Beth’s Famous Glazed Yeast Donuts are light, fluffy, easy to make, and done in just a few hours with a rich and creamy glaze to go on top.
I’m updating this post from 2009. You GUYS I have been at this a very long time. This recipe is from my sister-in-law Beth who is a fabulous cook (she’s a professionally trained chef actually!). I remember her and my brother coming down from Idaho at Christmastime to visit us in our tiny 600 square foot apartment in Provo, Utah. They were newlyweds and I didn’t know Beth well. They came down to ice skate and she made these amazing donuts for us. I took a picture and wrote up the recipe and have made it time and time again for years and years after.
Fast forward almost 10 years, we’ve added 5 more kids between our families, Tyler and Beth have moved from Idaho to Kentucky and now they live here in my tiny town in Southern Utah! That’s right, after all these years and miles between us I’m lucky enough to call Beth my neighbor as well as my friend. She doesn’t like to fry things very much, so we have this deal now that she makes the dough and cuts the donuts and then she shows up at my house and I fry them up. We make this recipe by our joint effort a few times a year and it’s so special to me.
I love this recipe because it’s just making a standard (but very tender) yeast bread dough and turning it into donuts. It doesn’t have a long chilling time, it’s easy to put together with simple ingredients, and the donuts are perfectly light and fluffy but still have a nice chew to them. This is an excellent glazed donut recipe and one that can make you famous in your own family!
Tips and Tricks for Making Beth’s Famous Glazed Yeast Donuts:
- The dough should be very soft but not overly sticky. It’s ok if it’s a bit tacky, but if it’s sticking to your hands and won’t come off, you need a bit more flour.
- To scald the milk I just stick it in the microwave and get it nice and hot. But be sure to let it come down to around 110 degrees F. If you add the milk to your yeast mixture while the milk is too hot you can kill your yeast which will ruin the recipe.
- Don’t have a donut cutter? I LOVE these biscuit cutters and the largest one with the smallest one as the hole works great for this recipe.
How do you make glazed donut icing?
Beth and I use a mixture of melted butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and a liquid to thin it out (in this case water, milk and cream also work well). I think the butter really makes the icing great instead of just a milk and powdered sugar icing. You can make a chocolate glaze by adding 2 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa to the powdered sugar and adjusting the water or milk as needed.
These donuts are also great tossed in powdered sugar or a cinnamon and sugar mixture. If we are frying them up for a party I’ll often make chocolate and vanilla glaze AND powdered sugar and sugar cinnamon donuts so that people have a lot of choices.
Beth’s Famous Glazed Yeast Donuts
- Prep Time: 1 hour 30 min
- Cook Time: 3 min
- Total Time: 1 hour 33 minutes
- Yield: Makes 3 dozen donuts and holes 1x
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Beth’s Famous Glazed Yeast Donuts are light, fluffy, easy to make, and done in just a few hours with a rich and creamy glaze to go on top.
Ingredients
For the Dough:
- 2 tablespoons instant yeast
- 1/4 cup water (105–115 degrees)
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk (scalded, then cooled)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup shortening or melted butter
- 5–6 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 quarts canola or vegetable oil for frying
For the Creamy Glaze:
- 1/3 cup butter
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 4–6 tablespoons hot water
Instructions
- Dissolve yeast in warm water in a medium bowl, let rest for 10 minutes.
- Add milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening or butter, and 2 cups flour.
- Beat on low for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Stir in remaining flour until smooth.
- Cover and let rise until double, 45-90 minutes. (Dough is ready when indentation remains when touched.)
- Turn dough onto floured surface; roll around lightly to coat with flour. Gently roll dough 1/2-inch thick with floured rolling pin.
- Cut with floured doughnut cutter.
- Place cut donuts on a parchment or baking mat lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until double, 20-30 minutes.
- While the cut doughnuts rise, make the creamy glaze – heat butter until melted. Remove from heat. Stir in powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth. Stir in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until desired consistency.
- Heat vegetable oil in deep cast iron skillet to 355 to 365 degrees F (use a thermometer here, it makes all the difference!).
- Slide doughnuts into hot oil with wide spatula. Turn doughnuts as they rise to the surface. Fry until golden brown, about 1 minute on each side.
- Remove carefully from oil; drain on a double layer of paper towels.
- Dip the hot doughnuts into creamy glaze, then set on cooling rack set inside of a rimmed baking sheet to collect the drips.
- Best enjoyed warm with friends.
Notes
- The dough should be very soft but not overly sticky. It’s ok if it’s a bit tacky, but if it’s sticking to your hands and won’t come off, you need a bit more flour.
- To scald the milk I just stick it in the microwave and get it nice and hot. But be sure to let it come down to around 110 degrees F. If you add the milk to your yeast mixture while the milk is too hot you can kill your yeast which will ruin the recipe.
