How To Make Homemade Doughnuts

How about if I told you that you could make these Homemade Doughnuts real quick, serving them warm and golden to your family, with no knowledge whatsoever of yeast or dough, no special equipment other than what you likely have on hand, and have them done start to finish in under ten minutes, including prep time?

Melt in your mouth Doughnuts

Here’s How To Make Donuts at Home… You’re Welcome 🙂

We Southerners (and humans in general), love our doughnuts. 

The most important thing about this doughnut making recipe though is that you begin with CANNED BISCUITS. No, they do NOT taste anything like a biscuit when you are done. They taste every bit as melt in your mouth good as they look!

ingredients for melt in your mouth doughnuts

Recipe Ingredients:

  • Vegetable oil
  • Canned biscuits for the doughnuts
  • Butter
  • Cinnamon
  • And sugar for the coating.

TIP: For the biscuits, any style at all will do, just don’t get the flaky layers because they will absorb the oil whereas normal biscuits won’t if we get our oil hot enough before frying them. 

Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
  • In a bowl, stir together cinnamon and sugar and set that aside.
  • Melt a stick of butter in another bowl and set aside as well.  Now they will both be handy as soon as the doughnuts are done.

cutting holes in doughnuts

Making the doughnut hole

Now you can go buy a doughnut cutter or some other fancy finagled device (which I actually have tucked away in the dark recesses of my kitchen drawers) but I like to show y’all how to do things the simple way. I’m a big fan of not over complicating a simple matter. For that very reason, we are going to just use a plain old 20 oz bottle cap to cut the centers of our doughnuts out. 

doughnuts with holes ready for frying

  • Cut out the holes in every doughnut, reserving them to cook along with the doughnuts.

doughnuts prepped for frying

  • Voila, our doughnuts are done.

doughnut holes frying in oil

Pour your oil in a skillet. You need a little less than a half inch.

Heat your oil on medium to medium high for several minutes. We want it to be hot so that our doughnuts are instantly seared when they enter it. This prevents them from absorbing too much of the oil and being soggy.  However, we don’t want it too hot so that the outside gets done before the inside.

TIP: To test my oil, I put a doughnut hole in it. It should sizzle and bubble around the edges and then you know its hot enough. You may need to turn your heat down a bit after testing it with some doughnut holes to see if it is just right.  Once the doughnut hole is golden, remove it and let it cool a minute before taking a bite to make sure it’s fully cooked, not gooey, in the center. 

doughnut frying in oil

Time to cook the doughnuts!

TIP: If your skillet isn’t big enough you may have to do them in batches. By the time you have put them all in, some may already be ready to turn. It takes less than a minute for them to be ready to turn over.

This is how they look, nice and golden.

  • Turn them all over and let them cook until the undersides are this way. All in all, this should take less than two minutes.
  • Remove cooked doughnuts from oil and place on paper towel lined plate or a drying rack if you’re feeling fancy. 
  • Now do the same thing with the doughnut holes.

Doughnut cooked and cooling

  • Here are our cooked doughnuts, now let’s add a little bit of heaven to them!

doughnut being dipped in melted butter

  • The doughnuts should have cooled just enough so that you can handle them but they will still be very warm.
  • Pick each one up and dip both sides in melted butter…

Doughnuts in cinnamon sugar

  • Then press them down into the cinnamon sugar on both sides.
  • Repeat with all doughnuts and doughnut holes.

Melt in your mouth Doughnuts

  • Eat them warm. They will positively melt in your mouth, they are so good!

No one will believe you started out with canned biscuits so lets just keep that little tidbit to ourselves 😉

doughnuts and doughnuts holes

Doughnuts in minutes! What a fun breakfast or evening treat when family is visiting! 

doughnuts and doughnuts holes

Melt In Your Mouth Doughnuts

Learn how to make doughnuts homemade. Simple and easy. No special equipment needed. Serve them warm and golden to your family
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: doughnuts
Servings: 4
Calories: 452kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 large can Grands style biscuits or your preference, just not flaky layers
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons cinnamon
  • 1 stick butter melted
  • Vegetable Oil For Frying

Instructions

  • Pour oil into skillet to the depth of a little less than 1/2 an inch and heat on medium to medium high for about five minutes. In a bowl, melt butter. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar.
  • Using a plastic bottle cap, cut the center out of each biscuit. Drop dough into hot oil, watching carefully and turning when golden. Once doughnuts are golden on both sides, remove to paper towel lined plate. Repeat until all dough is cooked, including doughnut holes.
  • Dip both sides of each doughnut into melted butter, then press both sides into cinnamon sugar mixture. Serve warm.

