Happy Fall! This week in NYC, the Public Theater has been putting on a production of Disney’s Hercules. Hercules is one of my favorite Disney movies and so I wanted to do something to celebrate it. I’m so excited to share these donuts inspired by Hades’ minions! These fluffy yeast Pain & Panic doughnuts are topped with a thick and colorful vanilla glaze and fondant decorations inspired by Pain’s sharp teeth and Panic’s long horns.
While the process for making these doughnuts is pretty straightforward, they do require about 1 hour and 45 minutes of rest time so make sure to leave yourself plenty of time.
To make the dough, I used a combination of an electric hand mixer and kneading the dough by hand. If you have a stand mixed with a dough hook, you can also use that.
First, warm the milk and combine with the yeast. Let sit until it’s frothy and then combine with the eggs, butter, sugar, and salt. If you’re using a hand mixer, you’ll need to swap to kneading after adding all of the flour as the dough will be too thick to mix.
Place the dough into a greased bowl and let it rise until it has doubled in size. Once it has proofed, roll the dough out to about 1/2 inch thick.
To make the doughnuts resemble Pain and Panic, I used a 3-inch round cookie cutter to mirror Pain’s round shape. I used a sharp knife to cut out rectangle shapes to mirror Panic’s thin body. Place the cut doughnuts on a parchment lined baking sheet and let proof for a second time, about 45 minutes.
Once the doughnuts have proofed, heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan or dutch over. Make sure to use a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the oil and when it reaches 375 F, carefully place a the doughnuts into it, a couple at a time.
Cook until the bottoms are golden brown and then flip and continue cooking until the doughnuts are golden brown all over. Use a slotted spoon to scoop the cooked doughnuts out of the oil and place on a paper towel lined wire cooling rack. Let the doughnuts cool until they’re comfortable to touch.
While the doughnuts are cooling, make the glaze and the decorations. To make the glaze, combine powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk. The glaze should be pretty thick so that it nicely covers the tops of the doughnuts.
Divide the glaze in half and use gel food coloring to dye them to match Pain and Panic’s body color. For Pain, I used a combination of purple and pink. For Panic, I used a turquoise food coloring.
To make the fondant decorations, I used white fondant, which I then painted. I felt painting them help them stand out a bit on the doughnuts as they still had an outline of white. If you prefer, you can also dye the fondant using gel food coloring before cutting out the shapes.
For the shapes, I used a sharp knife to cut out pieces that represented Pain and Panic. One of Pain’s key features are his uneven sharp teeth. I cut out teeth using fondant and painted them a light yellow using food coloring.. For Panic, I decided to make his long thin horns. After cutting them out, I painted them using a bit of the turquoise food coloring.
After you’ve glazed the doughnuts, add the the fondant pieces and let set. The doughnuts are best enjoyed the day they’re made, so dig in!
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Pain and Panic Doughnuts
Ingredients
Doughnuts
- 1 ¼ cups milk
- 2 ¼ teaspoons (1 package) active dry yeast
- 2 large eggs
- 1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, divided in half
- 2 quarts neutral oil, for frying
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 tablespoons milk
- turquoise gel food coloring
- pink gel food coloring
- purple gel food coloring
Decoration
- white fondant
- turquoise gel food coloring
- yellow gel food coloring
Instructions
Donuts
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In a small saucepan, heat milk until it is warm, about 90 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the warmed milk and yeast. Let sit until the mixture is foamy, about 5 minutes.
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Beat the eggs, butter, salt, and sugar into the yeast mixture. Add in half of the four and mix until combined.
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Mix in the rest of the flour. When the mixture is too thick to beat, transfer to a floured surface and gently knead it until smooth.
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Grease a large bowl with a little oil. Transfer the dough to the bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a clean kitchen towel. Let rise until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.
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Place the dough onto a floured surface and roll it to ½ inch thickness.
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Cut out six round doughnuts using a 3-inch round cookie cutter and six rectangle donuts using a sharp knife.
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Place the cut out doughnuts on parchment lined baking sheets. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and place in a warm place until they are slightly puffed and delicate, about 45 minutes.
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About 15 minutes before the doughnuts are done rising, pour the oil into a heavy bottomed pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Heat the oil to 375 Line wire cooling racks with paper towels.
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Carefully add doughnuts to the oil, a couple at a time. When the bottoms are golden, about 45 seconds, flip and cook until they’re golden all around.
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Use a slotted spoon to remove doughnuts from the oil and place on the prepared cooling racks and let cool.
Glaze
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Combine powdered sugar, vanilla extract, and milk.
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Divide glaze into two bowls. Add a few drops of turquoise food coloring to one bowl and a couple drops of pink and purple to the other bowl. Stir until combined.
Fondant Decorations
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Roll out fondant on a flat surface lightly dusted with powdered sugar.
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Cut out teeth shapes and horn shapes.
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Using a small clean paint brush paint the tops of the teeth yellow and the tops of the horns turquoise.
Assembly
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Dip the tops of the round doughnuts into the magenta colored glaze. Set on a wax paper lined baking sheet to set. Place yellow fondant teeth onto the tops.
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Dip the tops of the rectangle doughnuts into the turquoise colored glaze. Set on a wax paper lined baking sheet to set. Place two turquoise horns onto the tops.
Recipe Notes
adapted from Mark Bittman