Happy Tuesday! Wow, believe it or not we’re actually posting on a Tuesday 😉. I don’t know about you but donuts and ice cream are one of the best things out there and today we’re making fried donuts!! Fresh vanilla cream stuffed inside a crispy and light donut… what’s not to love? Not to mention the fresh strawberry pastry cream too! Breakfast is a whole ‘nother level with these! Let’s get baking!

Note: The donuts rise overnight, so you fry in the morning.

Ingredients:

Donut Dough

• 4 cups + 2 tbsp flour
• 1 tsp active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup water, warm
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)

Vanilla Custard

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 tsp salt

Strawberry Pastry Cream

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 1/2 tbsp orange juice
• 2 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 3/4 cups strawberry puree (almost 1 container of strawberries)
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Extras

• Oil for frying
• 1 cup sugar for rolling

1. Start by adding the sugar, yeast, and warm water together in a large bowl and let sit until foamy.

1. In another small bowl, whisk together your eggs. Set aside. Cut the butter into small cubes and set aside as well.

2. Next, add the flour and eggs to the yeast mixture and knead with your hands. (To knead fold the dough in half and push forward with the heel of your palm) It will be messy, but well worth it in the end!

3. Once a dough has formed add it to a lightly floured surface. Add the butter cubes to the dough a little at a time and continue kneading. At this point you could also add the dough to a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook and let the mixer knead in the butter.

4. Once the butter is fully added, form the dough into a ball and place in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap for 2 hours. Let the bowl sit somewhere room temperature.

5. After 2 hours, punch a hole in the middle of the dough to deflate it and then place in the fridge for an additional 12-15 hours tightly covered.

6. The next morning remove dough from the fridge and cut the dough into 90 g portions. For this part we used a kitchen scale to. evenly measure.

7. Shape the dough balls into tight and smooth buns. They should have no cracks, otherwise they will puff out unevenly when proofing and frying. Place the buns onto a floured cookie sheet and proof for another 2 hours.

8. While the buns proof for their last time, let’s make the fillings! Start with the strawberry filling. Make sure the strawberries are cleaned, stemmed, and pureed. Set aside.

9. In a medium bowl whisk together your sugar, flour, and egg yolk. It will be crumb-like.

10. Next, add the strawberry puree, lemon juice, and orange juice to a medium pot on medium high heat. Bring to a boil and continuously stir.

11. Once it has boiled, slowly pour the strawberry puree mixture over the egg mixture and whisk very fast until smooth with no lumps.

12. After whisking, pour the mixture back into the pot and bring to a boil for another 3-4 minutes.

13. Once boiled, add the filling to a medium bowl and chill for 1 hour. After 1 hour, whip the cream until there are stiff peaks and gently fold it into the strawberry mixture. Set aside until ready to stuff the donuts.

14. For the vanilla custard filling whisk together your vanilla, cornstarch, sugar, and salt in a medium pot. Set aside.

15. In another bowl, whisk together your milk and eggs until fully combined.

16. Add the milk mixture to the pot and cook over medium heat. Once it comes to a boil, lower heat to low and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and add to a covered medium bowl.

17. Once the fillings are made and chilled, it’s time to heat up the oil. With 30 minutes left on the proofing timer for the donuts, add oil to a large pot and fill it half way up, about 2-3 inches of oil. Bring oil to 350 F using a candy or fry thermometer.

18. Once the donuts have proofed and oil is hot, turn the heat down and place 2 donuts in the oil. Cook for 3 minutes on one side and 3 on the other. The donuts will be a dark golden.

19. Once the donuts have fried, add them to a cookie sheet lined with paper towels to dry off any excess grease. Let them cool for 3 minutes, but while they are still warm, roll them in the sugar.

20. If the temperature fluctuates while frying, it’s ok. Let it go back to 350 F before adding any more.

21. Once all the donuts are fried and rolled in sugar, poke a small hole in the side of the donut with a knife. Put the vanilla cream and strawberry cream in 2 piping bags and gently squeeze the filling into the the hole of the donut. Squeeze enough until it starts to slowly come out of the hole.

22. Alternately use both fillings for your donuts.

Ta-da! Best enjoyed the day of baking!

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