Directions:
1) In a small bowl, mix together hot water, sugar, and yeast set aside for about 10 minutes until nice and frothy.
2) In a large bowl, whisk together yeast mixture, milk, sugar, salt, egg and shortening.
3) Slowly whisk in 1 cup of flour.
4) Gradually add in remaining flour (1 1/2 cups), half a cup at a time, stirring with a wooden spoon (or you can use your mixer and a dough hook) until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. *You may not need to use all of your flour!
5) Knead by hand for about 5 minutes, or until your dough is nice and smooth.
6) Place the dough into a greased bowl, cover with a clean dish towel, and place somewhere warm to rise until it has doubled in size (about half an hour).
7) Turn the dough onto a floured surface, and use a rolling pin to gently roll it out to about 1/2" thickness.
8) Cut with a doughnut cutter (or you can use two round cookie cutters, one large and one small). Cover all doughnuts with the towel again, and let rise until doubled.
9) Heat oil in a deep-fryer or a large electric skillet to 350 degrees (you can use a large, deep skillet on your stove, but it's harder to control the temperature of your oil safely).
10) Very carefully, place your doughnuts into the hot oil. Fry doughnuts on each side until they are a very light brown.
11) Remove doughnuts from hot oil, and place on a cookie sheet lined with paper towel.
12) Repeat until all the dough has been used, including the leftover doughnut holes from the middle of the doughnuts!
For the Glaze:
Mix together icing sugar, half and half, and vanilla until combined. Dip doughnuts into glaze once cooled and top with sprinkles.
*We suggest testing one doughnuts with the glaze and then adjusting the thickness of the glaze until you're happy with it!
These doughnuts are best served the same day, but we found that they freeze very well when unglazed!
