Fried Monkey Brain Jelly Donuts

Wait, what was I doing?

Oh yeah, make these delicious fried jelly donuts(doughnuts) that are brain shaped.

Curious? Read on.

Step 1: Simple Recipe for Simple...

Fast and easy, no thinking needed.

This was simply made from a box of store bought all-in-one pancake mix, a packet of yeast, and some jelly.

This is a fried yeast donut recipe.

The frying part may be a little difficult if you have never done that before. I will leave it to anyone who wants to come up with the cake style donut recipe.

CAUTION: Be careful with hot frying oil. Don't mess around in the kitchen but you can make a mess.

Step 2: Things Are Mixed Up...

Take your packet of yeast and put it in a bowl with a bit of the pancake mix. That serves as the baby food for the yeast when it gets activated with water.

Add in some lukewarm or room temperature water and stir.

Wait about 10-15 minutes until you see some foam in the bowl. This is called proofing or making sure the yeast is good.

Add about 1/2 the mixbox to the bowl and stir to incorporate all of the flour into a ball.

It seemed enough to make a small batch of half a dozen donuts. Scale up the recipe by adding more.

You can also add in a few more spoons of sugar if you really like super sweet donuts.

You may need to add more water if the liquid from the yeast mix was not enough.

Keep dusting with more flour or pancake mix to keep the dough ball from sticking to the bowl.

Use your hands to knead it into a smooth ball. No need to work it too much or else it will toughen up the texture of the dough.

Cover and let it rise in a warm draft-free place until the dough ball has doubled in size.

Step 3: Gross Anatomy...

The human brain looks kinda roundish with two halves of all these squiggly things. Monkey brains are similar but smaller in size.

Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and flatten it out on a floured surface. I put some pancake mix on my baking sheet tray.

No need to break out a rolling pin but flatten the dough out with your fingers into a 1/2 inch thick sheet so you can cut out some round disks.

Use a biscuit cutter or in my case I just used an empty jar to press into the dough.

Cut out a bunch of rounds.

With the leftover dough, form into thin long strands. It might be easier to slice strips with a knife and then roll that between your hands to round out the shape. Stretch the strand to make it long.

You can brush the tops of the rounds with some water to help the next part stick.

Lay the thin dough strands onto the rounds forming the left and right sides of the brain.

Any random squiggly pattern will work.

Cover and allow to rise again.

Step 4: My Brains Are Fried...

The hard part is waiting for the dough to double in size again. It may take an hour or two if the room temperature is cool and you place it to rise on the kitchen countertop.

When about doubled in size again, it is time to fry.

Get your frying station all prepared.

I would heat the oil up to about 340 degrees F. Since there is so much sugar in the pancake mix, it browns really fast. My oil got a little hotter during my preheat so the first donuts were really browned before I lowered the heat.

Gently lift the donut dough from the baking sheet and gently slide it into the frying oil.

I placed the brain side down first so it would harden up and would be easier to flip over.

The donuts will float as they cook so you may need to keep them submerged in the oil by pressing it down with a wooden spoon or whatever you use for your frying implements.

When golden brown on the bottom, flip over and continue frying till the donut is browned all over and cooked through.

It should only take a few minutes on each side.

When browned, take out of the fryer and let cool on paper towels to absorb the excess oil.

Step 5: Lobotomize...

I used some strawberry jam for the filling.

I didn't have a proper piping bag or filling injector so I just spooned the jam into a plastic baggie.

I cut the corner off of the plastic bag so I could squeeze out the jam.

Take a sharp knife to open up a pocket or enlarge a cavity in the donut.

Inject the jam for your filling.

Nurse, close up.

Dust with powdered sugar or regular sugar to finish.

Enjoy!