Time to make the doughnuts!

My mom's recipe book had recipe's for six kinds of doughnuts. I didn't want to make all of them, so I picked three, the plain doughnut, the chocolate donut (her recipe called for one square of chocolate but a substitution you can use is three tablespoons of cocoa and one tablespoon of oil) and a spice doughnut. I also didn't want hundreds of doughnuts so I split the recipe in half for each of them. I don't really remember her making doughnuts so I was a little surprised to find six recipe's for them in her book. What I do remember her making was cinnamon rolls, bread from scratch and when she made bread dough, lunch was always what we called flap jacks. She took the bread dough and basically fried the dough like a doughnut and sprinkled it with sugar. Maybe not a healthy lunch, but we didn't complain. What kid didn't want doughnuts for lunch?
I couldn't find my doughnut cutter, and I knew I had one, but because I haven't ever made doughnuts from scratch, I am sure I either gave it away or packed it away somewhere and can remember where I put it. (Did I register for this as a wedding present? I don't remember it being a kitchen essential, something no home should be without!) I did have a bisquit cutter which I used to cut out the doughnuts. I have a set of mini cookie cutters and I used one of those to make the "holes". This worked well.
My next challenge was to figure out how hot the oil was without a thermometer. My meat thermometer only goes up to 220, after that I was on my own. I started frying the chocolate donuts first and I probably should have started with the plain or the spice because of the dark color. Jim thought I had burned the first batch becuase they were so dark, but they weren't. I have fried doughnuts before. My brother Jerry used to own a little shop and food wagon that he used to take to the Benton County fair. In there was a doughnut maker, to make those mini-doughnuts that are at every fair. I know if the oil is too hot the doughnuts will darken and not get the inside done before the outside was burnt. So amazingly, without an offical thermometer, all the doughnuts turned out. I put powdered sugar on the doughnut holes and frosted some of the other doughnuts. I will freeze some and see how they stand up to freezing. Even making only half a batch, I have way too many doughnuts for just Jim and I. Of the three, I liked the chocolate one's the best. Warm doughnuts just out of the oil and rolled in powdered sugar. It was lunch!