Vanilla custard and jam doughnut recipe

Details

• Cuisine: British
• Recipe Type: Doughnuts
• Difficulty: Hard
• Preparation Time: 60 mins
• Cooking Time: 50 mins
• Serves: 11

Step-by-step

To make the vanilla custard filling

1. Make a crème pâtissière using 300 ml/10fl oz of the double cream and the milk. To do this, stir together the milk with the vanilla pod and half of the sugar in a saucepan and place over a medium heat.
2. Mix the rest of the sugar with the cornflour, then whisk this into the egg yolks by hand until pale and slightly fluffy.
3. When the milk is steaming hot and just about to come to the boil (do not let it boil), pour a quarter of the hot liquid over the yolks and whisk thoroughly. Add the rest of the milk in quarters, whisking well after each addition.
4. Pour the mixture back into the pan over a medium heat and stir with the whisk for about 3 minutes until it starts thicken. Once it starts to thicken, whisk faster until it starts bubbling and then whisk the bubbling custard over the heat for at least 1–2 minutes until nicely thickened. If you feel it’s getting too near to boiling at any point, then just take off the heat for a moment and continue whisking.
5. Once the crème pâtissière is ready, remove from the heat and take out the vanilla. Add the remaining quantity of double cream and stir with a whisk to combine.
6. Pour into a container and cover the surface directly with clingfilm (plastic wrap). Allow to cool and then place in the fridge for 4 hours or ideally overnight before using.

To make the doughnuts

1. Put the flour, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and stir together thoroughly. Add the yeast, then pour over the lukewarm milk and add the eggs.
2. Start to mix slowly with the dough hook attachment. Once everything has come together, mix at a medium speed until the dough starts to cling to the dough hook and come away from the sides of the bowl. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl during mixing if needed. Switch off the mixer and let the dough relax for 5 minutes.
3. Add the softened butter and mix again at a medium-high speed for 5–8 minutes to a smooth and shiny dough.
4. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp tea towel (kitchen cloth) and leave to prove at room temperature until doubled in size. Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, this can take anywhere between 30 minutes to 2 hours. For an average temperature, 1 hour should be about right.
5. Meanwhile, lightly oil two baking sheets.
6. Turn the proved dough out on to a very lightly floured work surface. Separate out 70-g/2.5-oz portions of dough and lay these out on the work surface in the order in which you portioned them.
7. Starting from the first one you portioned, start to shape it using as little extra flour as possible: throw the dough ball on to the bench and fold in all of the sides to form a tight ball. Flip it over so the smooth side is facing up and use your palm to start rounding it off by moving your hand in a circular motion until the ball is firm and tight.
8. Place the shaped doughnuts in order on to the oiled baking sheets (you’ll want to fry these according to which one was shaped first as it will prove faster) and cover with a lightly oiled sheet of clingfilm (plastic wrap). Let these prove again for around 20 minutes until doubled in size.
9. While this is happening, immediately start to heat the oil in a deep fat fryer to 165°C/330°F. Alternatively, you can heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed pan with enough oil so that the doughnuts won’t touch the bottom.
10.  Fry the first doughnut you made. Lower into the hot oil and deep-fry for 2.5 minutes, then turn and fry on the other side for 2.5 minutes.
11.  Remove with a slotted spoon and place upright on to a piece of kitchen paper to drain off excess oil. It’s important to place them upright as this creates an edge for your doughnut to stand up. Fry the rest of the batch in the same way.
12.  If serving straight away, dust in caster sugar while hot and allow to cool before filling. If these are for later, dust with sugar before serving as doing this too far in advance will make them soggy – don’t worry the sugar will stick later on. Once fried (but not filled or coated), doughnuts will keep for up to 1 day. Once coated in sugar and filled they will be good for a maximum of 4–6 hours.

This recipe is from The Pastry Chef’s Guide: The secret to successful baking every time by Ravneet Gill (Pavilion Books). Photography by Jessica Griffiths.