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. ABSOTIVELY POSOLUTELY!

      Just make sure your oil is on about medium and let it heat up for several several minutes. You have to cook them a weeeee bit lower to get them good and done in the center but you still want to only put them in fully heated oil so they won’t go soaking it up.

      They will work and they will be yummilicious.

      Gratefully,
      Christy 🙂

  1. Wow! These look fantastic! I love homemade donuts.My kids used to love it when I made them.

    Your site looks terrific and I’ll be returning often.

    BTW: Thanks for your great feedback on my Hearty Homemade Bread article over at Suite 101.

    1. Hey Melody!!!
      Its so great to see you here! I’ve thought about that bread often but haven’t got to make it yet. You better believe it is on my list though!!!!!

      Its so great to have you here, I’m gushing!!!!
      Welcome to Southern Plate! Please do come back often, sit a spell and get comfy! Food’ll be passed around soon, always is!

      Gratefully,
      christy

  2. Evidently, I’m the only one that can’t do these. I thought I was doing everything right. My dough, butter and stuff was ready, my grease was hot….I tried a hole, and it looked like it did what it was supposed to, but seemed really quick. I threw in about 3 donuts and as soon as I the last one was it, I needed to turn them. Well, visually they looked pretty. I couldn’t help it, I had to try one……gooey. My problem was, in order to cook them through, they were about overdone on the outside. They weren’t burnt yet but close. Well……….we ate ’em anyway.

    I was scared to turn them down for fear that the grease would soak into them. What’s odd, I can make indian fry bread in my fry daddy, that tastes just like you get at a pow wow (throw you some pie filling and powdered sugar, or taco stuff………mmmmm) but I can’t do something so similar and simple.

    What’d I do wrong?!

    Help me, the closest Krispy Kreme is over an hour away!!!

    1. Don’t you worry, Cookie, I’ve had this happen before, too!

      Your oil just needs to be turned down a bit. I actually did the same thing today, had my oil a wee bit too hot for the first batch and turned it down a bit for the second. If you are cooking them on medium high or say a 7, I’d turn it down to medium or a 5.
      If you are cooking medium, turn it down a notch or two. Just give it five minutes or so at that heat to get good and hot and then cook them as usual. You’ll be just fine and they will get done in the center.

      The jelly filled ones I posted today are especially trick with gooey centers so you really have to make sure you have hot oil, but not so hot that it cooks the outside instantly.

      If this doesn’t help, give me another holler here and I’ll elaborate more or if you just want to provide more details and see if I can tell you a bit more, feel free!
      Christy 🙂

      1. I reckon I have to remember to get me somemore canned biscuits and try again. Well, you must have esp(n)lol, cause I was thinking bout jelly filled and boston creme(which are my favorite donuts, after glazed and topped with chocolate) and what do u do?! post ’em!!! Can’t believe my luck 😀

        1. SEE!! It was meant to be!! you NEEEEEEED these! they are calling your name!!!
          coooookiiiieeeee
          cooooooooookkkkkkkiiiieeeeeee
          COOOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKKIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!!!

          WE NEED DOUGHNUTS!!!
          I wrote a letter to someone’s rear end on the comments section of Baby Boston Cremes. You might want to read it aloud to yours if you need more motivation 🙂
          hehe
          its towards the bottom on the comments section.
          yeah, i got too much free time sometimes.

  3. This is one of the recipes we made in 6th grade beginning home-ec class in 1972. Instead of the cinnamon sugar, we mixed powdered sugar with milk or water until it was like a very thin frosting and drizzled it over the top–made them like Krispy Kremes. Thanks for the memory.

    1. thank YOU!

      That does sound like fun. I think the cinnamon sugar is my favorite because of how it forms such a nice coating with the melted butter and then you can get it to flake off in your mouth and you have this buttery, cinnamony, sugary explosion…not that I have ever eaten one, of course ~winks~

  4. Awesome!!! Looks fantastic! Southern Plate is really changing the type of Mom I am… Went from Microwave queen to a talented Machine 😀 Thank you so much! I have learned so much and try out alot of your recipes! I know my son is really going to benefit from all of this!

    1. Brittainy,
      You are so sweet, thank you so very much. I LOVE that what I am doing is making people happy! I still can’t get over how many page views Southern Plate is getting!!
      I had almost four million in December!!!

      I LOVE getting to do this and thats all because of people like you who let me know you are enjoying it!!!

      Thank you!!!
      Christy 🙂

  5. Hey loved this recipe. THANKS SO VERY MUCH. My granny made these same doughnuts when I was a child. She passed when I was a teenager. I never had a recipe as such and never made them but I wanted to. Now I can…..thanks!

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