The Breakfast Series - Baked Doughnuts

So we have a tradition in our house (we may have only lived here for three weeks but yes we already have traditions!) that on Sunday mornings we take turns making a proper breakfast. So far we've done French toast, blueberry pancakes and now Doughnuts.

Ah, Doughnuts. Those little bouncy, fatty, sugary pillows of heaven. There's nothing like a fresh doughnut or 5 to bring a smile to even the most depressed little face. Whether jam, cream or sugar, all doughnuts are my friends. (But not glazed, never glazed. Keep those overly sugary, sickly American monstrosities to yourself. Oh and we all know how chocolate and I feel about each other so none of that either.) If you have never had a still steaming hot, freshly deep fried doughnut then I pity you. Deeply. Once you have tasted them truly fresh then you will begin to see how much of a pale imitation your average supermarket bought doughnut is.

However, as much as I love a freshly fried doughnut, I did not relish the thought of leaving the flat smelling of a chip shop and I am sure my fellow tube passengers wouldn't have thanked me for it either. Hence the baked doughnut. Its a wonderful little recipe I picked up via tastespotting.com (which has sadly recently ceased to function - EDIT tastespotting hath returned! I rejoice and my manager probably despairs at my loss in productivity). Axy tells me these are better than the fried version as they are lighter and lack the claggy fatty taste.

Baked Doughnuts

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups warm milk
• 1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
• 29g butter
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
• 1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in to a bowl and stir in the yeast, set aside for five minutes or so. Be sure your milk isn't too hot or it will kill the yeast. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt - just until the flour is incorporated. Now turn the dough out onto the side and begin to knead it (see the post about english muffins for guidance on this).

This is where you are going to need to make adjustments - if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. If it’s too dry then add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to eventually become supple and smooth. Knead and pull the dough a few more times then shape into a ball.

Transfer the dough to an oiled bowl, cover, put in a warm place, and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured counter top. Use a 2-3 inch cookie cutter to stamp out circles. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes. (If making the night before then put them in the fridge at this stage, take them out in the morning and let them rise.)

Bake in a 190°C oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes - start checking around 8. While the doughnuts are baking, place the butter in a medium bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl. Eat immediately if not sooner.

Makes 1 1/2 - 2 dozen medium doughnuts.

(We had some left over home-made bonfire toffee so melted it, mixed with cream and used that as a dip - as seen above on the half eaten doughnut and all over the plate; it worked surprisingly well.)