Nutrition

Calories: 452kcal
Tried this recipe?Mention @southernplate or tag #southernplate!

You may also like these recipes:

Quick and Easy Jelly Filled Doughnuts

Biscuit Pretzels – AMAZING Pretzels From Canned Biscuits!

Puddin’ Poke Cake

 

It is possible to disagree with someone while still regarding them with love and respect.

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350 Comments

  1. christy these were the best I don’t make sweets often but the doughnuts were great and i couldnt believe they didnt taste like biscuits thanks.

  2. Elizabeth I know just what you mean! I do all sorts of neat things with canned biscuits but I can still make great ones from scratch! Lol Glad this brought back some memories of your clearly wonderful mother! I am trying to avoid the calories, too…so I’m eating these one bite at a time… ~grins~

    Jo Hey! Oh now I need that potato doughnut recipe, I’ve never had those !!
    I rock your socks? Wow, I must not be all that bad after all! Lol I’m going to tell my kids that, maybe they’ll start to be a bit more impressed with me….nahhhhh.
    Always a divine pleasure to see ya, Jo!

    Michelle Okay, now that is WEIRD!! I hear twilight zone music!!

    Amber Oooh yeah, girl, melted butter improves everything! Lol hehe, my husband laughed out loud when he read the shamwow comment, too! Lol Those commercials are all over the place right now!! Lol My in laws say the guy reminds them of crazy frog. If you don’t know who that is, go to youtube and do a crazy frog video search. I hope you can get the crazy frog voice out of your head though!

    Stephanie aww, I loved reading about your mother’s dishes and glad it brought back some memories. I know with me personally, I feel closer to my kids when I take time to think back to my own childhood.
    Now I’m feeling all nostalgic…

    Linda I need to do them with a glaze but I just love how the cinnamon and sugar cake onto these when you dip them in the melted margarine. I’ve quite the cinnamon sugar addiction, I’m afraid! Let me know how the sloppy joes turn out!

    Mary Hey Mary! Do you ever have folks pronounce your name “Mae-ree”? I have a friend named Mary and I always thought it was sweet how the old folks would say her name that way.
    The twirling idea is brilliant. I bet your granddaughter had a great time!!!! It takes so little to create magic for a child and when that yields a delicious result all the better!! Hehe, I don’t know if my way is better…but you do have an excuse to drink a twenty ounce coke if you want!!

    Judy oh they will have such fun! You’re a cool grandma, I can tell!!
    You know, when my sister was younger, my great grandmother didn’t get around too well but she would let Patti spread peanut butter on Ritz crackers and sandwich them together. Once, Patti was out of school and had to stay with her for the whole day. She and my great grandmother went through an entire box of Ritz letting her do that! She brought them home wrapped in foil and was so proud of her special “recipe”!

    Olga ~hands Olga a plate of warm cinnamon sugar doughnuts with a big grin~

    April you know what is funny, my mom never made these for me!!!
    Lol

    Candace okay, now that is the second person who just made these the same time I posted them! We must all be on the same craving wavelength!!

    Su Hey, if hot and fresh and made by someone else is an option – I’m in!!

    Pamela That is the sweetest memory. Thank you so much for sharing that. I love reading these stories of times past. They may have been harder, but they were so precious at the same time.

    Amy I know just the dishes you mean!! Isn’t it cool how well we remember them? I hope you enjoyed your dessert, thank YOU!!!

    Darius oh what a neat idea, sounds almost like making beignets! Love it!!!

    Mary Hey, why mess with a good thing? I actually use some dishes which were made in the forties as well! Lol
    I gotta get past my cinnamon sugar fixation so I can try them glazed! Lol

    Tina Ooooooh couldn’t you just lick the pot on that fudge glaze? Lol
    Always a treat to see you, Tina!

    1stopmom You’re just a baking madwoman! Lol I hope you liked them, let me know! We need to work together again soon!

    Angie lol Hang in there, I have some light things coming up this month, Honest!

    Michelle OH YAY!!!! I’m so glad you liked them!!! I ate a stale one this morning and it was pretty awesome, too! Lol Thank you SO MUCH for reporting back!!!

    Gratefully,
    Christy

  3. Why the doughnuts? and so easy! Oh my goodness – not a good start to the new years resolutions!! 🙂

  4. Christy I love making these donuts and so do the kids. We made some and dipped them in chocolate. I still have to post that recipe. It was paulas chocolate dippy donuts. I think i used your Fudge Glaze from your chocolate pound cake recipe. Ü

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