Glazed Ring Doughnuts

1. 1Mix the flour, sugar, yeast and salt. Add the warm milk and eggs and bring together, then knead for 8 minutes until smooth. Add the soft butter a little at a time and keep kneading for another 5 minutes — it will look hopeless and greasy before it suddenly comes together into a silky, slightly tacky dough.
2. 2Cover and prove for 1–1½ hours, until doubled.
3. 3Roll out on a lightly floured surface to 1.5 cm thick — thinner and you get rings rather than pillows. Cut with an 8 cm cutter and a 3 cm cutter for the holes.
4. 4Set the rings on squares of baking parchment, spaced well apart, cover loosely and prove for 45–60 minutes until puffy and light. The parchment squares let you lower each one into the oil without deflating it.
5. 5Heat the oil to 175°C. Below that they drink oil; above it the outside colours before the middle cooks. A thermometer is worth more here than any other piece of equipment.
6. 6Fry two or three at a time, parchment and all — the paper peels away after a few seconds and can be fished out. Cook for 60–75 seconds a side, until deep gold with a pale band around the middle where they floated. Drain on a rack, not paper.
7. 7Whisk the icing sugar, milk and vanilla to a smooth glaze the consistency of double cream. Dip each doughnut while still warm, let the excess run off, and set on the rack. Glazing hot is what gives the thin crackly shell instead of a thick sugary lid.

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