Filled doughnuts 101: nutella-raspberry and espresso-banana-caramel flavours, encased in homemade brioche doughnuts. Jump to Recipe
My family (and many others) think I must be crazy. To be honest, I’m half starting to believe it as well.
After multiple days like this and very little spare time, and even less to spend in the kitchen or on this tiny part of the internet, I spent the majority of my sole day off (preceded by 6 x 9-10 hour work days, and followed by another 6 x 9-10 hour work days..) making doughnuts. And then photographing, eating, and cleaning up after said doughnuts.
They were more satisfying than the doughnuts we construct at work, however. The pressure to get hundreds of the things filled in time for deliveries, the 430am starts, the way we are restricted (reasonably, but still..) to a couple of flavours, and the fact that there are HUNDREDS every morning does get in the way of some enjoyment. These ones, on the other hand, were made at slightly more at leisure, with only 15 produced and far greater license for creativity. Potentially even a little too much of the latter, because I couldn’t actually decide on one flavour…but that’s normal, right? My lack of decision making capacity when it comes to food is well known in our house.
The first was nutella-raspberry: nutella (or chocolate-hazelnut, to be precise), was swirled through the creme patissiere, followed by more whipped cream and juicy raspberries (frozen and thawed, but they did the trick), and topped with a silky, rich chocolate ganache glaze. That one was for my younger brothers – nutella fiends from way back, they go through a couple of big tubs of it a week, much to my Mum’s irritation and vague attempts at limiting it.
The other was more grown-up- based roughly on a banoffee pie, it was flavoured with a double shot of espresso and swirled through with mashed banana and salted caramel sauce, then topped with yet more caramel to finish.
When encased by fluffy, buttery brioche doughnut…they are truly decadent.
Please don’t let the whole doughnut making thing scare you off – deep frying really isn’t bad. A large pot will heat to the right temperature in 5 to 10 minutes, and all you need is a candy/sugar thermometer to check that it is roughly where you need it. As for the rest? Here are a few tips from my hours of doughnut making to help you along.
- Try to avoid over or under proving the dough. I say try, as I still get this wrong! Err on the side of caution and cut the dough out a little earlier than you think, as it seems to be less forgiving to overproving than other breads. It can prove more once the dougnuuts themselves are cut out waiting to be fried. You want it at a stage that the rounds feel light and fluffy, and a finger imprint will slowly bounce back – if it stays indented, it is overproved. The sign of good proving is a ring of pale dough circumferentially around the doughnut on frying, like a little alien space ship. Only a few of mine achieved this as I managed to get so distracted by my nutella pastry cream that the dough was a little overdone…
- Hollow out a cavity inside the doughnut with your finger before filling: avoiding cracks in the side of the doughnut – you want a solid hole to fill with pastry cream that won’t end up spurting cream everywhere! You don’t need to actually remove dough, you just press it against the inner walls of the doughnut.
- Refrigerate the pastry cream for at least a couple of hours after making it (ideally overnight) before filling your doughnuts: I didn’t do this at home, though we normally do it at work, as it makes the cream firmer, easier to work with and less likely to make a mess (clearly, I didn’t learn!)
- Have something to pretty up the outside of the doughnut: I never realised before this job how ugly doughnuts actually are – fried, sometimes cracked bits of dough that YES, taste amazing, but probably wouldn’t fly of the shelves as fast as they do if they weren’t added to! Here I used a chocolate glaze or salted caramel with hazelnuts and icing sugar, but other options are just tossing in icing sugar for a snowy finish, or tossing in a flavoured sugar (such as cinnamon sugar, or cocoa sugar, or vanilla sugar) and then garnishing with something relevant to the flavour.
Maybe cronut mastery will come next. Or cruffins. Thoughts?
- 3 cups flour
- 1/4 cup caster sugar
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 180 ml milk (3/4 cup), at room temperature
- 1 large egg + 2 egg yolks
- 100 g butter , chopped into 1 cm squares
- 6 cups of oil for frying (coconut oil, preferably)
- Creme patisserie (recipe below)
- 2 cups cream
- Your choice of flavouring:
- Nutella raspberry: about 1/2 cup nutella + a few tablespoons of raspberries
- Espresso banana caramel: double shot of espresso (cooled in the fridge for 20 minutes), mashed banana, cinnamon, caramel sauce to taste (recipe below)
- Chocolate glaze (recipe below)
- Extra caramel sauce
- Roughly chopped roasted hazelnuts
- Icing sugar to dust
- 500 ml milk
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup cornflour
- 115 grams dark chocolate , finely chopped
- 1/2 cup icing sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup cream
- 1/2 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup sugar (200g)
- 85 g (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cubed
- ½ cup cream (120ml)
- ½ -1 tsp table salt (according to your tastes)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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Place flour, sugar, yeast and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer and stir to combine.
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Add milk, egg and egg yolks. Mix with a dough hook until a sticky dough forms, and mix for another 3-4 minutes. If doing this by hand, tip the dough onto a lightly floured bench and knead for 10 minutes.
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Slowly add the butter, one piece at a time, over the course of 8-10 minutes until the butter is completely combined and the dough is silky smooth.
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Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 40min to an hour.
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Roll the dough out on a lightly flour bench to 3cm thick. Cut out rounds using a cookie cutter (I managed to cut out 14 donuts, and my cutter was...)
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Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and leave to prove for another 10-20 minutes. The dough should feel light and fluffy when pressed, and a finger indentation should spring back slowly (if a finger print stays indented, it is over proved).
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At the same time, heat the oil in a large pot to 165-75°C on a candy thermometer. Cook the donuts for 1-2 minutes on each side until golden brown. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a wire rack to drain.
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Allow to cool, then poke a hole into each donut with your finger to create a cavity/space inside.
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Fill a piping bag with the pastry cream you wish to fill them with, and gently fill the donut until it expands against your hand and the filling oozes out of the hole.
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Spoon over the chocolate glaze or caramel sauce (heat gently in a microwave if it isn’t runny enough), and top with chopped hazelnuts and a dusting of icing sugar.
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Make the creme patisserie (recipe below) and allow to cool.
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If making both flavours, split the creme patisserie into 2 bowls to flavour them - otherwise just do one. The flavourings are largely to taste, with no precise measurements - just be careful not to make the cream too runny as it becomes difficult to pipe into the doughnuts.
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In a separate bowl, whip the 2 cups of cream to stiff peaks.
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For the nutella raspberry flavour: stir 1/4-1/2 cup of nutella into the creme patissiere. Fold in half of the cream (or all if just doing one flavour). Swirl in raspberries to taste.
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For the espresso-banana-caramel flavour: stir a few tablespoons of espresso (to taste) into the creme patisserie. Add mashed banana and a pinch of cinnamon to taste. Fold in half the whipped cream (or all if just doing one flavour). Swirl in caramel sauce to taste.
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Refrigerate the pastry cream until you fill the doughnuts (preferably overnight).
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In a medium pot, heat the milk, vanilla and 1/4 cup of the caster sugar.
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In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, remaining 1/4 cup caster sugar and cornflour until pale and thick.
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When the milk is at a boil, take it off the heat and slowly pour about half of it into the egg yolks while still whisking the yolks constantly.
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Return the rest of the milk to the heat and pour the egg mixture into the milk, beating constantly with a whisk. Keep beating until it just comes back to the boil (it will get quite thick at this stage), then pour into another clean bowl to cool.
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Cover with cling film and refrigerate (may be kept in the fridge for up to 3 days).
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In a medium bowl mix together the finely chopped chocolate and icing sugar. In a small saucepan, bring the cream, vanilla, salt and butter to a light boil.
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Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a couple of minutes without stirring. Whisk until uniform.
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To make the caramel, first measure out all the components so you are ready to go (it happens quickly!).
