Hester's Doughnuts

On a Saturday morning, what food would you love to wake up to? Oh so many good choices out there, but doughnuts were a fav for my dad. He never made them, but he sure could find the shops that specialized in them! So I was certain that my second recipe needed to be doughnuts, in memory of my dad. He liked them plain or raised glazed.

We own a small fryer and mostly use it for tempura. I carefully poured in the canola oil to the fill line and plugged it in. We don't own a doughnut cutter, so I found an old metal fluted-at-the-edge round Christmas cookie cutter, for the doughnuts, and a tiny red plastic cutter for the holes.  I liked the process of setting up the dough the night before, and tucking it into the fridge for a night's "rest." First thing in the morning, I cut out about 20 doughnuts (by the time they were fried and set to cool, I'm afraid we lost a few to "taste-testing"). I can just hear Dad now, marveling about all those years when he drove off in the early morning in search of a donut shop, and now, here I am, making them right at home! Wish I had taken the time to learn how to make them years ago, Dad. How you would have loved them. Honestly, doughnut making is as easy as pie, had I only known sooner!