This morning I made malasadas. Not the hard way: making a yeasted dough and kneading and all that. The easy way, with storebought dough. If they sell frozen dough in your grocery store, it's very easy to make a simple fried dough. Maybe not so authentic, but frying makes even grocery store bread dough wonderful. If you have a breadmaker that will give you a ball of dough, you can use that, instead.
1 loaf thawed frozen bread dough
deep frying equipment (deep fryer or deep pan, thermometer, and basket)
peanut oil
fine-granulated sugar
a little flour for rolling out dough
Let the dough go through the rising required on the package. This means planning is required. When it's ready to "bake," slice the dough up into pieces about as large as you want. I usually slice a 1-pound loaf into ten slices.
Prepare the deep fryer. I usually fry at about 350F or 360F. When it's ready, roll out one slice of dough as thin as you can make it, and pop it in the oil. Because good dough is elastic, it's best to do the rolling out just before you fry, so the dough stays thin and cooks all the way through.
Let the dough fry until it is golden brown -- a couple of minutes, at most. Turn it. When it's golden brown all over, remove it from the oil and allow it to cool on paper towels. When you can handle it, roll it in the sugar to coat it all over.
Allow to cool as long as you can resist. These are best warm to hot, but they are still very very good when cool.
