Doughnuts recipe

Doughnuts recipe

Try Soulful Baker‘s doughnuts recipe for an at-home treat that will satisfy your sweet tooth.

Ingredients (Makes 16 doughnuts)

You will need 16 pieces of nonstick paper cut to about 10cm (4 inches) square

50g (1¾oz/3½ tbsp) unsalted butter

150ml (5fl oz/scant ⅔ cup) milk

50ml (2fl oz/scant ¼ cup) water

400g (14oz/3 cups) strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar

7g (¼oz) sachet of easy-bake yeast

1 egg

1.5 litres (50fl oz/generous

6 cups) vegetable oil, for frying

Glaze & to finish

125g (4½oz/1 cup) fondant icing (powdered) sugar

125g (4½oz/1 cup) royal icing (powdered) sugar

Food colouring gels

Sprinkles

Method

Gently warm the butter in a saucepan, once melted remove from the heat and leave to cool. Mix the milk and water together and heat until lukewarm. Secure the dough hook to your mixer and place the flour, salt, sugar and yeast into the bowl, keeping the yeast apart. With the mixer running, pour in the warmed liquid, add the egg and the cooled butter and work the dough for about 8 minutes. If after this time the dough looks sticky and is still clinging to the sides of the bowl, add an extra dessertspoon of flour and continue to knead for a further minute or two. The dough should be cohesive and smooth looking and should no longer stick to the bowl.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in it and cover tightly with clingfilm (plastic wrap). Leave the dough to rise in a warm place until doubled in size. The time will differ but it will certainly need a minimum of 1½ hours.

Once the dough has risen, ease it out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and roll out to 1cm (½ inch) thickness. Use a 7cm (2¾ inch) cutter to cut out as many doughnuts as you can. Re-form the dough, re-roll and cut out some more if you can. Use a smaller cutter – a 3cm (1¼ inch) one should be about right – to cut out the hole from the centre (but do keep the middle bits for smaller bite-size doughnuts!). Place each doughnut on a piece of the pre-cut baking paper and lay each side by side in a warm place and cover lightly with clingfilm (plastic wrap).

Give the doughnuts about an hour to double in size.

Heat the oil to 180°C/350°F either in a deep fat fryer or a large heavy-based pan. If you don’t have a thermometer, add a cube of dry bread to test the heat – if it turns golden within 30–60 seconds, the oil is ready. Fry the doughnuts in batches by lifting each (still on their paper) and placing, paper and all, carefully into the hot oil. Don’t worry, the paper won’t burn, it will just slip away from the doughnut a few seconds after they enter the oil, after which it can be removed with tongs and discarded. Dropping them into the oil this way will stop the doughnuts from being misshapen due to handling. Fry for 4–6 minutes, turning halfway through. The doughnuts should puff out and be lovely and golden. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Leave to cool completely.

For the glaze, mix together the fondant and royal icing (powdered) sugars with a few drops of water – just a little at a time – until a thick pouring consistency has been achieved. Colour the icing if so desired, then dip each doughnut into the icing, allowing any excess to drip away. Decorate with sprinkles or sugar decorations to your heart’s content, then allow to set before eating.

For more…

For more sweet treats try this bakewell tart waffles recipe or check out Soulful Baker.