Have you ever gone somewhere, eaten something amazing, and then returned home, determined to recreate that wonderful thing you just ate?
If you’re like me, trying to get it exactly right can prove challenging, and I find myself looking for “copycat” recipes.
Over the years, I’ve collected a few “copycats” and among our favorites are a doughnut recipe, a cheesy corn bake, and my husband’s can’t-watch-the-Super-Bowl-without-it Dill Pickle Dip.
Because winter seems like a perfect time to make doughnuts, I thought you might enjoy the recipe. If you don’t like to cook, just swing by Krispy Kreme and grab a box of their glazed doughnuts.
Raised Doughnuts
2 packets yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
1/3 cup shortening
5 cups flour
oil
Glaze
1/3 cup butter
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
4-6 tbsp. hot water
Scald milk and then cool.
Dissolve yeast in warm water in a large mixing bowl. Add in milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening and two cups of the flour. Mix on low speed until blended, scraping the bowl frequently. Once all the ingredients are combined, mix on high speed for two minutes.
Stir in remaining flour until well blended.
Cover and let rise until double (about an hour).
On a floured surface, very gently roll out the dough until about 1/2 inch thick. Handle the dough as little as possible. Cut with a doughnut cutter (if you don’t have one, any circular object like a glass will work. I used a Wilton cake decorating coupler to cut out the centers.)
Cover and let rise until double (about 45 minutes).
Heat oil in a deep fryer or heavy-duty pan until it reaches 350 degrees. Slide doughnuts into hot oil very carefully. Cook until golden brown. I may have had my oil entirely too hot, but it was taken about 30 seconds per side. You can watch the inside of the doughnut hole and when it starts to turn brown, flip the doughnut over.
Remove carefully from oil when brown and drain.
Dip warm doughnuts on the glaze then set on a rack to cool slightly before devouring way too many!
To make the glaze, melt butter, stir in vanilla and powdered sugar then add enough hot water, one spoon at a time to reach desired consistency. It should be fairly thin. I placed the doughnuts right in the bowl of glaze, flipped them over to coat both sides then moved to the rack to finish cooling.
Makes approximately 24.
What’s your favorite copycat recipe to make, or the original to enjoy?
These sound delicious!
Panera tomato soup copycat recipe is my favorite.
They have such yummy soups there!
Hey Shanna! This reminds me of what my brother, Billy Joe, and I would make after school snack. We would get a can of biscuits, pull them apart to make a hole, fry them in oil, front and back until brown on both sides. I would make the glaze with a little milk and powder sugar. The best snack! LOL I can’t believe we made that. We were under 12 years of age! And we were the old school latch key kids! Before we knew of such a thing. Heh.
Copy cat recipe would be Outback sauce dip for the blooming onion.
Best wishes!
How fun you made your own doughnuts for a snack. That was pretty brave to fry that hot oil when you were that young. Have you tried air-fryer biscuit doughnuts. They are so good!
my broccoli cheddar soup is pretty close to what “The Beef House” makes here in Indiana!
That is awesome!
My favorite copycat recipe is Olive Garden Pasta eFagioli.
Oh, yum!
My husband loves to try and re-create food we have when we eat out. We love soups and he has re-created several on of the best is Demos’ Chicken and Rice Soup. I also am very curious about your Dill Pickle Dip:)
The soups sound great. You an find the dill pickle dip recipe on my blog here: https://shannahatfield.com/dill-pickle-dip/ Enjoy!
They sound delicious ?
Yum to the doughnuts and I don’t even like doughnuts. My favorite copy-cat recipe is the strawberry pie from the old Frisch’s Big Boy restaurants. Sweet buttery pie crust with glazed strawberries and rich, rich whipped cream.
That pie sounds incredible! I’ll have to look up a recipe!
OMG…I remember those. So delicious!!!! That brought back so many memories!
Too lazy to do too much cooking lately; I’ll just pop over and enjoy some of yours! Yummy!
I have Frisch’s strawberry pie recipe, but haven’t made it yet, perhaps this summer when the berries are fresh.
We have a Chili’s honey Chipotle chicken copycat recipe that we really like.
How fun!
The doughnuts sound delicious! Many, many years ago my brother in law showed me how to make canned biscuit doughnuts, separate the biscuits and a hole in the middle of the biscuit, fry it in oil and after it is done, glaze it or add cinnamon and sugar to coat the doughnuts. They turned out pretty good also.
Yes, I love those too.
Yum to those easy biscuits!
I love Jim & Nicks cheese biscuits and thankfully they now have a mix you can buy at the grocery store.
Those biscuits sound awesome!
I haven’t done any copycat recipes, but do have two I am trying to get around to trying. The first is for the Chick-Fil-A patties (supposedly if you soak the frozen patties in dill pickle juice before frying them they will taste much the same. I rarely fry foods and since my husband dropped the crockpot/fryer pot and broil it, It will be pan fried as the only option. The other copycat recipe I look forward to trying is for the Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana. It is my favorite of their soups.
Those both sound like great recipes to try, Patricia! Hope they turn out great!
Love doughnuts, but would never make them. Don’t enjoy cooking/baking, so I’m more of a swing by Dunkin’ Donuts type of girl! 🙂
If we had one in our neighborhood, I’d be swinging by!
I prefer to use my Grandma’s recipes