (about an hour).
After they rise, you can then make two or three personal pizzas (by continuing here at step 7) but keep at least one dough ball for the zeppoles.
For the zeppoles, take a large heavy pot (I used a dutch oven) and pour in the frying oil so that it's at least two inches deep, and heat it to between 350F and 370F. Anything below 350 will take too long to fry causing the zeppoles to absorb the oil.
With your zepploe dough, flatten it out as if you were going to begin making the crust of a pizza. Stretch it out gently rather than rolling it because you want to keep the dough light and fluff. It's ok if the dough is not circular. You just want to lay the dough out so the thickness remains even throughout.
Next, take a pizza slicer and slice the dough into strips about 1 inch wide.
Then, slicing from the other direction, cut the dough at 1.5 inch so you end up with a series of 1 x 1.5 inch rectangular dough pieces. (It's ok if they aren't perfect.)
Once the oil is hot, gently using a spoon, drop the dough pieces into the oil. You can fry several at a time. Just be sure not to overcrowd them keeping plenty of space for them to move around in the pot.
Fry for roughly 5 minutes or until they float on top of the oil. Be sure to flip them over as necessary so that they fry on all sides.
After frying, remove the zeppoles and lay them on a plate with a paper towel to help soak up any extra oil.
When you are finished frying them, you can gently toss them in a paper bag with powdered sugar for a light coating.

I tossed my zeppoles in powdered sugar and drizzled with chocolate syrup but I think you could have fun exploring other option. Cinnamon and sugar I’m sure would taste just as delicious, so feel free to get experimental. I’d love to hear what you come up with.

Happy full moon! I challenge you to make these before October 1, 2020 which is the next full moon. You have almost a month from today to give these a shot. Good luck!

Yeasted Donuts (Small Batch, Big Joy)