Sift the flour into a large bowl, and add the caster sugar, yeast and salt and mix together.
Rub the butter into the mixture so it resembles bread crumbs.
Gently heat the milk until warm - but not piping hot. If heating in a pan, you want it to just about start having steam come out of the pan.
Add the warm milk, vanilla extract, and eggs to the dry ingredients. Mix with a spatula to bring it together.
Knead the dough together for 7-10 minutes. It will be sticky at first, but it will soon come together. Once kneaded, it will be springy to touch, and not sticky.
Transfer into a lightly oiled bowl, and cover the top of the bowl with clingfilm. Let it rise for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
Once the dough has risen, take it out of the bowl, and roll the dough out onto a lightly floured surface until it is 2cm thick.
Using a 9cm round cutter, cut out some doughnuts. In the middle of each round, use a 4cm cutter and cut out the middle to form a ring.
Re-roll the dough, and repeat to get all of the doughnuts.
Add the doughnuts to a lightly floured lined tray, and cover lightly with a lightly oiled piece of clingfilm, and leave to prove again for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
The Frying
Pour the oil into a large flat saucepan.
Heat the oil to 170C - test this with a thermometer.
Carefully lower the doughnuts into the oil with a slotted spoon, two at a time, and fry for 1-2 minutes each side.
The doughnuts should turn a nice golden colour. If they are browning very quickly, remove the pan from the heat as it’s too hot.
Once golden, remove carefully from the oil, and place onto some kitchen towel. Then, leave to cool on a tray whilst you do the rest.
Topping Ideas
Freeze dried raspberry:- In a bowl, mix together the icing sugar and water until you have a thick paste. Dunk the doughnuts into the icing and place onto a tray. Sprinkle with freeze dried raspberries. Leave to set.
Sprinkle doughnuts:- In a bowl, mix together the icing sugar and water until you have a thick paste. Pour the sprinkles into a separate bowl. Dunk the doughnuts into the icing and then dunk straight into the sprinkles. Turn over, and put onto a tray to set.
Chocolate:- In a bowl, melt the chocolate until smooth, I do this in a microwave. Dunk the doughnuts into the chocolate, and then place onto a tray. Sprinkle with chocolate curls.
Notes
**If your yeast needs activating, add it to the warm milk and sit for 5 minutes before using!
These are best served fresh, but can last for 2 days.
The dough can be halved if you want to make less!
You can top the doughnuts with whatever you like - I have just listed three different ideas from my photos!
If you do not have a thermometer, you can test the temperature of the oil with a piece of fresh bread. It should turn to a golden colour in 20-25 seconds, but not burn.
You can make the doughnuts smaller (they will take less time to fry), or larger (they will take longer to fry) if you wish.
If you don't want to ice them, you can coat the doughnuts in cinnamon sugar - use 125g caster sugar and 2tsp ground cinnamon.