September 7, 2009
Jelly and Chocolate covered donuts
I was reading one of my favorite food blogs, www.joepastry.com, and I saw this great recipe for jelly donuts so I had to give it a try. This is a great rainy weekend project!!
The recipe itself can be found at Joe Pastry.com. It's best to leave the instructions on making these yeast raised donuts to the expert; however, Ill take you through the steps below with some of my own pics.
The night before you want your donuts you'll need to make a sponge. This is a starter for the dough that adds great flavor and texture. Mix together yeast, water, flour, sugar and an egg and let it sit overnight.
The next day get out the rest of your ingredients for finishing the dough. You'll add dry milk, more flour, another egg, vanilla, and some salt to the sponge. knead this in a mixer for about 10 minutes and then slowly add butter to the mixture and knead well.
After mixing, the dough is spread into a rectangle and placed in the fridge for a half hour.
I used a drinking cup with an approximate diameter of 3 and 1/4 inches to shape out the donuts. The donuts are covered and sit at room temp for an hour until they get puffy.
Heat canola oil to 375 degrees. I monitored my oil temp with my digital grilling thermometer. When the temp would reach 375 I lowered the heat until the oil temp would drp a bit, then increased the heat to get it back to 375. This method let me control the temperature well and not once did I exceed 400 degrees!! I fried the donuts for 1.5 minutes on each side.
After frying, the donuts that were to be filled with jelly were immediately tossed in powdered sugar. I then used an all natural strawberry jam stuffed into a pastry bag with a tip attached to fill the donuts. I found this to be the hardest part since my tip was too big and it was very easy to over fill.
mmmmmm... donuts!
I topped some donuts with a ganache, which is just a rough 50:50 mix of milk chocolate chips and half and half or heavy cream. You mix the chocolate chips and cream together and microwave to melt the chips. Then you stir it up and dunk the donuts.
The donuts were fantastic, especially while they were still warm!!
