Classic Fried Cake Donuts, Gluten Free

Instructions

1. 1

   Whisk the dry ingredients

   In a medium bowl, whisk the gluten-free blend, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon together for a good twenty seconds. Check your blend's label first: if it already contains xanthan gum or guar gum, skip the extra xanthan entirely, since doubling up gives the donuts a gummy, slightly slick bite. If there's no binder listed, whisk in the 1 1/2 teaspoons now so it disperses before it meets any liquid.

2. 2

   Mix the wet ingredients

   In a large bowl, whisk the sugar and eggs until pale and slightly thickened, about a minute by hand. Pour in the melted butter in a thin stream while whisking, then the buttermilk and vanilla. Both the eggs and buttermilk should be at room temperature; if they're fridge-cold, the melted butter will seize into little flecks and the dough will mix unevenly.

3. 3

   Bring the dough together

   Add the dry ingredients to the wet all at once and stir with a flexible spatula until fully combined. Unlike wheat dough, there's no gluten to overdevelop here, so mix confidently for 30 seconds or so until the dough is uniform and smooth. It will look wetter and stickier than you expect at this point — resist adding more flour.

4. 4

   Rest, then chill until firm

   Let the dough sit uncovered at room temperature for 25 minutes before chilling. Gluten-free starches and rice flours hydrate slowly, and this rest is what transforms a sandy, sticky mass into a cohesive, rollable dough — skip it and the donuts fry up gritty and prone to cracking. Then press plastic wrap onto the surface and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or up to overnight.

5. 5

   Heat the oil

   Pour the oil into a heavy Dutch oven or deep skillet to a depth of about 2 inches — never more than halfway up the pot. Clip on a deep-fry thermometer and bring it to 350°F over medium heat. While it comes up, line a baking sheet with paper towels and set a wire rack over a second sheet for glazing.

6. 6

   Roll and cut

   Roll the cold dough to an even 1/2 inch on a counter dusted with the gluten-free blend, keeping the pin floured. Gluten-free dough tears rather than stretches, so patch any splits by pressing them closed with your fingertips instead of re-rolling. Cut with a floured 3-inch donut cutter, pressing straight down. Scraps can be pressed back together and rolled once more; because there's no gluten to toughen, a re-roll is more forgiving here than with wheat dough.

7. 7

   Fry in small batches

   Shake off excess flour and lower three donuts at a time into the oil, away from you. Fry about 1 minute per side, until deep golden. Gluten-free donuts brown a shade faster than wheat ones, so go by color rather than the clock, and check that the first one is cooked through at the center before frying the rest. Donut holes need 30 to 45 seconds a side. Let the oil return to 350°F between batches. Drain briefly on paper towels, then move to the rack.

8. 8

   Glaze while barely warm

   Whisk the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt until smooth and pourable, roughly the consistency of heavy cream, adding milk a half teaspoon at a time if needed. Dip each donut face-down, lift, let the excess drip off, and return it to the rack. The glaze sets in about 20 minutes. Eat these the day they're made — gluten-free donuts firm up faster in storage than wheat ones do.

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Baker's Tips

• 1.

  Fry one test donut first. If it browns before the center cooks, your oil is too hot; if it sits there looking pale and soaking up fat, it's too cool. Adjust before committing a batch.

• 2.

  No donut cutter? A 3-inch biscuit cutter or drinking glass plus a 1-inch piping tip or bottle cap for the hole works perfectly well.

• 3.

  For cinnamon-sugar donuts instead of glazed, skip the glaze and toss them in 1/2 cup granulated sugar whisked with 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon while they're still hot — the coating only clings to a warm, just-drained surface.

• 4.

  A heavy pot matters more than you'd think. Thin pans lose heat the instant cold dough hits them, and the temperature crash is what makes donuts greasy.

• 5.

  Strain the cooled frying oil through a coffee filter into a jar and it's good for two or three more fries.

• 6.

  If you'd rather bake these, the dough is too soft to be a drop-in substitute — this formula is built for the oil.