Baked Doughnuts
Source: combination of recipes
1/4 cup warm water
1 pkg (2 1/4 tsp) dry yeast
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp salt
3 egg yolks, room temp
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour (more or less as needed)
Dissolve yeast in warm water in large bowl. Heat milk, sugar, butter, and salt, just until butter melts (let cool to lukewarm if too hot). Add to yeast mixture with egg yolks, vanilla and 2 1/2 cups of the flour, mix until smooth and elastic. Turn dough onto lighlty floured surface, knead until smooth and elastic, adding enough remaining flour to make a soft dough, about 5 minutes. Place in greased bowl, turn greased side up. Cover, let rise in warm place until double, about 1 hour.
Punch down, roll out to 1/2" thick on lightly floured surface.
Cut with a doughnut cutter (or 3 inch cookie cutter - transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter). Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for another 45 minutes.
Bake at 375 until the bottoms are just golden, about 8 to 10 minutes.
While doughnuts are baking, place butter in one bowl and mix sugar and cinnamon together in another:
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 T cinnamon
Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for a minute or two. Dip each one in the melted butter, then in the cinnamon sugar. Alternately you can coat with a glaze made of confectioners sugar and water.
Makes 1 dozen medium doughnuts.