Chocolate Cake Doughnuts (Almost) Like Dunford Used To Make
 
 
From Sunset Magazine, but I changed a few things up based on my experience with the recipe
Author:
Ingredients
  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1½ cups sugar
  • ⅓ cup buttermilk
  • 3 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 6 to 8 cups vegetable oil for frying
  • Chocolate Doughnut Frosting (See recipe below)
Instructions
  1. In a bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. In a small bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, buttermilk, and melted butter to blend. Stir into dry ingredients until well blended. Chill until cold, at least 1 hour or up to 3 hours.
  2. Scrape dough onto a generously floured surface.
  3. If you have a doughnut cutter: With floured hands, pat dough out to about ½ inch thick. With a 3-inch doughnut cutter, cut out doughnuts. Pat together scraps of dough and cut again.
  4. If you do not have a doughnut cutter, this is what I did and it worked wonderfully: Roll dough out into a rectangle that is about 5 inches wide and ½-inch thick. Cut into strips about 1 inch wide (so you end up with pieces 1”³ wide and 5”³ long). Shape the strips into circles. With a little bit of water wet the ends with your fingertips and then seal the ends. Trust me, it actually works really well and made about 16 doughnuts.
  5. Place doughnuts on a well-floured baking sheet or back on your floured surface.
  6. Add about 4 inches of oil into a 5- to 6-quart pan; heat to 375° (I have an instant read thermometer that I use throughout the entire cooking process – it’s important!). Place one doughnut at a time onto a wide spatula and gently slide into oil, frying three at a time. Cook, turning once, until puffy and cooked through. The original recipe says to cook 3 to 4 minutes total, but that was WAY too long. I cooked each donut 1 minute per side and that was perfect – cooked through completely but also not burned or dried out. With a slotted spoon, transfer doughnuts to paper towels to drain. Test temperature of oil, reheat to 375 if needed. Repeat process to fry remaining doughnuts.
  7. Let cool on a wire rack. Dip top half of each doughnut in the chocolate frosting and place back on wire rack to set for about 5 minutes (or longer).
Recipe by This Week for Dinner at https://thisweekfordinner.com/chocolate-cake-doughnuts/