Vanilla Baked Donuts

Total Time: 31 mins Preparation Time: 25 mins Cook Time: 6 mins

Ingredients

• 5 cups flour, plus more
• flour, for kneading
• 1 2/3 cups 2% low-fat milk, warm
• 3/4 cup sugar, plus more
• sugar, for dipping
• 1/4 ounce instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled plus
• 3 tablespoons butter (set aside)
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste

Recipe

• 1 whisk together the egg, milk, and vanilla and vanilla paste.
• 2 in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and yeast. slowly stir the milk mixture into the dry ingredients until a dough forms.
• 3 flour a counter top and knead, adding more flour a tablespoon at a time as needed, until a very slightly sticky, elastic ball of dough forms. place in a buttered bowl, cover with a towel and allow to rise, about 1 hour or until it has doubled in bulk.
• 4 punch down, and roll it out on a floured surface until it is about 1/2 to 2/3 of an inch thick. if you have a doughnut cutter, use that to cut out the doughnuts. if not, use a small cutter to make doughnut "holes" or improvise using a drinking glass or large cookie cutters and smaller cutters to make the holes. you could also make round, biscuit sized doughnuts with no holes.
• 5 place the doughnuts on 2 greased cookie sheets, cover with a towel and allow to rise an additional hour. preheat the oven to 375. melt the additional 3 tablespoons of butter. pour some (granulated) sugar on a plate. bake the doughnuts exactly 6 minutes, then remove to a wire rack.
• 6 brush each doughnut with melted butter and dip in sugar. serve hot, although they are still pretty good at room temperature.
• 7 store up to 1 day (but eating them immediately is preferred) in a air tight container.