Did you know?
* More than 10 billion donuts are produced in America annually.
* Renée Zellweger ate 20 donuts a day to gain weight quickly for the Bridget Jones series.
* World War I soldiers in France were served donuts and coffee to cheer them up and remind them of home.
Recipe:
*for 16-20 pieces
Ingredients:
400g all purpose flour
180ml warm full fat milk
2 medium eggs at room temperature
50g melted butter
7g dry yeast (approx. 2 teaspoons)
85g white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For filling:
nutella
raspberry jam
vanilla custard
lemon custard
Steps to follow:
(1) Mix the dry yeast with 50ml of warm milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour and leave the composition for 15 minutes at room temperature, until the yeast starts to activate. We will notice that our mixture will grow in size and starts to have a lot of bubbles.
(2) Add the rest of the warm milk, the rest of the sugar and the eggs on top of the yeast mixture and mix with a whisk. Add then the melted butter, salt and vanilla and incorporate them as well. Add the sifted flour and start kneading until you get an elastic dough, somewhere between 5-10 minutes. If you have a standing mixer, do not hesitate to use it, because it will make your work much easier. I used the mixer for kneading for 4-5 minutes at speed 2-3.
At the same time, don't add extra flour. The dough becomes sticky, but if you add more flour the donuts will be too dense after frying them.
After kneading, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to rise for 2 hours at room temperature. During this time our dough will increase 2.5 times in volume.
(3) Flour the work surface well and using a spatula remove the dough from the bowl. I don't usually knead it in this step, I prefer to leave the air accumulated during the fermentation in the dough for an even fluffier result at the end.
We can form the donuts in two ways:
Divide the dough into balls of 60-65g each. Give them a round shape and place them on a tray with baking paper. Flatten the donuts slightly, cover them with a kitchen towel and leave them to rise for another 45 minutes, at room temperature.
Flatten the dough a little with floured hands, sprinkle flour over it and with the help of a rolling pin roll out the dough slightly to a thickness of 1 cm. To cut out the doughnuts, I used a 7cm diameter pastry circle. You can use a glass as well. Transfer the donuts to a tray with baking paper, cover them with a kitchen towel and leave them for another 45 minutes at room temperature to rise.
The difference between the 2 methods is that with the first one we get donuts that are much more perfect in shape, rounder.
(4) Heat a non-stick pan with oil. The oil level must be such that it reaches a little above the middle of the donuts when frying them. After the oil has reached the perfect temperature (you can test with a bit of dough or a crumble, it has to start sizzle when added to the oil), fry 3-4 donuts at a time on low to medium heat. Don't turn the heat up too much, because you will get raw donuts in the center and you can burn them on the outside. Fry them for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until they become nicely golden. Take them out on a metal grill or paper towels and let them cool a little.
Note:
*to make it easier to transfer the donuts to the pan, use the baking paper they have risen on, then remove it from the oil. This way the donuts will keep their shape and stay super round.
Dust the donuts with powdered sugar. You can serve them filled according to your preferences, simple, with jam, nutella or vanilla/lemon cream.
Happy baking!
Love,
G.
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