How To Make Glazed Donuts?

It’s crazy to think that when donuts were first created, they came with no toppings or fillings and they were effectively just balls of dough. If you went into Krispy Kreme and ordered one of them now, the workers behind the desk would look at you like you were an alien.

One of the biggest advances in donut flavorings was the introduction of glazed donuts. It is unclear when the glazed donut first appeared on a bakery shelf but they have proven to be so popular all over the world that their sell-by date doesn’t seem to be coming any time soon.

In this article, we are going to look at a few interesting facts about glazed donuts, while also providing you with a couple of recipes to help you make your own.

Interesting Facts About Glazed Donuts

Traditionally, a glazed donut is a standard donut topped with a thin layer of smooth, slippery and sugary icing. This glaze gives donuts a sweeter taste and is often the reason for people going back and buying three or 4 more after initially only buying one.

As with everything, the glaze has seen an evolution over the past 20-30 years. While the traditional glaze is still the most popular type of glaze with donut-lovers, there are other flavored glazes now being added to donuts as bakers all over the world push the limits on what’s possible when it comes to donuts.

Some of the options available to you if you are looking to create a unique glaze for your donut include vanilla glaze, chocolate glaze, strawberry glaze, and maple glaze. In truth, though, if you are a skilled enough baker then you can create any type of glaze you want.

The popularity of glazed donuts has seen Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ create original recipes to add to their menus. These are the two largest donut store chains in the world so if it’s good enough for them, then it’s good enough for everyone else.

Unsurprisingly, these two chains don’t share their ‘secret’ recipe with the public, because if they did then they would likely lose out on a lot of money. However, we’re not interested in providing you with rip-off recipes from these two large chains anyway.

Instead, we have decided to provide you with a couple of homemade recipes to make your own glazed donuts from scratch. Let’s get started.

Glazed Donuts – Ingredients

Due to the various different glaze options available, it would be impossible for us to run through the ingredients and recipes for each and every one. Instead, we are focussing on the traditional glazed donut to start with and then a strawberry glazed donut to give you a feel for what else is possible.

Ingredients for a batch of traditional glazed donuts

For the donuts:

• 300g of milk.
• 2 ½ teaspoons of dry yeast.
• 2 eggs.
• 8 tablespoons of melted, unsalted butter.
• 50g of powdered sugar.
• 1 teaspoon of salt.
• 1kg of flour.
• Hot oil

For the glaze:

• 500g of sugar.
• 75g of whole milk.
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Ingredients for a batch of strawberry glazed donuts

For the donut:

• 250g of flour.
• 150g of sugar.
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder.
• ½ teaspoon of ground nutmeg.
• 200ml of buttermilk.
• 2 eggs.
• 30g of melted butter.

For the strawberry glaze:

• 4 strawberries.
• 120g of icing sugar.

Glazed Donuts – Step-by-step Guides

Recipe for a batch of traditional glazed donuts

1. Start by heating the milk up on medium heat. Ensure that it is warm, but not piping hot.
2. Take out a large bowl and combine the warm milk with the yeast. Stir them together until you have a foamy mixture.
3. Put the eggs, sugar, and salt into a separate bowl and mix them together. When combined, add it to the original bowl.
4. Add 125g of the flour to the mixture and combine them together. After a couple of minutes of mixing, add the remaining 125g of flour until the dough is no longer sticking to the bowl.
5. Grease a new bowl with some oil and transfer all of the dough to it. Allow the dough to rise for around an hour. If it hasn’t doubled in size within that hour then leave it alone until it has.
6. Move the dough onto a well-floured surface and use a rolling pin to flatten it out. Wait until you’ve reached around half an inch in thickness and then cut out as many donut shapes as possible. If you have a donut cutter then here is the time to use it. If there are any scraps left over then see if you can roll them together to create any additional donuts.
7. Place the donuts on as many baking trays as you need (make sure the trays are floured beforehand).
8. Cover them with a kitchen roll or a paper towel and let them rise until they are puffy. If it’s a cold day then you can even put them in the oven on low heat with the door open – just make sure to check them regularly.
9. While the donuts are rising, heat up the oil until it is boiling.
10. Once risen, fry donuts in the oil a couple at a time until they are a golden-brown color all over. Repeat this process until all of the donuts have been fried in the oil.
11. Remove the donuts from the oil and place them onto a cooling rack or a cool baking ray.
12. Now it’s time to make and add the glaze –
13. Whisk together the sugar, milk and vanilla extract until you have a smooth glaze.
14. Once the donuts have cooled down from the frying procedure, smother them each individually in the glaze, making sure every inch is covered.
15. Place them back on the cooling rack until the glaze is hardened.
16. Enjoy!

Recipe for a batch of strawberry glazed donuts

1. Preheat your oven to 200-220C.
2. Take out a large bowl and mix the flour, sugar, nutmeg, and baking powder together until they are all nicely combined.
3. Take a second bowl and mix the buttermilk, melted butter and eggs together until they are all nicely combined, too.
4. Pour the mixture from the second bowl into the original bowl and combine both mixtures together until you have a nice dough.
5. Roll the dough out and cut donuts out of it. Ideally, you will use donut cutters or cookie cutters here. Place these donuts onto a baking tray and bake for around 7 minutes. It may take longer or shorter so stay nearby and check regularly.
6. Once the donuts have risen, remove them from the oven and place them on a cooling rack or cool baking tray.
7. While the donuts are cooling off, create the tasty strawberry glaze.
8. Place your strawberries in a bowl and put them in the microwave for 30 seconds.
9. Take them out of the microwave and mash them up inside a sieve. Gather the liquid in a bowl and mix it together with the sugar.
10. Whisk the strawberry liquid and sugar until you have a smooth glaze. Ensure there are no lumps within it.
11. Once the donuts have cooled down, cover them with the strawberry glaze individually.
12. Set the donuts aside for the glaze to properly stick onto them and harden.
13. Enjoy!

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you make the glaze for donuts?

Making glaze for donuts can depend on what type of glaze you’re looking to create. Typically, though, you need to whisk together some sugar, milk and vanilla extract and you’ll end up with a nice smooth donut glaze.

What do glazed donuts taste like?

Glazed donuts are essentially balls of dough that with a sweet, sugary taste thanks to the glaze. Most glazed donuts will come in a ring shape but you can get them all in sorts of shapes and sizes.

What is good about Krispy Kreme’s glazed donuts?

Krispy Kreme’s glazed donuts are widely regarded as the best glazed donuts on the planet. It isn’t known what ingredients go into their original glaze but they are well worth a try if you want to get a feel for what glazed donuts are supposed to taste like.

What is the best type of glaze for donuts?

This is entirely dependent on what tastes you like. However, the one that is typically liked by everyone is the traditional sugary, vanilla glaze. To create your own version of this, please see the instructions above.

Where can you buy glazed donuts from?

While popular donut chains such as Krispy Kreme and Dunkin’ Donuts do their own version of glazed donuts, we would urge you to support local businesses and visit your local bakery. They are bound to have some in stock and are likely to be handmade, rather than via a machine. Failing that, use our recipes to make your own.

Final Words

To conclude, glazed donuts are a tasty treat that can be enjoyed all year round all over the world. They are aimed at people who have a sweet tooth, with the sugary glaze being the attention grabber that leaves everyone who tastest them wanting more.

We hope that by following the instructions in this article you will be able to create your own glazed homemade donuts, whether that be a traditional glazed donut or one with unique flavoring.