I’ve tried to schedule some of the big bakes for my last couple of new things. After croissants and pain au chocolat, the other thing I really wanted to try making this year was doughnuts. I like a doughnut now and again, but my husband loves them and I thought it would be a really nice bake to do together.
I didn’t know this, but coincidently doughnuts are apparently traditionally in Germany at New Year. This will be ninth New Year’s Eve here, and I’ve never eaten a doughnut before, so I’m not sure if that’s just a regional thing or I’m very out of touch! Regardless, I got to work and prepared a brioche dough the evening before using a Puff the Bakery recipe. I wanted to combine my two favourite baking inspirations in this bake, and used a Bread Ahead recipe for some salted caramel custard for the filling.
I’ve only deep-fried anything once before and that was the tiny bits of chin chin a few months ago – my husband and I were a bit apprehensive at this stage, but we decided to be brave as we knew the reward would be worth it!
It was so simple, not scary at all, and most of all, truly fascinating to watch the dough puff up and expand in the hot oil. We got a bit giddy at how well it actually worked, and once we’d fried all six doughnuts, we cut up some stale brioche and fried that off too. I rolled it in some cinnamon sugar whilst hot and gobbled it up, who knew fried food tasted so good?
Once the doughnuts were cool, and we were full of fried brioche (the fried panettone didn’t quite work…) we filled them with the salted caramel custard and then rolled them ins some caster sugar. I’d made doughnuts.
These puffy little beauties were so soft and tender inside! The salted caramel made sure the sweetness wasn’t too overwhelming, and it tasted exactly as a doughnut should – I couldn’t fault it. Honestly, what an amazingly dangerous thing to discover that I can make actually doughnuts at home! I loved making these as they were quite far out of my comfort zone and gave me so many big surprises along the way.
New Day, New Thing 