- Don’t have a donut cutter? I LOVE these biscuit cutters and the largest one with the smallest one as the hole works great for this recipe.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: how to make donuts, how to make yeasted donuts, easy donut recipe, glazed donuts recipe, yeasted donuts, doughnuts recipe, easy doughnuts recipe, yeasted doughnuts
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Love this yeast donut recipe? You might also like these:
- Pioneer Woman’s Glazed Donuts
- Simple Pumpkin Donut Holes
- 15-Minute Donuts from Scratch
- Old Fashioned Buttermilk Doughnuts from my friend Annalise at Completely Delicious – one of my favorites!
Donuts are my happy place! They are for sure the treat that I choose most often because I love them always and forever. It’s so fun to have a donut recipe up your sleeve, too, because they make for a fun treat to share with friends. I love food that brings people together!
This post was originally published in December 2009 and has been updated, rephotographed, and re-shared in December 2018.
About Melissa
Melissa is dedicated to helping parents figure out the nightly questions, "What's for Dinner?!" with her no-fuss approach to cooking. Read more...
Perfect Gingerbread Cookies without Molasses
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Can these donuts be made so I can fill them with whipped cream or jam? Do I just make them without cutting a centre hole or would other adjustments to the recipe need to be made?
Yes! It works great! We put pastry cream in them. Just don’t cut the center whole and let them fry just a little longer to cook all the way though.
Hi! I would love to try this but i’m wondering if i can cut the ingredients to half to make just a small batch, will i be able to get the same result? Thank you!
One more question, how can i store the shaped dough to cook for later? should i freeze them? Thanks in advance.
★★★★★
I haven’t had luck storing the shaped dough, I just fry it when it ready.
A half batch will work great!
Do you need to dissolve the yeast in water if you’re using instant yeast?
Instant shouldn’t need it but you can if you’d like.
Great recipe! Followed one of the tips below to make at night and put in the fridge until the morning. Worked perfectly!
★★★★★
I made these donuts quite a while back, and they were SO YUMMY, it might be high time to make them again. I don’t bake for fun, but wanted to bless my sweet-tooth hubby, who happens to loooove glazed donuts. I thought he might come in the door and fall over backward when he realized what i had accomplished! 😉
Thanks for all the great recipes, Melissa!
★★★★★
Wife of the year award!
Can I make the dough the night before and put it in the fridge to fry in the morning? If so, do I out it in the fridge before or after cutting?
Yes! I’d put in in the fridge without cutting, then roll and cut cold, then let them rise to room temp – it’ll take an hour and 1/2 or so!
Hello! I’m assuming you add the yeast mixture when you add all the liquids? Your recipe doesn’t say when to add it. Thanks.
In the second step you are adding those ingredients to the yeast.
Hi Melissa,
I tried your recipe!!2 changes I made was, I halved the recipe so it calls for 1 tablespoon yeast. I was not sure that was right so I ended up using 2 1/4 tsp yeast for 3 cups of flour.
The first rise was good and also the second. My donuts came out a bit too flat rather than fluffy and soft. was it because I used less yeast? should it be 1 table spoon?
After the second rise I noticed the dough has a dry layer on top. Is this normal?
I would like to give this another shot. Your inputs are welcome 🙂
It just might have been the conditions of your kitchen. If you are cooking in an arid kitchen I would consider placing plastic wrap over the dough while rising both times so that it doesn’t dry out. Also, if I have issues with flat baked goods, I’ll reduce the amount of time I let them rise the first time. Using the full amount of yeast will also help. I hope you try it again! You might also want to consider not rolling the dough out too thin before cutting it into donut shapes, you can leave it a little thicker and they you’ll have puffier donuts too!
Is it really 2 Tablespoons of yeast…not 2 teaspoons?
I believe the amount of milk is wrong I believe it should be 1/2 cup of milk not 1&1/2 cups of milk. Here is why, I had to add way more flour to get the dough from being to sticky about 2 full cups more. Am I right is the 1&1/2 cups of milk a misprint.?
★★★★★
I checked it again and the 1.5 cups is correct. I wonder why you had to use a lot of flour. I’m glad you knew to add more though. Weird! I’m going to check this again just to make sure, thank you for pointing that out.
I just wanted to tell you how much my family had enjoyed this recipe! Many times, I have made them up to the point of frying, put them in the fridge, and gone to bed. Then in the morning, I get them out and let them sit on the counter for an hour or so while we get ready, then toss them in to fry before we head to church or out for the day, and hot fresh donuts are the BEST breakfast! We’ve grown a bit of a following of people requesting these, too! We love that the recipe makes so many so we can go deliver some to friends and family! Thanks so much for sharing and being an encouragement to get in the kitchen with family!
Ooohhh thank you for the tips on making them ahead of time! That’s so great to know. And I LOVE that you love these as much as we do. They’re kind of a “thing” for us too and people totally request them. Celebration food at it’s best 🙂
Hi there, this recipe looks amazing and I will be trying it very soon. I was curious if you have ever tried freezing them & if so how well it worked? Or possibly freezing the dough prior to adding/activating the yeast? Thanks for sharing your recipe, I’ve signed up for the newsletter and look forward to receiving more.
I haven’t tried it much with the freezer… if you do will you let me know. I think freezing and reheating the already cooked donuts might be your best option though.