Yeast Doughnuts with Rose and Orange Blossom Glaze

These light and fluffy homemade yeasted doughnuts are glazed with Arabic flavours like rose water and orange blossom water and also garnished with dried rose petals. If you are new to doughnut making, this is the perfect beginner recipe. Keep reading for easy step-by-step instructions with photos!

Ramadan is done and dusted. Eid, done and dusted. But life still is a lockdown. My friends say that I always have a positive vibe and a cheerful aura but I saw the lowest of my mental being during the last few days of Ramadan. I had zero planning for Eid day - so much that for the first time I wished I had a kid or at least a cat. It gets to you at some point and it is hard sometimes to remember all the blessings because we are humans and humans are social beings! Just two days before Eid, I sat and talked to F about how I was feeling because I knew he was just thinking I was having intense dua sessions 😄 It began to get better - our neighbours invited us to join them for Eid salah - we agreed as it is just four of us - which is not a crowd. Then we also "asked" my friend and her husband if they would want to join us for lunch. After discussing a lot about the pros and cons they decided to come over. Alhamdulillah, this was so much more than I hoped for and the happiest day in a long time. I hope you too had a fantastic Eid holiday or what the internet called - covEid! 😂

What was my Eid 2020 menu? Semiya Payasam that I made as early as 5.30am, Balaleet for breakfast, Kacchi mutton biryani and cream-filled Kunafa (recipe coming soon) for lunch and leftovers for dinner!

I am not so much of a doughnut fan but have you heard of mob mentality? Yeah, we never grew up with cakes and pies and doughnuts but globalization brought Krispy Kreme to India and you know the rest! But I do have a pleasant memory of my first ever doughnut that I made along with my sister as part of our school home science project probably in 7th grade. I also remember we were so excited to have made something that we only see in magazines or posh cafes and even shared them with our colony friends. I have no recollection of the recipe but we never made them again 🤣

I am calling these yeast doughnuts because there are "cake doughnuts" that are not yeast-raised. This is my first successful doughnut attempt which disappeared into our tummies quicker than I thought. The first time I made it while in Yanbu, it turned out to look like onion rings and tough - so this time I did some reading to understand the science and how to tweak the recipe based on what we intend to do with the dough. This recipe is adapted from Joy of Baking, Thomas Joseph, Sally and Laura Vitale. The best of my four best!

I made these during Ramadan when I was off-fasting that is why I was able to take the bite shot with daylight 😅 I also planned to share with my Arab neighbour who for a COVID reason I guess never showed up this Ramadan. But I hate to admit there was not enough left to share - so I knew I had to share this recipe here! The man of few words praised my effort and gobbled away with an unbelievable face!

I wanted to draft and post before Eid but like I said I was not in the right frame of mind so the blog and all my social media were untouched by Eid, I was back feeling great but F was having 5 days off, so I chose to continue the break. It felt good that we could do so much more when the gadget is not around. We had a slumber party in the living room all day! Binge watched Homecoming and Paatal lok while munching on snacks and leftovers!

Are you ready to make your first best doughnuts?

Yeasted Doughnut Ingredients

all-purpose flour
instant yeast: you may use active dry too.
sugar: a small amount of white granulated sugar
salt: makes a difference
allspice: most recipes called for nutmeg powder, I didn't have so used allspice but you may use cinnamon powder too!
butter: softened to room temperature
milk: lukewarm - because the yeast needs the warmth to activate
egg: room temperature so that yeast can act fast
Oil to fry: I used sunflower oil. doughnuts are traditionally fried in veg shortening or dalda but in recent years all kinds of cooking oil are used. We need to be careful of the oil temperature so the doughnuts are not burnt outside and uncooked inside or greasy.
icing sugar: powdered sugar for the glaze
heavy cream: for the glaze, but you may use full-fat milk
rosewater and orange blossom water: for the glaze
dried rose petals: for garnish

How to make doughnuts with yeast?

You may use your electric stand mixer to make the dough but I did it all with my hands. Mix all the dry items, make a well and pour the wet items and start mixing using a wooden spoon or a rubber spatula. Don't use your hands at this stage. If you use your hands then you end up adding more flour to reduce the stickiness which will give you tough doughnuts. So don't add flour yet.

Mix until it all comes together forming a dough. Then use your hands to knead the dough for full 10 minutes. Keep a timer. You may add about 1 to 2 teaspoon of flour while kneading if it gets sticky. Let it rise. Then roll it to ½ inch thick on a floured surface, cut it into shapes and let it rise again on a floured surface. Deep fry on low to medium flame in not very hot oil. Dunk in glaze or cinnamon sugar and eat right away!

Prepare the dough for the first rise

Add the flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt and cinnamon powder to a large bowl.

