Doughnuts (donuts) are popular and tasty Nigerian deep-fried snacks and affordable party and wedding small chops idea that guests love. Even if you cannot afford to serve a full-on mix of assorted finger foods at your reception or any party, you can save costs by making 100 or more doughnuts yourself in advance.
Making doughnuts requires a few cheap ingredients and the process of making it is easy and not time-consuming.
If you’d like to learn how to make doughnuts from scratch, scroll down and let’s get right into it. There’s a video tutorial, ingredients list, and also a written list of steps with explanation, PLUS recipes for making a large number of donuts (with yeast and also without yeast).
Also covered in this post is a list of common doughnut mistakes and how you can avoid them; and answers to common doughnut questions people ask. Read on.
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Ingredients List for Quick and Easy Doughnut and Recipe
The ingredients for making doughnuts are few and pretty basic, and the preparation process is simple. It’s so easy to learn how to make donuts if you have never made them before. Here is a list of ingredients you will need:
- Flour – 500g (4 cups)
- Yeast – 4 teaspoons (15g/ 2 sachets)
- Eggs – 2
- Butter – 3 tablespoons (40g)
- Granulated sugar – 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup / 50g )
- Warm milk – 2/3 cup (140ml)
- Warm water – 1/2 cup (100ml)
- 1 teaspoon of Grated nutmeg and/ or vanilla extract (for extra flavour)
- Pinch of Salt
- Groundnut oil or any vegetable oil (for frying)
You’ll also need:
- A Standard Measuring Cup
- A bowl for mixing the ingredients
- Small chopping board
- Rolling pin (or improvise with a wine or beer bottle)
- Spatula or wooden spoon to mix the ingredients
- Doughnut cutter (or improvise with two small round objects you can find in your kitchen you can convert to cut the doughnut and doughnut holes. For example, use the open end of a cup to cut the doughnut rings shapes, and use the cover of a soft drink bottle to cut out the doughnut holes).
- A wok or deep pot for frying
- A strainer/ skimmer spoon to scoop out the donuts from hot oil.
SIDE NOTE: The above recipe will make about 20 doughnuts (or more or less, depending on the size of your cutter). Before the end of this post, I also included a recipe and ingredients list for making 100 doughnuts, for a quick reference if you’re planning a party or Nigerian wedding reception.
Ingredients for Making 100 Pieces of Doughnuts
For a small Nigerian wedding or party with 100 guests lists, here are the measurement for each ingredient, a complete recipe for making 100 pieces of doughnuts:
- 2.5 kg (20 cups) of flour
- 75 g yeast (10 sachets/ 20 teaspoons)
- 10 eggs
- 200 g butter (15 tablespoons)
- 250 g (4 1/4 cups) granulated sugar = 20 tablespoons
- 2 1/3 cup = 700 ml warm milk
- 500 ml warm water (2 1/2 cups)
- 2 teaspoons of grated nutmeg and/ or vanilla extract (for extra flavour)
- 1 tablespoon salt
- Groundnut oil or any Vegetable oil (for frying)
Want a recipe for making 200 pieces of doughnut? Simply double each ingredients’ quantities in the above 100 doughnuts recipe.
Ingredients for Making Doughnuts with 1 Kilogram of Flour
Want to how many pieces of doughnut you can get from 1 kg of flour, the ingredients’ measurements and the recipe is below. That should give you about 40 pieces of doughnuts (or more, or less, depending on the size of cutter you’re using). Here’s a recipe for making doughnuts with 1kg flour:
- 1 kg (8 cups) of flour
- 30g yeast (4 sachets/ 8 teaspoons
- 4 eggs
- 80g butter (6 tableSpoons)
- 100g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar = 8tbsp
- 1 1/3 cup = 280ml warm milk
- 200ml warm water (1 cups)
- 5 teaspoons of grated nutmeg and/ or vanilla extract (for extra flavour)
- 1 tsp of Salt
- Groundnut oil or any Vegetable oil (for frying)
How to Make Doughnuts with Baking Powder (No-Yeast Doughnuts)
If you want to make doughnuts with baking powder (also known as no-yeast doughnuts), simply follow a recipe specifically indicated as no-yeast donut recipe in order to get the right amount of baking powder to use. No-Yeast donuts are usually baked, and are also referred to as ‘Baked Donuts’.
If you use a yeast-doughnut recipe (like the ones above) and just use baking powder where it was specified to use yeast, the resulting doughnuts will not come out okay. So, you have to use a recipe specifically made for making doughnuts with baking powder.
Below is a no-yeast doughnut recipe using baking powder, if you’re looking for how to make doughnuts without yeast.
