Graham Vicky - Donuts: over 50 inventive & easy recipes for any occasion

CONTENTS Hi! Im Vicky. I set up Vickys Donuts in 2015 after trips to see family in Toronto (where donuts are kind of a big deal!) inspired me to spread the love over here on the other side of the Atlantic. Sure, eating them is my fave thing to do, but the first time I tried making them, I just fell in love. From taking the time to mix the perfect dough, channelling your inner anger with a rolling pin, to plonking the little puffed-up rings into oil and watching them turn into pretty donuts within seconds; theres something very satisfying about the whole thing and its my aim to get you hooked too. I only properly got into baking a few years ago. I guess it started when I worked at a food magazine in my mid-twenties.

My colleagues would show me their mood boards for photo shoots and lend me the tricks of the trade in food styling. Id ask them a million questions about how to get into recipe writing and Id follow them around the office like a puppy when the page proofs came back, so excited to see the end result of a long creative process. At that time, I had the idea to do a similar thing with donuts. I really enjoyed making them at home, so I thought, Lets take some pics and stick them on Instagram! And then I thought, Ooo! Wouldnt it be great if I could actually sell them, too? So I decided to apply for a stall at a local market, asked my amazing mate, Kate Moross, (from award-winning Studio Moross) for help with branding and set up a little website. Friends of friends told their friends, who passed the word onto their friends, and suddenly I was getting business from strangers, which was the weirdest feeling ever. I soon began to realise that I have a love for feeding people.

Even now, I get so much happiness from watching other people eat my food (yes, I realise thats kinda freaky but Ive decided to roll with it). I started from the tiny kitchen of a little rented flat in Dalston, East London, with my two very patient housemates as my in-house taste-testers. Id get up at 5 a.m., before work, to fulfil orders, and then go and deliver them on my lunch break. Looking back on it, I must have been pretty tired all the time but the more I did it, the more I loved it, and I became determined to make it my full-time job. I was obsessed. Today, we make anything up to 1,000 donuts in a day in the bakery, still in Dalston (just in a much bigger space!), and still in small batches, using the highest-quality ingredients.

Luckily I dont have to be the baker, decorator, delivery guy and accountant all at once any more thanks to my amazing team, were now a little donut family.

	This book aims to pass on a little bit of that donut magic to your home kitchen.

This book aims to pass on a little bit of that donut magic to your home kitchen. Making donuts seems to have a rep for being a lengthy process thats super difficult to get right, but Im here to prove to you that its really not! I had zero expertise when I first started and Im totally self-taught. My goal is to give you a collection of hints, tips and recipes that I so wish was out when I first started. I tried and tried to find recipes to make my own and ended up geeking out on old American cookbooks, adapting them to make the ingredients a little nicer and make them easier to do from a home kitchen, so that youre not getting out of bed every four hours to feed your sourdough starter (yep, been there). Hopefully, with some simple instructions, inventive flavours and fancy designs, I can turn you into a donut-making pro (and youll have loads of fun in the process).

If you stick to these principles, you cant really go wrong: 1 Source good-quality ingredients. Why? They taste better! 2 Follow the recipe baking is chemistry. Dont try to blag it or make changes until youve got it down. 3 Take your time and have fun! Im at my happiest when sporting an apron, elbow-deep in dough, with a face full of flour. Get messy and embrace it. Ive included a selection of my favourite donuts that we make in the bakery every day, as well as a few new ones that Ive tried to push the barriers with.

Theres also a selection of gluten-free and vegan recipes so that everybody can be in on the donut lovin. Anyhoo! Lets get to it. Weve got some donuts to make.

A Brief History of Donuts Traditionally, a donut is made from a yeasted enriched dough (one that contains milk, butter, eggs and/or sugar), which is then deep fried in oil. Its this method that makes them crispy on the outside and soft and squidgey on the inside THE BEST! However, I understand that if you havent fried a lot of foods before, you might want to ease yourself in by baking the donuts in the oven instead. The main dough recipe that forms the basis of this book can either be baked or fried, and theres detailed instructions for both ().

Once you get the hang of the baked ones, please do give the fried ones a go theyre worth it, hands down, and so much fun to try, too. One thing to note about making any of the recipes in this book is that these donuts are best eaten on the same day theyre made, preferably within a few hours! There are no artificial preservatives in any of the doughs or batters (the best way to be) so they start to go stale around 12 hours after coming out of the oven or fryer. Of course, this just means that you HAVE to stuff your face after making them aint no excuses. With any of the recipes that use yeast, its important to note a few facts about the temperament of a yeasted dough: 1 When waiting for the dough to prove or rise (when the yeast releases little carbon-dioxide bubbles, allowing the dough to increase in size), its going to be a much quicker process in a warm environment. Were super speedy at making donuts in the summer in the bakery because theres hardly any waiting around to do, whereas in the winter we have to allow a bit longer and rely on heaters or proving drawers (you can get these at home, too) to get things going. 3 Be gentle with dough! You might see some TV chefs slapping it about like its tough, but it should be handled as little as possible to give you the best results.

Essential Equipment

Donut tin (pan) for baked donuts and ring donut cutters for dough.