Jam and Custard Doughnuts (GBBO Technical 7)

 

Remember the Matcha Crepe Cake from last week? Well these were the complete opposite of that. These finger doughnuts were the best I have ever had, and I plan to make them again and again for the rest of my life. You can find the recipe here, and I insist you click that link and make them for yourself. They were very easy and very good. I doubled it so I could get twelve, because there were too many of us around to make six anywhere near enough.

First up, warming the milk and beating in the egg.

Then I mixed together all the dough, kneaded it, and set it to rise. 

Creme time! At this point I feel like I'm becoming a pro at making creme, because so many recipes I've made lately have called for it! Once again you mix together egg yolks and sugar.

Then you pour in the warmed milk and put it back on the stove to thicken. 

For Creme Mousseline you have to whip in butter. Normally one would use a hand mixer, but since I killed mom's hand mixer last week on the failed Swiss Meringue, I tried to do it by hand. When that was clearly not going to work we went over to church to see if they had one. I found an ancient hand mixer that mom managed to get to work more than I did. 

We're connecting with our ancestors! 

When the dough had doubled, it was time to shape the doughnuts. They're supposed to be smooth, 15 cm long donuts, but shaping is not my forte apparently, and they weren't quite uniform or quite the right size. 

I let them raise for probably closer to an hour than half an hour, but they did finally puff up. While I waited, I heated up the oil.

Frying things makes me nervous, but it turns out the hardest part is simply keeping the oil at a steady temperature. After the first batch the oil got too hot and I had to wait almost 15 minutes for it to cool back down for the rest. But at that point I figured out how high to have the flame in order to keep the temp steady at 180 C, and I finished up the rest one right after the other. 

They only needed about a minute on each side before getting pulled out and rolled in sugar. Once again, Sam was my helper and he handled the sugar part so I could do the frying. 

Once they cooled I sliced each of them in half lengthwise, piped in the creme and then piped a thin line of strawberry jam on top. (Technically I should have made the strawberry jam myself, but mom didn't have strawberries so we used her homemade freezer jam, and since I've made plenty myself, I feel it wasn't that much of a cheat). 

None of us were prepared for how good they would be. Those cream filled donuts you can buy at the gas station or grocery store? That cream is like shaving cream in comparison to the taste of this homemade cream. The donuts themselves were so light and fluffy and perfectly textured. They were a hit with everyone who tried them, and we all plan to make this recipe a staple. A few of the donuts were a bit doughy in the middle (probably the ones from the first batch where the oil got too hot?) but most of them were cooked through beautifully. 

I mean, just look at that. You know you want it. Go, get off the computer or phone and make it.