Possibly the greatest doughnuts ever…. This is the greatest dough! (Greatest showman anybody?!)…
I love donuts (or doughnuts, I’ll use both eh) and these are delightfully tasty. Wedged with jam (or jelly!) classic style sugar coated loaded doughnuts that are light, fluffy, crunchy and just in summary the best I have ever tasted – it’s the freshness that takes it to flavour town and I hope you want to go and visit! It takes a little time with the fresh dough being used, but boy it is worth it.
How to make jam stuffed donuts
Ok lets get going, first up add the butter and milk to a microwave safe jug or bowl and warm in 20 seconds blasts stirring in between until the butter is melted and the mix is warm. You can do this in a pan over a hob if you want, just melt it up and stir, let it cool slightly so it is still just warmed. Add in the yeast, egg and vanilla, stir well to combine and let stand for a moment.
Mix the flour, sugar and salt together in a large bowl with a spoon until one consistent mixture is achieved. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and beat together with a whisk or ideally a stand mixer or food mixer until a dough forms, it’ll take a little while but keep going and you shouldn’t need any more flour. If you do only use a little and knead for a few minutes if using the whisk method until smooth.
Place into a new clean bowl that is slightly greased, cover with cling film and place in a warm area for at least 90 minutes or until it doubles in size.
Take out the dough, knead it onto a floured surface and divide the dough into balls. 10 is a good number and makes good sized doughnuts. Place well spread apart on a lined baking tray to double in size again, cover with more clingfilm or a damp tea towel. They should double in size in approx. 45 mins or wait a little longer until they are the size you want. They will puff up another 10% once fried.
As they are doubling in size, get your oil hot, about 170c, which if you have a fryer is easy to control, on a hob, use a thermometer.
Add the dough balls in batches, cooking and flipping until golden brown both sides. Make sure they are submerged well in the oil if using a saucepan, if it’s too shallow they won’t fully cook through, so push it until you get a good golden colour on both sides. Monitor the temperature between batches of 2/3 donuts at a time and repeat placing them on kitchen towel once cooked.
Let them cool for a few minutes, then roll them individually in the sugar (put it in a large bowl) to fully coat. Finally put a hole in the side of them, with a bamboo skewer or your piping nozzle making it big enough to just pipe, then squeeze in the jam using a piping bag. For the jam I just took it from the jar into a bowl and gave it a bit of a stir to loosen up before putting it in the piping bag. I found keeping them upright in a loaf tin worked super well to stop any jam falling out.
These were absolutely incredible within a few hours, after that, they taste more like storebought …. Which of course is fine, but the real freshness and texture is there almost straight after the jam!