- 500 g (4 cups) of all-purpose flour
- 50 g (1/4 cup) granulated sugar = 4 tbsp
- 2 eggs
- 2/3 cup = 140 ml warm milk
- 40 g butter (3 tableSpoons)
- Pinch of salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder or 1 sachet
- 100 ml warm water (Half cup)
- 1 teaspoon of grated nutmeg and/ or vanilla extract (for extra flavour)
MORE FINGER FOOD IDEAS:
- How to Make Crispy Tasty Samosa (Recipe for Samosa Wrappers and Fillings)
- How to Make Party Jollof Rice (with Recipe for cooking 1 Bag Rice)
- How to Make Crispy Tasty Spring Rolls (Recipe for the Wrappers and Fillings)
The Steps: Making Homemade Doughnuts from Scratch
1. Combine the ingredients: Pour the milk into a mixing bowl. Then add the yeast, sugar, salt, egg, melted butter, nutmeg
2. Blend together: Using the spatula or wooden spoon, stir or whisk to blend the ingredients together.
3. Make the Doughnut Dough: Now, add in the flour and stir to mix everything together until all the flour has combined and it forms a sticky dough.
4. Knead until smooth: Switch from the spatula to using your hands and continue kneading to mix the dough.
- The goal is to make all the powdered flour to completely mix up and you can no longer see powder.
- Keep kneading until the dough is no longer sticky, and your hand and the mixing bowl is clean. The doughnut dough should gradually look like a neat ball of pounded yam. Lol. Kneading is technically about using your hand to punch or pound the dough together, aiming to achieve a smooth and elastic pounded-yam appearance, if that makes sense.
5. Oil the bowl: Lightly rub some vegetable oil around the mixing bowl and place the dough in the bowl. Then thinly rub some oil on the dough.
6. Leave it to rise: Next, cover the bowl tightly with a plastic wrap/ nylon or foil paper and leave it for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
7. Take out the dough: After one hour, open the bowl of dough. It should have doubled in size and become lighter and fluffy.
8. Flour the cutting board or table: Next, dust on some flour on a table, flat surface or cutting board and place the dough on top.
9. Roll and cut to shapes: Now, dust some flour on the rolling pin and press it down on the dough, roll to 1/2 or 1/4 thickness.
10. Cut into Shapes: Now, cut into doughnut shapes using a doughnut cutter. If you don’t have a doughnut cutter, you can use any round/ circular object such as a plastic or metal cup to cut out the doughnut ring shapes, and use a small bottle cover to cut out the doughnut holes.
11. Proof the dough: Cover the already-cut doughnut shapes and leave them to rise for another 30 minutes.
12. Fry the doughnuts in small batches: Fill the pan with oil and fry on medium heat. Be sure to test the oil temperature with one doughnut hole. Fry the doughnuts on both sides, to a golden brown. Repeat the frying process until you fry the entire doughnuts.
13. Drain: Transfer the cooked donuts from the frying pot to a bowl lined with paper towels (kitchen serviettes) or to a rack, to drain the excess oil.
14. Optional Steps:
- To make jelly-filled donuts: Fill the fried doughnuts with jam or your desired filling.
- To make sugar-coated doughnuts: Sprinkle some granulated sugar or dip them into a bowl of granulated sugar while they’re still warm. Turn them over to sugar on the second side. If glazing, wait until they have cooled.
- Questions & Answers on Donuts – yeast vs baking powder in donuts, fried vs baked donuts, and more
- 8+ Mistakes that Make Your Donuts Fail and How to Avoid Them
Thank you so much. God bless you
My pleasure, Jumoke.
Hi ma you are bless for this pls if I want to make a pillow doughnut how will I achieve this thanks.
Thanks, Olayinka.
Pillow doughnut – I have no idea at the moment.
Thanks Stella, i found this educative and i really appreciate the effort you put in to explain to everyone. God bless you
Hi Juliet. Thanks for that feedback – it means a lot. I’m glad you like our ‘Doughnut from Scratch’ tutorial.
for 1500g flour how many teaspoons of yeast do I need nd how many sugar do I need
Hi Toyosi, the measurements for yeast and everything is in our post (above). Use the recipe above for 500g flour – triple everything in that list, and that is your Doughnut ingredients for 1,500g-flour.
Hope that helps.
wow! this is amazing. thanks so much
Thanks, Modupe. I’m glad you like it.
Thank you ma’am for the recipe it was very helpful,please ma how do I get ingredients for making 60pieces of doughnuts
Thanks for the feedback, Rebecca. Use my above recipe for making 100 pieces of doughnuts, BUT use half the ingredients and you will get 50 pieces of doughnuts.
Thanks.
