Glazed Coffee Flavoured Doughnuts with Caramelized White Chocolate Filling

DOUGHNUT  TUTORIAL

Flavour – These doughnuts are made with 1 tbsp of instant dry yeast. This may seem like a lot, but it ensures that the dough rises well, especially in the refrigerator, and gives the doughnut that characteristic flavour we all love.

The overnight rise is preferable for developing flavour. Much like my favourite pizza dough, the cold rise of any yeasted dough lends characteristic flavour to the doughnut, that the “warm place” rise just cannot replicate. Why? A cold rise slows down the process of yeast growth, allowing the yeast to develop a deeper flavour as they grow and multiply. On the plus side, it also makes the dough easier to handle.

It’s important to incorporate the butter properly too. You could possibly melt the butter and add it in a stream while kneading, but the method I’ve described in this recipe is what works best for me. I love the way the dough turns out and feels this way. Why change something that works right? Kneading while adding the butter distributes the butter evenly through the dough.

You can roll out the dough and cut out circles, or doughnut shapes. In this recipe, I simply divided the dough more or less equally in to 20 rolls. When you cut out doughnut shapes, you end up with scraps. These scraps can be re-rolled (after a one hour resting time in the fridge) and then cut, once. You want to cut out as many as you can from the first roll, because the 2nd re-roll is harder to handle, and can end up being thicker than your first batch (due to over handling and the dough not resting enough). So re-rolling a second time is not really ideal. To avoid that I try to use up as much of the remaining dough scraps to make doughnut holes instead! 🙂

Knowing when the doughnuts are ready to be fried – The second proofing usually only takes 1 hour at 72°F- 75°F (22°C- 25°C). However, if it’s summer and it’s hot, it might take a little less time, and in winter, a little longer.

Overproofing – leads to oily, collapsed, flat doughnuts.

Underproofing – leads to stiffer (or denser) doughnuts with low volume.

Cracked Doughnuts – If you used a cutter, it may not have been sharp enough to cut the doughnuts cleanly. Or the dough is underproofed or too cold.

Balled up doughnuts (applies mostly to cut doughnuts) – If the dough has not had time to rest (especially doughnuts cut from the second re-roll) they tend to shrink in width (not height) and ball up when frying.

After I leave the doughnuts to rise (covered with plastic wrap), I check on them after 30 minutes and then every 10-15 minutes. Check the first doughnut you cut out/roll up and lightly prod/press it.

If the indentation you make with your finger disappears – dough is not done yet (under proofed)
If the indentation stays – It’s ready! Take the plastic sheet off and it’s time to heat up the oil!

If the cut dough starts to deflate  – It has over proofed, and will need to be re rolled, and re-chill the doughnut dough for at least an hour (to rest).

If the doughnuts have been made, rested and proofed correctly, frying is the next step.

Importance of using shortening that’s heated to the right temperature

Oil Temperature too low – [lower than 360ºF/ 183°C – Optimum 370°-375°F (188-191°C)]  you will end up with very oily doughnuts. Frying in oil/shortening that is not heated correctly means the oil gets trapped and absorbed by the dough.

If you use oil that is at the correct temperature (~190°C) the oil does its job, and then when the doughnut is being drained, the excess oil gets drained out, so no oily residue!

Using oil/shortening that is too hot results in doughnuts that have a raw center, or burnt doughnuts (or even both). We don’t want that either!

Another tip for frying – You want the doughnut to float in the oil/shortening. Since only half of the doughnut gets fried at a time (due to buoyancy only one half will be submerged in the oil), you might be tempted to shallow fry it (with less oil). Please don’t do that! Make sure there is a good amount of oil allowing the doughnuts to float freely while cooking.

I find it easier to maintain the temperature of the oil when there is a sufficient amount of it, and this prevents uneven heating and results in evenly browned/cooked doughnut.

If you are only glazing the doughnuts, you don’t have to wait till the doughnuts have cooled completely. Once they are cool enough to handle, you can go ahead and glaze your doughnuts. But if you’re filling them as well, I prefer to let them cool first, then fill them and finally glaze them.

The glaze tends to protect the doughnut from drying out too quickly. They are best eaten the same day they are made, but are still great the next day. They are so-so on the third day, by which time you could probably consider making doughnut bread pudding instead? That tastes amazing too! 🙂