Gluten Free Donut Holes

Several weeks ago a friend posted that she had made GF donut holes for her husband (not to be mean...but rather because he is gluten free).  I asked for the recipe and she sent me a link to a recipe on Pinterest.  I have never signed up for Pinterest.  It seems like one more thing to not be able to keep up with/keep track of, and I have plenty of those already.  But it used to be if someone shared a recipe link or a funny nurse meme, I could still click on it and read it.  But not anymore because they think they own whatever that is.  Ok Pinterest food & ingredients have been around for thousands of years but this recipe totally belongs to you now.  Whatever.  So anyway I could not see the recipe, but I still wanted to make GF donut holes.  So I just used my friend google (who still shows me whatever I want) and found this recipe.  It started out using Gluten Free Bisquick which made me very. happy. because I always have some of that.  I get it in 3-packs from Amazon and it is a very reasonable price compared to grocery store prices.  It's a Betty Crocker recipe, and there are a few other ones on that website too that start with GF Bisquick so I will probably make some of those too.  In case you care about preservatives and stuff, the ingredients in GF Bisquick are: Rice flour, Sugar, Leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate), Modified potato starch, Salt, Xanthan gum.  The leavening ingredients are the same as in most baking powders, unless you use aluminum free baking powder, which I usually do, but besides that, this is pretty much the same blend I would make using 2 or 3 separate flours.  So I am completely comfortable using it and it saves me time in the kitchen.  But I digress.  Here is the recipe.

Gluten Free Donut Holes
vegetable oil for frying
¼ cup sugar
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 ¼ cups Gluten Free Bisquick
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ tsp nutmeg
2 tbsp butter, melted
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg, beaten

In deep fryer or 2-qt heavy saucepan, heat 2-3 inches of oil to 375*.  In shallow bowl, mix sugar and cinnamon; set aside.

In medium bowl, mix remaining ingredients until smooth.  Shape dough into 1 1/4-inch balls.  Carefully drop balls, 5 or 6 at a time, into hot oil.  Fry 1-2 minutes or until golden brown on all sides; drain on paper towels.  Immediately roll in cinnamon sugar.

I put the cinnamon and sugar in a gallon size ziploc bag and shook the donut holes in there after I drained them.  Also to get uniform sizes I scooped them using my Pampered Chef cookie scoop. I made a double batch because two of the kids (and the husband too) had a friend over and I wanted to make sure we had plenty.  We had this with eggs, bacon, sausage, and sliced apples and oranges.

I do not have a deep fryer, although I have been pondering purchasing one for such times as these.  Steve's friend was like "Do not do that.  It is a terrible idea.  All of a sudden you'll gain 15 pounds and you won't know why."  But I think I know why.  If it was too easy to make things like this I'm sure I'd do it more.  My main motivation for wanting one is to keep the temperature of the oil uniform.  I have a candy thermometer that I use to tell the temperature of the oil, but it is not designed for it and I've broken two cheap Walmart ones doing that.  I think if I had one I would only use it a few times a year, like when we have Haitian food and fry plantains, or like one time I tried to make homemade corn dogs but that was a total fail.  And for things like this.  Some of the donut holes turned out perfect, but some of them were still a bit doughy in the middle but definitely done on the outside.  Maybe a little too. done.  But you couldn't tell once they were coated in the cinnamon sugar. 

I'm going to try this dough again but I'm going to try baking them next time.  I have some donut pans, or you could try it in muffin tins too, and then roll them in melted butter and cinnamon sugar to get the same effect.  Mmmmmmmm.