Hi Ma if I want to make 40pcs of round doughnut (not ring) how many gram will I cut each dough into using your recipe? And how many kg of flour to use
Hi Bunmi, you can use the above recipe for 100 pieces of dougnuts, BUT use half of every ingredient and you’ll make 50 doughnuts.
Hope that helps. Thanks.
Just reading your comments, I must say ma’am your so awesoooooome😩🥰
God bless you so much for all you do☺️
Aww!! Thank you, Bella. God bless you too.
Be sure to let us know when you try our doughnut recipe.🥰
Thanks má for the recipe .
I want to ask, how can I calculate the quantity of doughnut to make for 100 guests? And
How do I calculate my gain?
Thanks in advance
Thanks for the feedback, Bimpe. It depends on how many doughnuts you plan to serve each guest:
-If you plan to serve each guest 1 doughnut, then you would require 100 doughnuts for your 100 guests
-If you plan to serve each guest 2 doughnuts, you would need to make 200 doughnuts
The post above has a recipe and ingredient quantity to make 100 doughnuts. You can double each measurement if you plan to make 200 doughnuts. And if you plan to make 300 doughnuts, then 3X the above recipe.
Hope that helps.
Sorry please, I posted my comment before this came on my mind
How do I price my finished goods?
Like samosa, spring rolls or this doughnuts?
At a percentage or total cost or how? To avoid being seen as being pricey.
Awaiting your reply.
Thank you in advance.
Hi Mayen. Thanks for commenting again. This is not a business or marketing blog, but I’ll help you out. Here’s my response:
-To avoid being pricey, you should price your snacks similar to how other donut (or samosa or spring rolls) sellers are selling. That’s why it’s important to make a list of your competitors who sell what you plan to sell.
-Pricing based on percentage or total cost? Both ways are okay, depending on the method that is easier for you. I would say that you should first calculate the total cost you spent to produce the snacks, and then start with a base selling price similar to your competitors, and then calculate how much profit that comes to. *Once you do that, you can decide whether you want to increase your own selling price or to look for where to buy raw materials cheaper, in order to increase your profit.
Hope that helps.
Hello Ma’am Stella, I want to say you are one of a kind to out these here for no fee. God sure rewards the giver and he sure will reward you.
May God continue to bless the works of your hands as you keep blessing many lives.
You are surely living your purpose
Hi Mayen. Thanks for that heartfelt feedback. I’m happy that my post was of help to you. I wish you the very best, as you make sweet donuts using the recipe above.
Thanks so much for sharing this huge recipes with us. U are indeed awesome. God bless you ma’am
Thanks also for reading and taking the time to comment. I’m happy that you found our ‘How to Make Doughnuts’ post helpful.
God bless you for this wonderful post of yours, please what is the difference between yeast and baking powder in donuts and which one is best. And I learnt that baking powder soaked oil when frying. Thanks,
Thanks for the feedback, Munirat. Yeast and baking powder both cause the flour batter to rise. Yeast donuts rise more and are more airy (think of Puff Puff, Bread). Baking Powder Donuts are also called Cake Donuts and they are usually baked, not fried.
-Each type feels different in the mouth and they also look different physically. You can go here where I already explained the differences in detail.
-There’s none that is better than the other. It’s a personal preference, just like concluding that Nigerian Jollof is better than Ghana Jollof, or vice versa. You just need to taste both to decide your own preference. Back to yeast vs baking powder donuts, there are many people that will swear that the yeast type is better, and there as also many that swear that the baking powder donuts are better.
Try making both types (recipes are above) and tell me which you prefer.
Hope that helps.
Thanks for your recipe. Pls what type of milk can be used for donuts? The last time I used evaporated milk my donuts didn’t rise, but when I made another batch without milk they came out fine.
Hi Mart. Thanks for reading and for the comment.
You can use liquid milk, and you can also use powdered milk.
I have not tried it with evaporated milk, but I have a feeling that it didn’t turn out as good because evaporated milk is very thick.
I did a quick research and discovered that evaporated milk can be used in place of milk but to first thin it down with water. The suggested dilution ratio is this: half evaporated milk + half water. For instance, if you’re supposed to use 1 cup of milk, use half cup of evaporated milk PLUS half cup of water.
Hope that helps. if you do try it, I’d like to know how it turns out.
Thanks for this information ma.
Please what’s the average shelf life of doughnut with preservatives?
What’s the recommended preservative for doughnut?
Thanks for the feedback, Dayo.
Average shelf life for doughnuts is 1 to 2 days outside the fridge and up to 5 days inside the fridge (without preservative). I do not know any doughnut preservative or the shelf-life of doughnuts containing preservative.
I read ur post and is nice. Pls if someone wants to make like 6,000 pieces of doughnuts, what will be the correct ingredients with correct measurements? Kindly reply back. Thanks.