Whisk to combine and make a well in the middle and add all the wet items - egg, soft butter, and lukewarm milk. Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to slowly mix the dry and wet content until it comes together.

Knead on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes. Keep a timer.

Lightly grease the bottom and the sides of the bowl and place the dough while making sure the dough surface is also lightly oiled to prevent drying. Cling wrap or cover with a cloth and let it rise until double or more size - about 2 hours.

Prepare the doughnuts for the second rise
Lightly dust the counter or plank with flour and roll out the dough to ½ inch thick. Use a doughnut cutter or like me bottle lids of appropriate sizes to cut out the doughnuts.

Carefully lift and place the cut-out dough onto a floured tray and keep covered. Try to cut maximum from the first rollout itself. You can knead the remaining dough and let it rest for 10 minutes and roll it out again to ½ inch and repeat the process until you use up all the dough. I chose to keep the doughnut holes, but you may add them back to the dough to make more doughnuts. Let the cut-out doughnuts and holes rest for 30 minutes for their second rise. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze.

Deep fry and glaze the doughnuts
Heat a lot of oil in a deep saucepot or kadai on low to medium flame ( at least 2 inches of oil). Test the oil by dropping a small piece of dough, if it sizzles up immediately without browning then it is ready to use. If it gets brown too quick then the oil is too hot, you need to reduce the flame and bring the temp down. Carefully pick the doughnuts and slip them in the oil (I fried one at a time but you may add more depending on the pan size). Fry on low to medium flame and flip and fry both sides until golden brown. about 30 to 50 seconds on each side. Remove using a flat slotted spoon or a chopstick.

Dunk the fried doughnuts immediately into the prepared glaze (both sides) and transfer them to a plate and garnish them with rose petals.

You may choose to make cinnamon sugar in addition to the glaze.

Serve immediately and store any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate (make sure to warm it up before serving again)

Yeast Doughnuts with Rose and Orange Blossom Glaze

INGREDIENTS

Yields: 12 to 15 doughnuts

For the doughnuts:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 and ½ teaspoon instant yeast
3 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon nutmeg or cinnamon or allspice powder
2 tablespoons butter, softened to room temperature
½ cup lukewarm milk
1 large egg, room temperature
more flour to dust
Oil to fry

For the glaze:

1 cup icing sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream or milk
¼ teaspoon rosewater
½ teaspoon orange blossom water
rose petals for garnish

Option 2 - cinnamon sugar toppings:

½ cup granulated white sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

METHOD

Prepare the dough for the first rise

Add the flour, instant yeast, sugar, salt and cinnamon powder to a large bowl.
Whisk to combine and make a well in the middle and add all the wet items - egg, soft butter, milk.
Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to slowly mix the dry and wet content until it comes together.
Knead on a lightly floured surface for 10 minutes.
Lightly grease the bottom and the sides of the bowl and place the dough while making sure the dough surface is also lightly oiled to prevent drying.
Cling wrap or cover with a cloth and let it rise until double or more size - about 2 hours.

Prepare the doughnuts for the second rise

Lightly dust the counter or plank with flour and roll out the dough to ½ inch thick.
Use a doughnut cutter or like me bottle lids of appropriate sizes to cut out the doughnuts.
Carefully lift and place the cut-out dough onto a floured tray and keep covered.
Try to cut maximum from the first roll out itself. You can knead the remaining dough and let it rest for 10 minutes and roll it out again to ½ inch and repeat the process until you use up all the dough. I chose to keep the doughnut holes, but you may add them back to the dough to make more doughnuts. For the last set of dough, I made triangle doughnuts.
Let the cut-out doughnuts and holes rest for 30 minutes for their second rise.

Prepare the rose and orange blossom glaze

Mix all the ingredients and add more icing sugar if you want a thick glaze or more cream for a thinner glaze. Adjust the rose and orange blossom water as per taste.
You may skip this glaze and use cinnamon sugar instead.

Deep fry and glaze the doughnuts

Heat a lot of oil in a deep saucepot or kadai on low to medium flame. ( at least 2 inches of oil)
Test the oil by dropping a small piece of dough, if it sizzles up immediately without browning then it is ready to use. If it gets brown too quick then the oil is too hot, you need to reduce the flame and bring the temp down.
Carefully pick the doughnuts and slip them into the oil. (I fried one at a time but you may add more depending on the pan size)
Fry on low to medium flame and flip and fry both sides until golden brown. about 30 to 50 seconds on each side.
1. I chose to use the doughnut holes and they fry sooner than doughnuts.
Remove using a flat slotted spoon or a chopstick.
Dunk immediately into the prepared glaze (both sides) and transfer to a plate and garnish with rose petals.
Serve immediately and store any leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate. (make sure to warm it up before serving again)

TRIED THIS RECIPE?

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