Today, as I lay on the carpet of our as-of-yet-empty living room, my one-year-old walked over to me saying “Ow-ie” and pointing to his behind. He proceeded to walk over directly in front of me and squat so that his behind was directly in line with my face, waiting for a kiss. Look, motherhood may be hilarious, but it is not glamorous, and having time to “just make doughnuts” seems preposterous, right?
But, hear me out. You make the dough the *night* before, when they are asleep and no one can interrupt the measuring of things or send cups of flour flying across the kitchen. It takes 20 minutes! You can even just make a half batch if you don’t want to spend much time frying in the morning. And, if you don’t have time, you don’t even have to make a filling or glaze. Just dip them in sugar and cinnamon! Fill them with whatever leftover jam you still have in your fridge from that one cake you made ages ago.
And THEN, when you wake up on Saturday morning (because no, no one is crazy enough to do this on a weekday), you cut, rise, and fry these up and you are suddenly the greatest mom/dad of all time. A veritable DOMESTIC GODDESS. At least, that’s how I feel.
If you’ve had trouble with doughnuts to date, you can end your search here. These are about as easy and dreamy as it gets. Enjoy!
Strawberry Cream Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 4.5 cups (540g) sifted bread flour
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 3 tbsp (35g) granulated sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 75 ml (5 tbsp) water
- 200 ml whole milk, lightly warmed
- 2 large eggs
- 86 g (6 tbsp) unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
Strawberry Cream Filling
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 6 tbsp lard
- 6 tbsp butter, softened
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 5-8 tbsp pulverized freeze dried strawberries
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- water to loosen, if desired
Glaze
- 2-3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
Prepare Your Dough
- Before starting, cut ~20 pieces of 6inX6in parchment squares out, as you will proof your doughnuts on separate pieces of parchment.
- In a small bowl whisk together the warm water, yeast, and a pinch of sugar and let it rest until foamy (5 min).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add flour, milk, remaining sugar, salt, eggs, vanilla, and yeast mixture. Mix these until combined.
- Cover your bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Attach your dough hook to your stand mixer. Add room temperature butter to the dough, and knead your dough for 12-15 minutes on low. Cover your bowl with a damp tea towel or plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for overnight for the best flavor, up to 12 hours. If you're in a hurry, and can compromise on flavor, you can also do your final rise now – keep it at room temperature 1-2 hours, until doubled in size.
Cutting Your Doughnuts
- The next day (or once the dough doubled in size), punch down the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface and roll the dough to a scant 1/2 inch thick.
- Using your preferred cutter (doughnut cutter, large biscuit cutter, etc.), cut each doughnut, and place it on a precut parchment. Each doughnut should weigh 65-70g to keep them light. Place each doughnut a baking sheet for rising.
- Cover your baking sheet with a clean tea towel and let it rest again at room temperature (~74 deg F, ~23 deg C) for 40-45 minutes, until puffy and risen, but not overproofed. If you did not do an overnight rest in the fridge, only proof the dough for 25-30 minutes, as your dough is already warm.
Prepare Filling & Glaze
- Glaze: Meanwhile, mix all of your glaze ingredients in a bowl, and beat until a smooth glaze forms. For a stiffer glaze, use 3 cups sugar – for a looser glaze, use 2 cups.
- Filling: Stir 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tbsp water together in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar has dissolved and mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and let cool completely.
- Then, in the bowl of your stand mixer with your paddle attachment, add your dissolved sugar and water (simple syrup), your lard, and butter and beat until smooth and creamy.
- With mixer as low as possible (on "stir"), mix in 5 tbsp of pulverized freeze-dried strawberries, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt. Switch to your whisk attachment and mix for 5 minutes on medium, until very smooth and creamy. *If you'd like a stronger strawberry flavor, add in more pulverized strawberry powder.
Assemble Doughnuts
- Heat the oil to 360F. Drop your doughnuts in with their parchment in small batches (2-3 doughnuts per batch), and remove the parchment from underneath quickly with tongs. Fry both sides until golden brown, and remove donuts to cool to a drying rack.
- Once cooled, pipe in your filling to your doughnuts, and dip them in the glaze. Let them sit on a drying rack as the glaze sets.
- Enjoy!
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