Pillowy Soft Brioche Donuts (Chocolate + Vanilla Glaze!)

Donut dough:

1. Add the milk and water to a bowl/glass and microwave for ~30 seconds or until the mixture is warm to touch (~110F). Don't make it too hot!
2. Add the warm mixture to the bowl of your stand mixer. Add the yeast, sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla and flour. Use the dough hook attachment to knead on medium-high speed (6 on a KitchenAid) for 5 minutes until a shaggy, sticky dough forms
3. Cut the room temperature butter into cubes. Add it to the dough. Knead for another 5-7 minutes on medium-high speed until the butter is fully incorporated and the dough looks smooth and stretchy. It will still be a little sticky to touch, that's fine. Check if the dough passes the window-pane test by stretching a small piece between your thumbs and index fingers. You should be able to stretch it thin enough that light passes through without ripping it.
4. Transfer the dough to a clean bowl sprayed with oil. Smooth it out, cover the bowl with cling wrap, and place in a warm spot in your kitchen for 60-90 minutes, or until the dough has doubled in size. I like to put the bowl in my oven, turned off but with the light bulb on.
5. Once the dough has risen, it's time to shape the donuts. Cut parchment paper into 15 4x4" squares and place them onto 2 baking sheets
6. Generously flour a clean surface and your rolling pin, and tip the dough out from the bowl. Punch down any large air pockets, and use the rolling pin to roll it out into a ½" thick sheet. If it feels sticky, dust with more flour until it no longer sticks. If the dough gives resistance to rolling and keeps springing back, let it rest for 5-10 minutes and it should relax
7. Once the dough has been rolled out to ½" thick and is fully relaxed, use a donut cutter to cut out donuts. You can also use any circular object in your kitchen that is 3.5" wide, and a 1" piping tip to cut the holes. Pull away the scraps of the dough. Gently pick up the donuts one by one and pull out their donut holes carefully without de-shaping them. Place them onto the parchment squares
8. Roll up the scraps and donut holes into a smooth ball, and roll out again. Repeat the same steps to cut out more donuts as many times as you can, until almost all the dough has been shaped into donuts. Make small donut balls with any leftover dough
9. Place the baking sheets with the donuts inside them in a cool spot in your kitchen (~70F). Let them rise again for 30-45 minutes until they look puffed up and smooth on top

Glazes:

1. While the donuts are rising, prepare the glazes. Make the vanilla glaze by mixing together the powdered sugar, milk, melted butter, vanilla and salt in a bowl until smooth
2. For the chocolate glaze, add the chocolate and cream to a microwave safe bowl, and microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between, until the chocolate is melted. Mix in the powdered sugar until a smooth glaze forms

Frying and glazing:

1. In the last 10 minutes of the second rise, prepare the oil for frying. Add ~2" of vegetable oil to a wide bottomed frying pan, and place on the stove on medium heat. Use an oil thermometer to measure the temperature, and heat until the oil reaches 320F, then turn the flame to medium-low. You want to maintain the temperature between 320F and 330F during the frying process. If it drops too low, turn up the heat. If it rises too quickly, lower the flame
2. Fry one test donut first (I like to take the one that looks the worst!). Fry for 3 minutes per side, flipping carefully, then remove and drain. Let the donut cool down for 2-3 minutes and cut it open. If the donut colored too fast, is raw or dense inside, or didn't rise properly, the oil is likely too hot. If it still looks raw inside without having a dark color outside, the oil might be too cold. If needed, you can fry another test donut. Keep the rest of the donuts away from the stove during the frying process so the heat doesn't cause them to over-proof
3. Now fry the rest of the donuts. I recommend frying 3-5 at a time, keeping the flame at medium-low, and monitoring the oil temperature so it's between 320F-330F. In the right conditions, the donuts should take 3-4 minutes per side (6-8 minutes total) to cook perfectly. However, the exact time and temperature will be based on the test donut you fried before. Drain the donuts on a wire rack after frying
4.  It's best to glaze donuts when they're still warm. If your glazes have thickened up by now, microwave them for 10-20 seconds and stir again so they're runny. Dip the donuts into the glazes one by one (half vanilla, half chocolate), shaking off any excess, and place them on a wire rack. Let them cool down until the glazes have set (the chocolate glaze takes longer than the vanilla glaze). Then serve and enjoy! 

Video tutorial: