One of my first jobs was washing up in a bakery. Every Saturday at 4.30am I’d drag my teenage self to work and get stuck in, cleaning everything in sight while gazing at the wonders being created around me. One of my favourite memories is of scrumptious still-warm doughnuts as I carried them from the bakery to the shop. Don’t be too hard on your friends if you find them sneakily stealing a few…
Time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (includes time for dough to rise)
Serves: 10
Ingredients
For the doughnuts:
- 150ml whole milk
- 50g unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon ‘quick’ yeast
- 1 1/2 tablespoons caster sugar, plus 150 g extra, to coat
- 330g strong, white bread flour, plus more to dust
- 1/4 teaspoon table salt
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1.5 litres vegetable oil, to deep-fry, plus more for the baking trays
- For the filling (optional):
- 200g fresh raspberries
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
You can also use 340g of shop-bought raspberry jam
Tool kit:
- cooking thermometer, (optional)
- 2 baking trays or sheets
- deep-fat fryer, (optional)
- 2 wire cooling racks
- flavour injector
Method
Place the milk in a small pan over a low heat to warm gently. Melt the butter in a separate pan over a low heat. Mix the yeast with 1/2 tablespoon of the sugar and about 50 ml of the warm milk. Set aside for 15 minutes.
Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Stir in the remaining one tablespoon of sugar. Pour in the yeast mix, the rest of the warmed milk, the melted butter and egg. Mix into a dough, knead for 5–10 minutes, then put into a bowl and cover with cling film. Leave to rise for about 1 hour.
Meanwhile, if you’re making the filling, put the raspberries, sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Stir over a low heat until all the sugar is dissolved, then increase the heat until the mixture is boiling. Keep stirring. Use a cooking thermometer and, when the jam reaches 105 degrees Celsius (or you can do the ‘saucer test’), remove from the heat, transfer to a bowl and refrigerate.
When the doughnut dough has risen, knead it back for about a minute on a floured work surface. Divide into 10 equal-sized pieces (around 60g each) and roll each piece into a golf ball-sized ball. Oil two baking trays or sheets and lay the doughnuts on them. Cover each with a plastic carrier bag – the bag shouldn’t touch the dough but should form a tent around it – and leave to rise again for about 45 minutes.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large saucepan (or in a deep-fat fryer) until it reaches 170 degrees Celsius. If you don’t have a thermometer, drop in a small piece of white bread to see if it sizzles.
Use a slotted spoon to lower 3–4 doughnuts into the oil. Cook in batches for 30–60 seconds each side, turning with the slotted spoon, until lightly golden. Remove to cooling racks.
Load the flavour injector with raspberry jam. While the doughnuts are still warm, fill with jam by inserting the nozzle into the side of the doughnut, then roll each one in caster sugar to finish.
Extras
I like to use different-shaped cutters to make heart- and star-shaped doughnuts, by rolling the dough out to a 1 cm thickness and punching out the shapes.
Try filling them with different jams, purées or flavoured custards.
Flavour the sugar to roll them in: try ginger, cinnamon or vanilla extract.
Glaze them with icing, or drizzle them with caramel or chocolate.
Recipe taken from B.I.Y. Bake It Yourself by Richard Burr
BIY: Bake It Yourself is the collection of fool-proof recipes that every household needs. On 8 October 2014, an incredible 12.3 million BBC1 viewers watched builder Richard Burr in the final of The Great British Bake-Off. Affable and laidback, with his trademark pencil behind his ear, the nation’s favourite builder-turned-baker now brings you his unique approach to cakes and bakes. BIY showcases Burr’s creativity and technical tips for achieving success every time you cook. From Key Lime Pie, Cherry and Almond Swiss Roll, Blackcurrant Macaroons, to Chilli Beef Pasties, each recipe contains the essential building blocks for the perfect bake. Build up from beginner recipes to the “star bake” in each chapter, where you can practise your skills with the likes of Opera Cake or Expedition Pie. Featuring a basic baking “toolkit” for each recipe, step-by-step instructions and tricks of the trade, more than 80 recipes and extras cover the essentials of bread, cakes, sweet pastry, savoury pastry, pies, tarts, biscuits and puddings. With Burr’s reassuring voice guiding you throughout, this approachable baking book will make you a B.I.Y. expert in no time.
You can purchase B.I.Y. Bake It Yourself at cooked.com.
Published by Hardie Grant Books.
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