Melt In Your Mouth Doughnuts, Made At Home! (Foolproof and GREAT For Beginners!)
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Cinnamon Sugar Doughnuts
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, don’t I? I bet you’re half expecting me to cock one eye
“ShamWOW! You’ll just say, WOW!”
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 (hiding the evidence) before they got to the room but then discovered their husbands were waiting on them so they could go out to eat. Still, by then there were stuffed (and feeling slightly ill) and couldn’t stand eat!
Now one of the great things about these is that you don’t have to run to Krispy Kreme or Dunkin’ and you don’t have any evidence to hide! The most important thing though is that they begin with CANNED BISCUITS! Seriously!! 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!
Ingredients For Canned Biscuit Doughnuts
The ingredients are simple and as I said before, you likely have them on hand. You’ll need vegetable oil and canned biscuits for the doughnuts and margarine, cinnamon, and sugar for the coating.
For the biscuits, I get cheapie generic Texas style, but any style at all will do, just don’t get the flaky layers because they will absorb the oil whereas normal biscuits won’t if we get our oil hot enough before frying them. When I was done, you couldn’t tell a difference in my oil level from when I started! 
Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
In a bowl, stir together cinnamon and sugar.
Melt a stick of margarine and place the margarine and cinnamon sugar bowls side by side so we’ll be able to use them as soon as the doughnuts are done.
Cutting out centers of canned biscuits to make doughnuts
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 y’all how to do things the simple way. I’m a big fan of not over complicating a simple matter. For that very reason, we are going to just use a plain old bottle cap to cut the centers of our doughnuts out. I love y’all so much that I drank a Diet Dr Pepper just to have this for you. Oh, the sacrifices I make for my Southern Plate family!!
Cut out the holes in every doughnut, reserving them to cook along with the doughnuts.
Voila, our doughnuts are done!
These are my every day dishes, which I love. You always remember the dishes you ate on growing up. Ours had little green flowers going around the outside of the plates and my grandmother’s had little blue flowers. When I chose these dishes, I wanted my kids to remember a colorful rainbow. They just seemed happy and reminded me of what a childhood should be like, don’t you think?
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.
Doughnut Hole sizzling
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.
Now I put all of my doughnuts in at once. If your skillet isn’t 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.
Now do the same thing with the doughnut holes.
Here is our plate of cooked doughnuts, now lets add a little bit of heaven to them!
The doughnuts should have cooled slightly so that you can handle them but they will still be very warm.
Pick each one up and dip both sides in melted margarine…
The 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~
Ingredients
- 1 ten count can Texas style doughnuts (or your preference, just not flaky layers)
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 1 1/2 Tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 stick margarine, melted
- Vegetable Oil For Frying
Instructions
- Pour oil into skillet to the depth of a little less than 1/2 an inch and heat on medium to medium high for about five minutes. In a bowl, melt margarine. In a separate bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar.
- Using a plastic bottle cap, cut the center out of each biscuit. Drop dough into hot oil, watching carefully and turning when golden. Once doughnuts are golden on both sides, remove to paper towel lined plate. Repeat until all dough is cooked, including doughnut holes.
- Dip both sides of each doughnut into melted margarine, then press both sides into cinnamon sugar mixture. Serve warm.
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Christy, I am so super glad you shared this delicious recipe with us beginners. I found this on Pineterst, then made them today for my girls as an after-school snack and they were so very delicious. I had to put them on my blog so that all my followers could enjoy the same yumminess my family enjoyed today!!! Thank you, thank you for your super clever wisdom!! Amy
“1 ten count can Texas style doughnuts (or your preference, just not flaky layers)”
Notice anything here?? It made me giggle.
I think that Great Value needs to change their label to read Texas style DOUGHNUTS….they’ll sell a lot more that way, I am quite sure. ;o)
Guess what I’m making on our next lazy Saturday morning??
Which is (unfortunately) WEEKS away…..
LOL!!!! OH my gosh, you’re the first one to catch that! I think you’re right though, it would definitely sell more! Now, should I change it or not?
Christy, I also have share this added suggestion. My favorite food is Thai, and their dessert of Thai donuts are just too yummy. Well, we’ve discovered that if you make donuts with the canned biscuits like you’ve done here, minus dipping them in the margarine & sugar at the end, and then dip them in sweetened condensed milk as you eat them, you’ve just replicated Thai donuts. Oh. My. Yum!
Nah, don’t change it!!
It just means you’re real like the rest of us and sometimes your brain races ahead of your hands. Or you were refereeing something with your other hand while you typed….who knows.
I like to believe I am not the only one with an insane life that’s pretty well hilarious most of the time. Thanks for helping me keep that illusion alive now and then.
Oh good lord. I need these, thanks for this.
We don’t have canned bisquits here in Iceland, have you ever tried this from scratch? I’ll try and google a recipe
I used to make these all the time honey. But I never used a cap for the holes, I just poked my finger through and made a hole. Turned out real nice too. I put the sugar mixture in brown paper lunch bag and put the hot donuts in there, give it a good shake and pull out some yummy sugar/cinna donuts.
DITTO!!! But aren’t these more prettily shaped? and who wouldn’t wanna eat the holes?
I’m thinking I will poke the hole w/the bottle cap like she did next time!
My mom made these when I was little but used a mixture of powdered sugar and milk for icing. Can also use orange juice instead of milk for a different taste. Wish my kids were home today…..guess what we would have for breakfast!
We made these this morning and I was amazed! Normally I’m very suspicious of something that is claims to be super easy and delicious but these were wonderful! I found dipping them in butter after frying was a little too much for our taste, so directly after frying I dusted them with powdered sugar or dipped them in cinnamon sugar. Delicious! I used a candy thermometer in the oil and 275 seemed to be the temperature I could get them cooked in the middle with out burning the outside…..
[...] to make cookies because I knew I would have no self control and my girls actually begged me to make donuts.…. only this time they requested I add powedered sugar. I made their pizzas out of 1/2 of the [...]
[...] are some of our photos to show the highlights of this process, but you can find the recipe here, courtesy of the Southern Plate. I really appreciate how easy she made these instructions, even [...]
I made these tonight and I had to share how it went…..
I was a little hesitant (I don’t know WHY I even doubted you;), to make these since they are made with biscuit dough, but the hubby wanted something sweet-so I thought I would give it a try. He is not a huge cinnamon sugar fan , so I made half with the sugar mix, and half with chocolate icing. OH WOW!! I brought the plate into the living room, hubby took a bite, his eyes were huge and he said “Are these very expensive to make?! If not- we should never buy doughnuts again!!” Let me just tell you-that is a HUGE compliment:) Thank you for such a wonderful yet easy recipe.
I tryed making these tonight with pillsbury buttermilk biscuits and mine did not cook right. I was wondering where did I go wrong. When I got finished and took a bite I realized that it browned the outsides but the insides were still pure dough?? Please help! because I love doughnuts! =)
Hi Madison! I make these all the time, and thanks Christy for the tutorial. I stumbled across it by accident as I had several cans of biscuits about to expire, and my twins loved donuts.
It sounds like you may have had the oil too hot for your doughnuts. The outside cooked to fast so they appeared done, while the inside did not. You can test the oil with a small cube of bread. If it takes less than 30 sec to turn brown, the heat is too high. I hope this helps!
I find it a bit different the size of the biscuits as well like the jumbo biscuits if you use them cook slower than the normal small biscuits
My mom made biscuit donuts all the time when I was a kid! you can dust them with powdered sugar when still hot and the heat melts the sugar into a pseudo-glaze.
My favorite when I was a kid (although I’m sure I’d be ill now) was what we called dubloons. Flatten the biscuit, but don’t cut it, put small pile of chocolate chips in the center and fold over and seal well. Fry and then cover in powdered sugar. OMG!
