Filled Doughnuts

The busy week is moving along at snail's pace. Doesn't help that now I'm sick too. But I'm not complaining!

The highlight of my week so far, has been my little girl. My 18 month old is truly amazing in my eyes. Every time she says a new word or phrase, it thrills me to bits. When she started counting from 1-10 a few weeks ago, I was so excited. But this latest one is my favorite so far. Since she was about 15 months old, she would recite the alphabet from A-H, and then stop. I figured she'll learn the next few letters soon enough. But a few days ago, she started doing something new. And now, this is how she says her alphabet - A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, I love you! She makes me so proud! :)

Anyways, after my last, very harried-sounding post, I decided that since the thing that de-stresses me best is cooking, that's what I would do. So, I got my hands into some yeast dough and worked the dough till my arms hurt. It felt so good! :) And it really showed in the result. The extra kneading resulted in an amazing dough texture. See? Being stressed helps - sometimes. :)

I used the same recipe for the doughnuts as the last time. You can find the recipe here. I think these doughnuts are phenomenal when eaten fresh. By fresh, I mean within the first 10 minutes of frying. The outside is crisp and the inside velvety & soft. They're amazing. But, having said that, you couldn't possibly eat all of them within 10 minutes of frying them. Or could you? :) These doughnuts still taste great even after a day or two.

Because it is an egg-based filling, I felt it was safer to store these in the fridge if they last more than eight hours. I only had one leftover to store in the fridge, which my husband enjoyed with coffee the next morning. All it needed was a quick zap in the microwave.

For the filling, I used a simple pastry cream or creme patissiere. Here is my favorite recipe for creme patissiere. I adapted it from various sources.

Vanilla Bean Creme Patisserie
Ingredients
2 cups milk
1/4 cup sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 egg yolk
1 whole egg
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup white sugar
3 tbsp unsalted butter

Method
1. Pour the milk into a large saucepan.
2. Add the 1/4 cup sugar to the milk.
3. Split the vanilla bean down the middle and scrape out the inner seeds. Add all the seeds and the pod into the milk.
4. On a low heat, slowly bring the milk to a gentle boil.
5. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolk, the whole egg, the cornstarch and the one-third cup of sugar, until light and creamy.
6. Pour the hot milk into the bowl, in a slow stream, whisking the egg mixture constantly.
7. After the two mixtures have combined, transfer it back to the saucepan and cook on low heat until the custard is thick and creamy, and coats the back of a spoon.
8. Strain to eliminate any lumps and to remove the vanilla bean pod.

I usually like to cook it a little longer that usual, to get a thicker custard, simply because I don't want runny filling in my doughnuts. When the doughnuts were cool enough to handle, I filled the doughnuts very generously using my Kuhn Rikon Frosting Deco Pen. It was super easy. After they have been filled, let the doughnuts cool completely before dusting them with powdered sugar.

Alternatively, if you love peanut butter as much as I do, you could also use the peanut butter pudding recipe from my trifle pudding post, to fill the doughnuts. I'm kicking myself for not trying it, especially because I had some leftover pudding in the fridge. I am sure it would have tasted great!

But, I have always loved filled doughnuts, and so this will be the first of many filled doughnut recipes.

Just thought I should mention - for some strange reason, every time I want to type the word 'doughnut', I end up typing 'doughbut'. I wonder - is that my conscience's way of telling me to lay off the fried bread??? Hmmm...

 

Technorati Tags: Custard, Doughnuts, Donut, Filled, Recipe, Homemade