These are best on the day you make them, tossed in cinnamon sugar just after baking and filled with jam. Don’t overfill the doughnuts with jam, the first time I made these I filled until I felt the doughnuts expand in my hand. Because they’re so airy that meant they had way too much jam.
If you won’t finish all at once, don’t roll them in sugar. You can fill them. Heat in an oven for 10 minutes or a few seconds (yes, seconds) in the microwave. Then add the cinnamon sugar.
Ingredients:
For the dough:
- 200gr milk
- 50gr butter
- 500gr strong bread flour
- 35gr sugar
- 2 eggs
- 8gr yeast
- pinch of salt
Remaining ingredients:
- 1 liter sunflower oil
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tbs cinnamon
- raspberry jam
Makes 16
Recipe:
Heat the milk and butter together – microwave is fine – melting the butter. Don’t boil the milk.
Combine the flour, salt and sugar. Stir the milk through the flour. This will raise the temperature of the flour and make sure the milk won’t damage the yeast.
Add the eggs and stir the mixture. Then add the yeast. Mix for 10-15 minutes to develop the gluten like you would a regular bread dough. I let my stand alone mixer do the heavy work, occasionally scraping the sides down.
Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rise. This takes approximately an hour but size is a better indication: you want the dough to double in size. Have a cup of tea and read a book as you wait.
Push the dough down, fold it over on itself twice. This removes any larger pockets and decreases the chance of getting very big holes in your doughnuts which suddenly expand in the oil and cause your doughnuts to tip over when you try to flip them (if they do, hold them in their flipped position with a wooden skewer).
Divide the dough in 16 pieces. That is: halve the dough, then halve each piece, once more and then halve those eight pieces. Shape them into balls. Leave to prove for an hour to double in size again.
When the dough balls have visibly increased in size, heat the oil in a 25cm wide deep pan, with the lid on to heat faster but don’t just leave it alone, you don’t want to heat it much above the required temperature.
Pulse the sugar a few times in a blender, to make the sugar a bit less coarse. Stir the cinnamon in and spread it on a plate.
When the oil is 180-185°C, lower doughnuts in the oil, one at a time, baking four at a time.
Flip the doughnuts after 2 minutes of baking or until browned underneath. Bake the same time on the other side.
Take the doughnuts out of the oil with a slotted spoon.
Place 4 new doughnuts in the oil, then start rolling the previous ones in the cinnamon sugar.
Fill the doughnuts with the jam, about 1-1.5 teaspoon per doughnut.
Alternatively, fill with a tablespoon of coffee cinnamon cream.