I made these last Saturday night for my 2 kids. They were a big hit! Great Big HIT !!! IAnd of course, since I wanted to make these as cinnamon/sugar donuts, I didn’t have any sugar in the house AT ALL! Can you believe it? So, in the cupboard I went to rummaging. Found a can of vanilla frosting in there. Voila! we had frosted donuts! Gonna make them again & use chocolate & strawberry frosting for the kids on this coming Saturday morning. The only thing that will make them even better than the vanilla ones, is some ice cold milk to go with them. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe with us. I never would have thought of that.
How fun! I grew up on these and this “recipe” was the first I ever tried at around age 10! (where was my mother letting me do this with hot oil??!!). I haven’t used the butter method, but we always took a paper lunch sack and put the sugar and/or sugar-cinnamon mixture in there. Shake, shake, shake and the hot donuts are done! I’ve also used powdered sugar but my favorite will always be plain old granulated sugar…..
xxoo
[...] Often on weekends we will take the boys to get donuts. One day my eldest asked if we could make our own donuts. I searched for a recipe on pinterest and I found this one at southernplate.com : Melt in your Mouth Donuts [...]
OH MY GOODNESS!! My teacher in junior high used to make these donuts, and I haven’t eaten them since then. I got a random craving for these donuts tonight, so the first thing I did was Google the ingredients. Your blog was the first thing that popped up & your donuts were so beautiful, I knew I HAD to follow the way you made them. Let me say, THESE….WERE……AMAAAAAZING!!! I was a bit nervous at first (because I do NOT like to cook) but your directions were so clear and simple! I followed directions carefully, and mine came out exactly as yours did. I was so excited, and although I’m living with 9 other people right now.. it was hard for me to share! SOOOO yummy!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!! Oh yeah, the soda cap for the holes was BRILLIANT!!
Bless you.
These rival Krispy Kremes! I use an old prescription pill bottle, just like my momma did, to make a perfect hole and donut holes… Good Times!
I am so glad you liked them Julie!!!!
I just wanted to thank you for sharing this recipe! My dd is allergic to eggs (in addition to peanuts, tree nuts, & shellfish) and I have been searching for a way to make doughnuts that are safe for her. She is going to be in for a big surprise tomorrow morning!
I have been making these once a month for several years for the residents at a nursing home where I am the activity director. They are a huge hit! I don’t use the butter though. I use the GV Grands biscuits. When they come out of the oil, I either put them directly in the cinnamon sugar mixture or let them drain on a cooling rack for a minute and then dip them in a powdered sugar/Milk glaze. Soo sooo good and the residents are always asking for more! Oh and I use a shot glass to make the hole.
I love to make these in the winter in the morning. Nothing tastes better than fresh hot donuts in the morning on a cold day. I’ve used everything from powdered sugar, cinnamon/sugar, to left over cream cheese frosting. Haven’t tried the dipping in sweetened condense milk though…Will definitely have to try it!
I am so glad to hear that you like them Chia!!! Let me know what you think about the ones dunked in sweeten condensed milk.
These donuts are what I remember most from my childhood! My mom and I would make these every Sunday after Church! Best.memory.ever.
[...] Baking: We made refrigerator biscuit doughnuts [...]
I made these with friends the other day and they were delicious. One problem though— our oil was apparently way too hot because they were completely RAW inside. We threw em back into the oil (even the ones that we had already cinnamon sugared) and fully cooked they were awesome!
Cooler oil and thinner donuts?
Sounds like you definitely needed cooler oil.
Aaah!! SO delicious. Just made them. I made the mistake of having the oil too hot in the beginning so it immediately charred my donuts. But after turning the heat down and waiting for a bit, the donuts then cooked slowly and evenly and turned out so, so good. These taste just like churros! Although I recommend not dipping them in butter and then cinnamon sugar. Just take out of oil, pat off excess grease with paper towels, then immediately roll in cinnamon sugar. They taste just as good, but just not soaked in butter. Yum!
