Donuts for Conference

I feel like everyone has a food tradition for General Conference. And they all seem to be breakfast related as well. For us growing up, it was always cinnamon rolls. In my memories (which may be slightly exaggerated :D), my mother would spend all morning making the dough, rolling them out, and in the end we'd have hundreds of cinnamon and orange rolls. Okay, more like two cookie pans worth (probably 24 rolls total), but they're so decadent that you really can only have one, so it seemed like hundreds. My very favorite part was that my mother cut the rolls using sewing thread. She would make marks in the rolled-up dough so the rolls would be the same width, then she'd wiggle the thread underneath a roll, bring the sides up together and cross the thread, pulling to slice off a roll. It slightly reminds me of the time I lost my two front teeth in a similar fashion..but we'll not go into that.

I made cinnamon rolls each conference while I was in college- made them for my roommates, for myself, really for anyone. Each time I used a different recipe in my attempt to recreate the rolls without ending up with hundreds for myself. However, they definitely never matched up to my mother's rolls.

This conference, with unpleasant memories of last conference (I'm pretty sure I woke up at 5am to start the dough for the recipe I chose...they were amazing, but still...5am??), I resolved to figure out what we wanted for our own tradition. My husband loves donuts, and we almost never buy them, and I also don't fry things very often (certainly not dessert foods). So, donuts it was!

I began with at least four kinds of donuts in mind. I have a Pinterest donut board, and eventually I'd like to try them all! However, we settled on copycat Krispy Kreme donuts from Hot and Cold Cravings and baked apple pie donuts from Your Cup of Cake. We did a trial run of the glazed donuts earlier in the week to make sure it was worth frying up a whole batch of donuts. It definitely was!

Maple apple donuts- they look so gorgeous

Glazed donuts- these look just like Krispy Kremes!

First, the apple pie donuts. Baked donuts. are not. the same. at all. I just need to get over it and start expecting more of a 'muffin' than a 'donut.' I actually loved the donuts- they were very moist with the yogurt and the shredded apple. However, the maple glaze took a while to grow on me. As you can tell, I didn't put that much glaze on- because it was incredibly sweet and overpowered the light, apple-y donut/muffin. However, as the glaze sank into the donuts, they became even more moist and I began to really enjoy the glaze too! I probably won't make these again, but I'm glad I did get to try them.

The fried donuts. These are so good! I highly recommend this recipe to anyone wanting a donut similar to Krispy Kreme. Although not identical, they were surprisingly close. When we did the practice run, I learned quite a few things: 1. they needed to be glazed on both sides (submerged in glaze) rather than just drizzled. 2. I let them raise overnight in the fridge the second time, and they were much lighter, instead of too dense and bready. 3. I cut them in smaller circles the second time- they get much bigger during the frying process. I wasn't expecting how many donuts the recipe made the second time (I made a half batch for the practice), and so I'm glad these were good enough to eat for leftovers! I really just can't say how great these are. I dipped a few in the maple glaze from the apple donuts, and made a chocolate glaze from Something Swanky as well.

I am glad I only made two kinds instead of four, and I'm pretty sure the glazed donuts will become a tradition each conference weekend! However, I'm excited to try all my other donut recipes as a 'second' recipe each time, and I will try to expect muffins rather than donuts. :)

 Overall it made almost 30 donuts, plus donut holes. They're pretty ugly, but delicious!

I did learn one more thing I want to remind myself of next time. After I cut out the donuts, they have to raise again (let them raise at least another hour, rather than a half hour like the recipe says). I just put the donuts on parchment paper, but they stuck terribly after they had risen. Remember to spray the parchment or pan while they're resting, so they stay in pretty circles and don't turn into crazy donuts! I definitely can't wait for next General Conference. I love this special weekend for so many reasons, and now I have another reason to love it as well.