It's doughnut time!   I promise that in real life I do eat more than just ice cream and doughnuts!  However, they are a couple of my favorites to make, so I'm sure there will be plenty more popping up here and there.

And yes....those are fresh raspberries you see!  What sorcery is this?  Well, it's called procrastination!  Ha!  I've had these photos sitting on my computer since the end of July, and now that I have this new blog sorted out, I finally got them ready to post.  So yes, there are fresh raspberries in the photos, although you don't need fresh ones for the recipe!

Now, the beauty of these doughnuts is that you can fill them with whatever jam or jelly you like (or whatever you have on hand).  We used our own homemade jam that we sell on our farm.  It's the best, if I do say so myself!

I think our favorite part of this whole process was filling the doughnuts with jam.  We went a little crazy, hence the jam that's oozing out of them in some of the photos.  #noregrets

r a s p b e r r y    j a m - f i l l e d    d o u g h n u t s 
[by: Kelsey & Jordyn Siemens]

ingredients:

1/4 cup hot water (not boiling)

1/2 tsp sugar

2 1/4 tsp yeast

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup white sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 egg

3 Tbsp shortening

2 1/2 cups flour
 

*jam for filling (the amount will depend on how generous you are when filling your doughnuts)

*icing sugar for coating

Be generous and go crazy with your icing sugar!

*They freeze very well, so you can always pop them in the freezer before you add the sugar and jam. 

directions:

1)  In a small bowl, mix together hot water, sugar, and yeast set aside for about 10 minutes until nice and frothy.

2)  In a large bowl, whisk together yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, egg and shortening.

3)  Slowly whisk in 1 cup of flour.

4)  Gradually add in remaining flour (1 1/2 cups), half a cup at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon (or you can use your mixer and a dough hook) until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. *You may not need to use all of your flour!

5)  Knead by hand for about 5 minutes, or until your dough is nice and smooth.

6)  Place the dough into a greased bowl, cover with a clean dish towel, and place somewhere warm to rise until it has doubled in size (about half an hour).

7)  Turn the dough onto a floured surface, and use a rolling pin to gently roll it out to about 1/2" thickness.

8)  Cut dough using a circle cookie cutter.  Cover all doughnuts with the towel again, and let rise until doubled.  (We made some large and some small ones).

9)  Heat oil in a deep-fryer or a large electric skillet to 350 degrees (you can use a large, deep skillet on your stove, but it's harder to control the temperature of your oil safely).

10)  Very carefully, place your doughnuts into the hot oil.  Fry doughnuts on each side until they are a very light brown.

11)  Remove doughnuts from hot oil, and place on a cookie sheet lined with paper towel.

12)  Repeat until all the dough has been used, and allow doughnuts to cool completely.

13)  Fill a shallow dish (we used a pie plate), with icing sugar, and gently coat each doughnut with sugar until covered.

14)  Place jam into a piping bag with a small-medium tip. (the size of the tip isn't too important...it will just determine how much of a hole there will be left in your doughnut once you're done)

15)  Gently poke the icing tip into each doughnut, and fill with jam.  

*These are best served the day of, otherwise the icing sugar will soak into the doughnuts.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend!

-kels