Ridiculously Easy Donuts

I was looking for an easy but special Christmas morning breakfast, as our morning routine goes completely out the window when there's a tree full of presents involved.  I was actually having a hankering for beignets (diet be damned), but had that time consuming project derailed when Dyadem, one of the EQ2 ZAM regulars, mentioned donuts in IRC. There are an awful lot of gamers at ZAM who are also excellent cooks! 

Anyway, Dyadem linked a picture of beautiful donuts he had just made, then said there was no recipe involved.  His secret?  Pre-fab biscuits.  I was skeptical.  I figured if you fried a biscuit you'd get something that tasted like fried biscuit, right? Wrong.  You end up with something close enough to a donut as to make no difference at all.  The flaky layers apparently don't flake when you fry them.  So here's how I did it.

Ridiculously Easy Donuts

1 can refrigerated biscuit dough (I like the large ones)
at least one quart of oil for frying
Toppings (see below)

Heat the oil for frying.  I use a kitchen kettle, but you could do these in a frying pan if you had at least an inch of oil.  Joy of Cooking says the easy way to remember the proper temperature for frying oil is to think of the days of the year:  365° is right on the money.

While the oil heats open the can of biscuits and separate them.  Dyadem said he used an empty salt shaker to cut the holes, and that worked well for me too.  Fry the biscuits a couple minutes on each side until they have a lovely golden color. Remove from the oil (a slotted spoon works great) and let drain on paper towels.  Don't forget to fry the holes!

Toppings

• For sugar donuts, top them with powdered or granulated sugar while they're hot.
• For chocolate donuts, Melt 1/4 c chocolate chips in the microwave by heating on high 30 seconds at a time, stirring each time, until they are melted. 
• For glazed, take 1 cup powdered sugar and add up to 4 tsp milk one tsp at a time until it's the right consistency.
• For quick and dirty maple icing, substitute maple flavoring or syrup for some of the milk in the glaze.
• Sprinkles stick best to glazed donuts.