Did you know that people are already ordering Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Starbucks???? All.ready. It is AUGUST 30TH. IT’S NOT EVEN SEPTEMBER. WE HAVE 24 DAYS OF SUMMER LEFT.

Additionally, there are Halloween Oreos being sold at the grocery store. Is this real life?? Did I miss the memo? I bet the people buying PSLs at Starbucks are the very same people asking for Halloween Oreos at StopnShop and already playing Christmas music. Chill. If this is you, please go look at this post and remind yourself why we should NOT be moving on from summer until WE HAVE TO.

That being said, I too I am feeling tempted by pumpkin season (which does not start until September 23), which is why, in the wake of The Hurricane That Wasn’t, I decided to go with an all-season favorite: donuts.

I’ve been eyeing the donut recipe in the Flour cookbook for awhile now, but never got around to it because I felt impatient about the 12-hour dough “rest” time. Luckily I had planned an entire weekend of not leaving my apartment at the risk of impending doom, and finally had two full days to devote to these gorgeous, fluffy, from-scratch donuts. Though if I’m being honest, those easy-peasy biscuit donuts were pretty darn good too!

So, here’s what you do. Make the donut dough (recipe below). Cover it in plastic wrap and let it sit in the fridge for at least 5 hours, or overnight (up to 15 hours). Take it out of the fridge, place it on a well-floured surface, and roll into a 10 inch x 10 inch square, about 1/2 inch thick. The recipe says to use a biscuit cutter to cut out 9 circles, but there was a TON of dough left over so I cut a few extra circles and made the rest into donut holes.

Put your dough circles on a lightly floured pan, cover in plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm spot for two hours.

The recipe says to let the dough rise until “soft and pillowy”. Um. I want to take a nap on these.

Hire enlist a sous-chef to help you with the frying! I poured a whole (large) bottle of canola oil into a large pot and heated on medium until a drop of dough started to bubble and cook immediately. Fry the donuts for about 2 minutes on each side, or until brown. If they are frying too fast, your oil is probably too hot!

For about half of the donuts, I rolled them around in a bowl of sugar (one cup is plenty) while they were still warm. I allowed the other half to cool and assembled 39815 combinations* of toppings and fillings.

*exaggeration

Some were filled with jelly..

While others were topped with maple glaze (1 cup confectioners sugar + 1-2 tablespoons maple syrup + sprinkle of cinnamon) or chocolate glaze or toasted coconut.

ALL were delicious.

Donut Dough (adapted from Joanne Chang-Myers, Flour Cookbook)

Ingredients

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2/3 cup milk, at room temperature
• 3 1/2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 7 tablespoons room temperature butter, cut into 7 pieces

Directions

1. In the bowl of stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, mix together yeast and milk. Allow to sit for a few minutes, until slightly foamy.
2. Add the flour, sugar, eggs, and salt to the yeast mixture and combine on low speed until dough forms. Mix for an additional 2 minutes.
3. Keeping the speed on low, drop in a few pieces of butter at a time until all the butter had been incorporated. Allow the dough to mix on low for 5 more minutes. Wrap in plastic wrap and see above for remaining steps.