Simple Cinnamon Sugar Heart Doughnuts
These simple heart shaped doughnuts are so easy and fun to make! A simple homemade dough gets shaped into hearts, fried, and then rolled in cinnamon sugar for a truly sweet treat. These heart doughnuts are perfect for the month of February!
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Servings: 16 doughnuts
Equipment
- deep fry thermometer
Ingredients
- 2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast *see notes for instant yeast
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk (warmed between 95-110 degrees F)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons melted butter
- 4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- canola oil, for frying
For the Cinnamon Sugar Coating:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Instructions
For the Dough:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large bowl, add the active dry yeast, warm milk (heated between 95-110 degrees F, but no hotter or else it will kill the yeast!) and honey. Allow the the mixture to sit for 10 minutes, or until the yeast begins to get foamy.
- Once the yeast has proofed, add the flour, salt, eggs, vanilla and cooled melted butter. With a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, or by hand, knead the dough until it comes together, about 5 minutes. The dough should feel slightly sticky to the touch, but should also pull away from the bowl. If the dough is too sticky, add 1 tablespoon of flour at a time until it comes together.
- Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and place in a warm spot to rise, about 1 hour.
Shaping the Doughnuts:
- Once the dough has risen, empty the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out so that it is about ½ inch thick. Be careful not to roll the dough too thin. If the dough is too thin, it will be hard to cut out the hearts with the cookie cutters.
- Using medium and large heart shaped cookie cutters, cut out the dough. Roll the remaining dough back into a ball, roll out again with the rolling pin and repeat until all the dough has been used, placing the doughnuts onto two parchment lined cookie sheets covered with plastic wrap until all the dough has been formed.
Frying the Doughnuts:
- In a large pot add 3 inches of oil. Heat the oil over medium heat until it reaches 350 degrees F with a thermometer. You will have to continually keep an eye on the temperature, turning down the heat if necessary to maintain a temperature of around 350 F degrees. If the oil is too hot, the dough will brown too fast and be doughy in the middle.
- Working in batches of about 4 doughnuts at a time, carefully place the doughnuts in the hot oil. Fry the doughnuts about 2 minutes per side. Using a slotted metal spoon, transfer the doughnuts to a wire rack to cool while you fry the remaining doughnuts.
- After all the doughnuts are fried, roll in the cinnamon sugar and EAT!
Notes
- these doughnuts are best eaten the same day, but can also be kept in an airtight container for 5 days.
- If you use instant yeast rather than active dry yeast, you can skip the proofing step and just add the instant yeast to the dry ingredients and proceed onto the next step.