Oh my word! Just made these w/ my kids and they are sooooo good! Turned out perfectly. To quote my 6 yr old son, “I could stick my face in these!” I think that means he likes them.
We used to make these all the time growing up. LOVE them! My mom didn’t do the margarine step and they were still delicious. Just curious if you have ever used butter instead? I have issues with margarine;)
[...] to try my hand at making doughnuts after I came across a recipe through Pinterest about how to make doughnuts using canned biscuits. Can I just say that they were delicious and super easy?! I was incredibly impressed with [...]
Can you use the buttery biscuits ?
I don’t see why not Christina, the taste will be just a bit different but they will still be great.
Wow! As soon as i saw this i knew i had to make them! I was a little hesitant on how they would taste (due to making them with bisuits) but these just wowed me! I had to stop myself from eating them all so my family would have some when they got home. New keeper, sure to make lots more(: Thanks so much!
-Victoria
This recipe has been passed down in my family for generations! It is a comfort food. I once made 400 for a girl scout camp!! The trick to this is to split the biscuits in half lenth wise. It is hard to get the middle perfect with whole biscuits. We ice them with icing made from powdered sugar and milk.
I don’t have a deep fryer anymore, so I haven’t made these in a while. I’m always scared to deep fry in the skillet, but I will give it a shot with all these tips.
I have a 4-pack of those little 10 count biscuits, are those the right ones? Not the big (“Grands?”) size?
You can also use powered sugar. If you do, you don’t need butter. Just put some powered sugar in a brown lunch bag put a couple cooked donuts in and give it a good shake!
I have this little question. I am not from the States and live in Holland. I’d like to make these but we can’t buy 1 ten count can Texas style doughnuts overhere. So I also need the recepe for the dough…..Can somebody help me????
Hi.. i am from Australia.. and i am drooling just looking at this page.. i want some now hahaha (12.45am)
is there something i could use as an alternative as i have no idea what 1 ten count texas style biscuits are LOL
[...] lovers and donut making beginners, like myself. For step by step instructions and photos visit HERE Enjoy! ~Monique-S.E By royalnonsense on January 2, 2012 / Nibbles & Nosh [...]
I just had to take a second to say thank you and to tell others how AMAZING these donuts are! I’m not a fan of cooking with hot oil, but even I was able to make them – super fast and super tasty. I left out the dunking in butter step (just to save a few calories) and they were still phenomenal. All of the comments were very helpful too as I agree that having the oil properly heated is key to how they turn out. Thanks again
We make these doughnuts when we go on camping trips – easy, quick, yummy, campfire breakfast that doesn’t require dragging a lot of extra stuff with us!
What a great idea Jill!!
[...] has this recipe on her blog for the most simple doughnuts ever. Seriously. She calls them “Melt In Your Mouth Doughnuts“. When I realized how incredibly simple they were, I just had to make them. Especially when I [...]
I made these when I was younger. Powdered sugar is yummy as well.
I just made these and the centers are still dough
Mine are very well done as they cooked faster than I thought so I couldnt have left them in the oil any longer. Any suggestions? Should I flatten out the biscuits before I cut them? Help!!
Flattening will help some but the main thing is to reduce your oil temperature. If it’s too hit the outside cooks all the way before the inside can. Keep me posted!:)
I dont know what I did wrong because I followed the directions to a T, but mine fried beautifully on the outside but on the inside they were soooooo doughy. They didnt cook AT ALL. I had already put the sugar and everything on them so I just finished baking them which ended up not being doughnuts at all.
. I used trader joes buttermilk biscuits. Should I have used something else? Anyone else have this problem? thanks!
The problem was that your oil was too hot, turn your oil down a bit so the inside has time to cook before the outside gets done.
I made these for my family tonight (and posted them on my blog) they were amazzzzing! thanks for the recipe!
I am so glad to hear you liked them!!
Can I use just butter? or do I need to use margarine?
Butter would work just fine