Yeasted Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

I love post.  I am always excited to get parcels and letters.  My first question when I come home from work is always, "Any post today?".  Anyway, towards the end of last year I discovered something wonderful!  Let me tell you about the Lucky Dip Club.  This is a subscription service and every month you receive a beautiful little package in the post filled with adorable kitschy stationary, stickers, jewellery and other vintage style goodies, all based around a theme.  I love it. I received January's box on Wednesday.  The theme is Donut Dinnerette, and is the inspiration for this month's last blog entry: doughnuts!

Isn't the box (below) so cute?! I got a cute pin and patch (with a donut pun!), as well as a doughnut necklace (something every baker needs) and also a mini magnetic white board, which I promptly stuck on my fridge.  The club has also started it's own mini magazine, a new issue of which is included every month.

So yeah, this glorious little box inspired me to make doughnuts.  However, rather than the baked kind I've made before I thought I would try my hand at fried doughnuts.  And not just fried but also yeasted (I did say it has been a month for yeast last week).

Given my past encounters with doughnuts, I was a bit apprehensive about using yeast.  The last few times I had tried out a recipe like that resulted in very bread-roll-like doughnuts.  Not pleasant.  I've found a number of baked doughnut recipes that don't use yeast, my particular favourite being this one.  But I figured, these were going to be different anyway, since I was frying, not baking.  And the blog the recipe comes from was singing it's praises.  So I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. 

I could see a difference in the dough from the start.  Much softer than previous attempts.  It also didn't smell so yeasty.  I still decided to add the vanilla seeds for an additional taste though.  I love vanilla and the baked vanilla bean doughnuts I made last year were scrummy.  Whilst the dough was certainly lighter, it was easily rolled out and cut to shape.  I admit I thought they looked a bit flat at this point but after their second rise, they looked much better.  'Puffy' is definitely a good description.  They look very light and airy and you'll be scared to pick them up for fear of deflating them.  Hence why you grease the tray to reduce this problem.

Now, aside from the use of yeast, I was nervous about the frying.  I've said before I've not attempted frying doughnuts because it requires a lot of oil that I don't know what to do with after.  However I just ended up pouring it into a jar after it cooled and I'll use it again next time I make doughnuts.  Not such a big deal.  Clearly I worry about the silliest things.  Such things as what to do with the oil should NOT prevent you from trying this recipe.  It is worth all the hassle!  The actual frying is easy.  I just did it in a frying pan and didn't use anywhere near as much oil as I thought - just enough for half the doughnut to float in without touching the base of the pan.

If you saw my twitter post a couple of weeks ago, you know I enjoyed these.  They were unbelievably good.  Definitely the best doughnuts I have ever made!  They're just so easy to pick up and eat and keep eating until there's none left.  I made a mix of glazed and sugared doughnuts.  However, whilst the glaze was nice both the Hubby and I vastly preferred the sugar, so that's what I'm suggesting in the recipe.  I will certainly be using this dough again.  Next I will need to try filled doughnuts!  Just need to find a decent sized syringe...    

Recipe - adapted from The Pioneer Woman via Bless This Mess 
Makes a dozen doughnuts
 

There is a long resting period for these doughnuts.  I suggest making the dough the night before and resting overnight to be finished the next day.

• 140ml/5fl.oz milk
• 30g/1oz caster sugar (plus extra for coating the doughnuts)
• 1/2 packet of instant dry yeast (about 4g)
• 1 large egg
• 85g/3oz butter
• 300g/10.5oz plain flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 vanilla pod
• Oil for frying