Hi Oluwatoyin, in the recipe/ post (above), you can see that 1 got 100 doughnuts from 2.5 kilograms of flour.
If you use that recipe and multiply each ingredient measurement by 60, you will get 6,000 pieces of donuts. [60 x 100 = 6,000].
SUMMARY:
60 TIMES (multiplied by) 2.5kg flour can make 6,000 pieces of doughnuts (based on the recipe in the above post).
Below is your 6,000 doughnuts recipe (got by multiplying every ingredient measurement in my 100 doughnuts recipe above by 60):
60 x 2.5 kg of flour = 150kg flour
60 x 75g yeast = 4,500grams (i.e. 4.5kg yeast)
60 x 10 eggs = 600 eggs
60 x 200g butter
60 x 250g
60 x 2 1/3 cups warm milk
60 x 500ml warm water
60 x 2 teaspoons of grated nutmeg and/ or vanilla extract (for extra flavour)
60 x 1 tablespoon salt
Groundnut oil or any Vegetable oil (for frying)
Hope that helps.
Wow! You are awesome in calculating measurements
So brief and understanding. Remain blessed
Thanks, Sam. I’m glad you found our donut tutorial helpful.
Hi..is your donut recipe profitable if I want to sell donuts?
Hello Nicky. Yes, my donut recipe is profitable if you’re looking to use it to make doughnuts-for-sale.
If you read through, you’ll find where I mentioned cheaper alternatives for a couple of ingredients.
Thanks for sharing the information especially on large number of doughnuts, please make, when we are making large quantity of doughnuts how can we knead it
Hello Aishat, thank you for the feedback.
Electric mixers make kneading easier and hands-free. All you need to do is to pop in the flour and ingredients, and let the mixer do the kneading for you.
There are 2 types of mixers – the hand mixer (semi-automimic) and the stand mixer (fully hands-free). The hand mixer is more affordable, and so, depending on your budget, you can buy the one that suits your pocket. Also, there are bigger, heavy-duty mixers suitable for restaurants and pastry shops.
Mixers are available in the markets all across Nigeria, and also on online stores, if you want to buy one. Sis, I feel you – using hands to knead large dough is a very laborious task.
Please just I make these dounouts using a cutter
Hi Peace, do you mean a donut cutter?
You can use a ready-made donut cutter – yes.
But if you do not have one, you can use anything in your kitchen like the cover of a small cup (to cut out the main donuuts) and a bottle cover (to cut the donut holes).
Hello. Thank you for your wonderful recipe 😊. Please can I make these without a cutter?
Hello Peace. Thanks for your feedback.
Yes, you can.
A cutter can either be a ready-made cutter or anything in your kitchen that you can use to cut out the donut shapes (like the cover of a small cup (for the main donuts) and the cover of a bottle (for the small donut holes).
Pls ma what’s the size of your donut cutter
Hi Judy, I improvised my donut cutter. I use a small cup in my kitchen for the job (lol) and it works perfectly. And I use a bottle cover to cut the inside (yes, I’m cheap like that, but it works).
There are standard-size donut cutters in the market, and they’re all okay. The size of your donut cutter should be the size of donut you like.
Thank you so much for the recipe
May God bless you ma/sir. Pls my question here is that ” is milk compulsory for a large quantities of donut like 400pcs”. Thank you ma/sir
Hello Khadijah. No, milk is not compulsory and can be substituted with water or any other liquid. Sometimes I make donuts without using milk (and use water). Some people are allergic to milk or are vegans and use plant-based milk or water instead.
However, you should know that milk makes donuts richer, adding EXTRA flavour and softness, that you won’t get from using water.
Ma, thank you so much for sharing this knowledge with us. God bless you.
Please ma, my question is you said we can test our yeast by putting sugar and warm water in a bowl and add our yeast to it and leave for 10min. Please after that, that we confirm is good one can we add it to our dry ingredients to make our doughnuts.
Hi Oluwadamilola, thanks for reading, and also for your question.
Yes, after you confirm that the yeast is good, you can go ahead to use it. A lot of times, the yeast water gets to foam before 5 to 10 minutes.
You can skip doing that if you are sure that the yeast has not expired and has been stored properly.
Hope that helps.
Many thanks for these inspiring words of advice and guidance. God bless you for sharing your knowledge with people without collecting money. May you be enriched and God enlarge you abundantly.
Thank you also, for reading, Maureen. Amen to the prayers.
Thanks for this… Is egg necessary in doughnut?
You’re welcome.
Eggs are nice to have but not compulsory if you do not have them or don’t eat/ like eggs. I have successfully made doughnuts without eggs.
Eggs add to the flavour and softness of doughnut while adding a richer nutritional value.