Baked Yeasted Doughnuts/Donuts

Yes there is something about doughnuts or as they call it Donuts…..soft spongy melt  in  the mouth amazing donuts…topped with chocolate or sprinkled with fine sugar ,baked or fried…..there is something about all of em

 

My husband will vouch for that…..for somebody who is not a food freak, rather for somebody who generally hates eating….he makes an exception with donuts. ok lets put it like that-he is also a doughnut lover.

 I got a chance to bake my donuts this time…thanks to Aparna’s We knead to bake-6.The donuts turned out well …..maybe not as soft as fried donuts….but good enough. But like most people I lov the fried doughnuts I made earlier, better.

Well donuts can be served as a tea time snack, for a bday party ,when friends meet or for a family get together…may be for no reason at all….just to munch a way…a perfect muncher’s delight.

Kids love them…. My son Aniket loved them too…well and that’s going to an excuse to bake some doughnuts again and again .Ready for the recipe…here goes-

Adapted from Lara Ferroni ’s Doughnuts

Ingredients

Superfine sugar-1/4 cup

Warm Milk-1 cup(45c/115F)

Instant  yeast-3/4 tbsp(1 tbsp active dry  yeast)

Salt-1/2 tsp

Vanilla essence-2 tspcut into 1 inch cubes.

Cake flour- 1 cup (or 1tbsp cornstarch + enough all-purpose flour to make up to 1 cup)

All-purpose flour-1 1/2 to 2 1/2 cups(1 cup initially and between  1 -11/2cup later  to be used only as required)

Butter-100gm  cut into 1 inch cubes

Method

Using a processor to knead helps but you can do this by hand.Put the sugar, milk, yeast, salt and vanilla in the processor bowl and pulse to mix well. Add the cake flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour and process, adding a little more of the flour as necessary till the dough is thick and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Now add the butter pieces one at a time and process till there no large chunks of butter are left in the bottom of the bowl. Now add a little more flour until you have a soft, pliable and elastic dough that is most but not overly sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased large mixing bowl., turning it to coat well. Cover with a damp towel and let it rise till double in volume. This should take about an hour.

Punch down the dough and roll out to a thickness of 1/2" thickness. Cut out doughnuts using a doughnut cutter or whatever you have on hand to cut out 3” diameter with 1” diameter holes. If you’re making doughnuts to fill with jam, then do not cut out the holes. Place the doughnuts and the holes on parchment lined or lightly greased baking sheets, leaving at least 1” space between them.

Re-roll the scraps and cut out more doughnuts. I used the last left over scraps of dough by pinching of bits, rolling them into balls and baking them too. 

Let them rise for about 20 minutes or till almost double in size and then bake them at 200C (400F) for about 5 to 10 minutes till they’re done and golden brown. Do not over bake them.

This recipe makes about 12 to 14 doughnuts and holes.

Take them out of the oven and immediately brush them with the melted butter and then dip  them into the cinnamon sugar mixture. If filling the doughnuts with jam, let them cool.

Put the jam into a piping bag with a writing nozzle/ tip and press into the doughnut from the side and gently press out the jam into the doughnut till it starts oozing out. Jam doughnuts do not  need too much jam to fill them.

If glazing your doughnuts, let them cool completely and then dip one side of the doughnut in the glaze of your choice and let it set.