1. Heat the milk until it feels warm when you dip your finger in it.  Put it in the bowl of a stand mixer, then add the sugar and allow it to dissolve.
2. Add in the yeast and stir.  Allow to rest for about 5 minutes.  Meanwhile, melt the butter.
3. Beat the egg and add it and the melted butter to the mixture.  Stir to combine.
4. Remove the seeds from the vanilla pod and mix in to the batter.
5. Keep the mixer beating and gradually add the flour and salt.  Continue to stir the mixer until a dough forms then for another 5 minutes after that to really work the dough.  Turn off the mixture and let the dough rest for 10 minutes.   
6. Turn dough out into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with clingfilm and then place in the fridge to rest for at least 8 hours or overnight.
7. To make the doughnuts, lightly grease a baking tray and then roll out the rested dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1cm/0.5inches thick.  Use a 6cm/3inch cutter to cut out the doughnuts and then a 2cm/1inch cutter to make the holes in the middle. 
8. Place the doughnuts and holes on the tray.  Bring remaining dough together and repeat until you have used up most of the dough (you should get 12-13 doughnuts).
9. Cover the doughnuts and leave them to rise in a warm place until they are puffy and doubled in size (at least an hour). 
10. Prepare another tray covered in layers of kitchen towel.  We'll use it to soak up excess oil from the doughnuts
11. Put a couple of inches of oil into a frying pan and place over a medium heat until it reaches 190C/375F (use a thermometer) then reduce the heat to prevent oil from getting any hotter.
12. Add the doughnuts to the hot oil a couple at a time.  Fry in the oil until they are golden brown on the underside with a thin pale strip running around the centre.  Turn the doughnuts over and do the same on the other side.
13. Remove the doughnuts from the oil with a slotted spoon and place them on the prepared tray.  Allow them to cool slightly.
14. Put sugar into a bowl and dip the doughnuts in it to coat.  Eat straight away as these taste best fresh! 

Basic White Loaf

I lost this post so many times when trying to write it.  No idea why as it would always happen after saving and closing.  Upon re-opening, the content had vanished.  It has been terribly frustrating trying to write this multiple times.  Hence, this is an even shorter post than intended. I just want this thing done and posted before it mysteriously disappears on me again.

So, anyway, January has become a bit of a yeasted month.  Lots of breads so far and there's a deliciously amazing yeasted treat coming next week to finish out the month.  I've been obsessing over bread ever since I obtained James Morton's Brilliant Bread with a Christmas Amazon voucher (thanks again, Nanny and Grandad!).  I've been after a second dedicated bread book for a while and this one had rave reviews (the only negative one was about the publisher, not the book itself).  I'm not surprised. Bread was James' thing when he was on Bake Off after all.  It's a fascinating and enjoyable read.  There are lots of good tips and hints to help you understand the process of making bread.  I highly recommend it.

This recipe is the first one in the book and the first one I tried.  It uses the absolute basics of bread ingredients: flour, yeast, salt and water.  That's it.  It's a very wet dough but the bread it produces is delicious!  Admittedly, it can be a little temperamental.  My first go at it turned out great!  I didn't get a chance to photograph it though as I was literally out the door with it whilst it was still cooling.  I figured I'd just make it again another day and take pictures.  Well, the next two attempts failed miserably.  The bread refused to hold its shape and so rather than a nice ball I ended up with a thick puddle.  I'm pretty sure I over-proved the dough so on my fourth attempt I stuck as close to the resting times as possible.  And finally, I had success again.  Huzzah!

It is delicious.  Nicer than homemade bread I've made before.  It's got a nice crumb and tastes amazing with butter or dipped in soup.  I'm trying to make bread every Friday I'm home for the Hubby's tea.  I'll have to try out some of the other recipes soon.

Recipe - adapted from Brilliant Bread

• 500g/17.5oz strong white flour
• 10g/0.35oz salt
• 7g/0.25g instant yeast
• 350ml/12fl.oz tepid water

1. Put the flour in a large bowl.  Add the salt on one side of the bowl and the yeast on the other so they do not touch (salt can kill yeast).  Rub both into the flour with your hands.   
2. Add the water and mix together until you form a wet dough.  Make sure all flour is incorporated into the dough.
3. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave to rest in a warm place for about 40 minutes.  It should have noticeably increased in size.  (If you can't decide whether it has grown or not, leave it a bit longer).
4. Keep a small bowl of water handy to wet your fingers.  After resting, wet fingers and slide under the dough and then fold it in half.  Rotate the bowl a quarter turn and do the same again.  Repeat until all the air is removed and the dough feels smooth.  
5. Cover once more and rest the dough until it has doubled in size (about 1 hour). 
6. Scrape the dough out onto a floured surface (a dough scraper is really useful here).  Shape into a ball by pinching one end and stretching the dough away from you before folding the stretched bit back into the middle. Turn the dough and repeat.  Keep going until the dough feels tighter.
7. Flip dough over then cradle it in your hands together underneath the dough.  Twist the dough slightly as you move your hands to start shaping into a ball. Repeat this action until you get a nice tight ball.
8. Place the dough on a heavily floured surface, cover and allow to prove for an hour (or until doubled in size).  Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 210C/410F/Gas Mark 6.5.
9. Once bread is ready, score a few shallow slashes into the top with a serrated knife.
10. Bake bread for at least 40 minutes, until the crust starts to turn a deep golden brown.
11. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving.