Melt In Your Mouth Doughnuts (Foolproof and GREAT For Beginners!)

This recipe was originally published in 2009. I updated it in 2019.

Look at that photo. Is your mouth watering yet? How about if I told you that you could make these amazing treats, 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?
I sound like an infomercial, dont I? Seriously though, we Southerners (and humans in general), love our doughnuts. Mama says you always need to drink a diet coke with doughnuts because it cancels out the calories. This is what she and Aunt Sue did the time they were in Gatlinburg, and stopped by the Krispy Kreme. They got one dozen hot doughnuts (the ultimate in luxury!) and two diet cokes. By the time they got back to the hotel, they had eaten the entire dozen! They had the good sense to throw away the doughnut box in order to hide the evidence before they got to the room, but then discovered their husbands were waiting on them so they could go out to eat. By then they were stuffed and feeling slightly ill so they couldnt stand eat.

Now one of the great things about these is that you dont have to run to Krispy Kreme or Dunkin and you dont have any evidence to hide! The most important thing though is that they 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!

The ingredients are simple and as I said before, you likely have them on hand. Youll need vegetable oil and canned biscuits for the doughnuts and butter, cinnamon, and sugar for the coating.

For the biscuits, I get cheapie grands, but any style at all will do, just dont get the flaky layers because they will absorb the oil whereas normal biscuits wont if we get our oil hot enough before frying them. When I was done, you couldnt tell a difference in my oil level from when I started!

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.

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 yall how to do things the simple way. Im 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.

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

Voila, our doughnuts are done.

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 dont want it too hot so that the outside gets done before the inside. 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 its fully cooked, not gooey, in the center.

Time to cook the doughnuts! If your skillet isnt 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 youre feeling fancy. I vary between fancy and paper towels but dont we all? Now do the same thing with the doughnut holes.

Here are our cooked doughnuts, now lets add a little bit of heaven to them!

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

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

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 ~grins~

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

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