DONUTS!

Lets go nuts, for donuts! 

Little mini donut holes

OMG, I love donuts. Is there anything that makes people smile more than a pile of donuts, getting your fingers sticky from the sugar-crusted goodness?

I had to give these a go, because I was procrastinating other things. Plus, I’ve never made donuts before and I wanted a challenge. They are not difficult, I swear. You just need some patience and common sense around boiling oil.

Everyone who knows me knows that mint and chocolate is my FAVOURITE. And I think part of the reason for that is because it reminds me of Christmas. Yes, orange and cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves are traditionally Christmassy flavours, but for me, it is all about the mint: After Eights, mint matchmakers, that minty box of Thornton’s chocolates. I never eat those unless they’ve been sitting under a Christmas tree for AT LEAST a week.

So, that’s why I’m serving up some mint chocolate realness. But just after I had finished making them, I had the bright idea that I could have put some cinnamon in the sugar coating and rolled the donuts in that. Next time.

Makes a dozen.

Ingredients for the donuts

• 500g bread flour
• 50g caster sugar
• 5g salt
• 2x7g sachets of yeast
• 40g butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 150ml milk, heated until lukewarm
• 100ml water
• Approx 350ml oil for frying

Ingredients for filled donuts:

• Caster sugar, for coating
• 150g icing sugar
• 2 tbsp cocoa
• Approx 25g butter, enough to make a spreadable consistency (I forgot to measure this, sorry)
• 0.5 tsp peppermint essence

Ingredients for ringed donuts:

• 150g icing sugar
• 1 tsp peppermint essence
• A few drops of water
• Green food colouring
• Chocolate chips

Method

Lets get a dough going! Combine the flour, sugar, salt and yeast in a big bowl. Stir these together and make a well in the middle. Pour in the eggs, milk, water and melted butter.

Full disclosure – I forgot the butter because I am awful, and I mixed it in right at the end. It worked, but I don’t recommend it.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients into a soft and slightly sticky dough, with your hands. Work it!

So much fun

Kneed briefly, and allow to rise in a clean, oiled bowl for an hour, until doubled in size. Cover in a teatowel.

From this..

.. to this! My heart still leaps when I see a nicely risen dough.

Punch down the dough, and divide into twelve balls. Place (with plenty of space apart, for rising) on a floured baking tray.

If you’re making filled donuts, allow to rise whole. If you’re making the ringed donuts, make a hole in the centre with something appropriately-sized. I used the wide end of a piping nozzle. Enlarge the hole with your finger, it will fill in as they rise.

Don't throw away the extra dough

Now, the original recipe I was using didn’t mention anything about the cut-out bit of donuts, so I saved them, let them rise and made mini donut holes. Such a good idea.

Allow to rise, on the baking sheets, covered in a clean teatowel, for another hour.

Near the end of the rising time, heat the oil until nearly bubbling.

Add your donuts, one at a time, fry for approx one minute on each side, until crisp and brown.

Place the filled donuts and donut holes directly into some caster sugar, and roll, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.

Place the ringed donuts directly on the wire rack after cooking.

Allow both types to cool before icing them.

Prepare the icing by mixing all the respective ingredients together. For the filled, cream the butter, icing sugar, cocoa and essence until you get a smooth, pipe-able consistency. For the ringed donuts, place the icing sugar in a bowl, pour in the peppermint essence and food colouring, and add the water as needed to make it pour-able but not runny.

To fill the filled donuts, make a thin long incision into the side of each. Place the buttercream in an icing bag with a long nozzle, insert this into the donut and pipe to fill.

To make the ringed donuts, drizzle over the prepared green icing and sprinkle over the chocolate chips and whichever other toppings you have hanging around.

Snowflakes and chocolate chips!

Eat them. Give them to people. They will love you.