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Heat the sugar in a medium pot over medium-high heat, stirrng constantly with a wooden spoon. It will form clumps and start to melt into an amber liquid - watch carefully, ensuring it doesn’t catch/burn.
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When it is melted and golden-brown, add the butter and whisk until combined (this may take a couple of minutes). Be careful as the caramel will bubble and steam vigorously.
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Drizzle in the cream slowly, again whisking constantly until fully combined (1-2 minutes). Remove from the heat.
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Stir in the vanilla and salt to taste. Leave to cool.
I like your doughnut tips! I’ve tried making them before, but I’m still learning…and my filled doughnuts never come out this perfect! Yours look amazing. Love the nutella raspberry ones!
Thanks June! I’m definitely still learning too, I must say – the perfect doughnut remains elusive! The nutella-raspberry ones were definitely a big hit x
These look absolutely stunning! I’ve never made homemade doughnuts before, but this really makes me want to try. I’m going to dream about these!
Thanks Amanda! Definitely try the homemade ones – a bit of a project but seriously worth it! x
OH. MY. GAH! These doughnuts look INSANE, Claudia. Seriously better than any fancified doughnut I’ve bought from a shop! Yours are the ones I would pick any day!!! I love how the creme patissiere is spilling out. They’re also really photogenic… I just want to grab one right from the screen. Beautiful photography! xx
Aw thank you so much Hannah, that means a lot! It was the first time I feel like I really ‘got’ the dark photography thing, so I was super stoked with how the photos came out! <3 xx
Wow! This looks sooooo incredible. I love pastry cream filled donuts 😛
Thank you!! X
I can’t… I just can’t…. These look so good. By the way, I love ‘lack of decision making’ capacities. That means more choices.. or more food. Yum yum yum.
hahaha it usually ends up being more food, every time…but that isn’t a problem, right?? Thanks AiPing! x
Holy Moly lady, these filled doughnuts are bomb! Seriously, I can never decide on one flavor either, and the two you made are PERFECT! So much decadence! Gimmmmmeeeee!!!! Now I am hating the breakfast I just ate and wishing it was a few dozen of these!! Cheers, doll and thanks for all the 411! Such a great post!
Glad I am not the only one that can’t decide sometimes, thanks Cheyanne! And every time I look back on this post I wish I had more myself, so I feel your pain.. hope you weekend is going well, so lovely to hear from you! x
Oh-ho-ho! I love the sound of these cuties, and I also love how you set the scene in these photographs – gorgeous!
Thank you Nicole! It was one of those (very) rare situations where the photos and light just seemed to work on the first try – I was so happy haha!
OMG Claudia! These doughnuts look CRAZY delicious! Your photos are just gorgeous! I want to grab one right off the screen!
Thanks Mary Ann!! <3
These look incredible, Claudia! You’re not crazy though…spending a day creating food like this is totally worth it! And while I’m usually an advocate for “the simpler the better,” these flavors all have me drooling and I don’t think I could eliminate any of them either! So so pretty and delicious looking <3
ohhhhh my goodness! These look AMAZING. Beautiful photography, however I have a feeling these taste even better in person 🙂 My family thinks I’m half crazy as well, so I can totally level with you on that one. Hope you have a merry christmas/happy new year!
Julia
I’m so glad I didn’t get round to reading this post before Christmas, otherwise I would have raved about it to my doughnut-obsessed husband who would have insisted I make them for Christmas dessert! These look like perfection Claudia! And I can’t believe of all things you made doughnuts on your day off (though I’m so glad you did cos now I get to try them out too!). I’ve never made fried doughnuts before – it always feels like a lot of hassle when I start thinking about kneading and proving but clearly they’re worth the effort! Great flavour combinations and your tips I’m sure will come in handy!
Oh my goodness! This looks amazing! I love the shots with the filling oozing out xo
Thank you Anthea!! and oozy filling gets me eeeverrry time, so with you there! x
Wow! These look so AMAZING!
Thanks Jena! <3
Oooh, I have such a sweet spot for donuts and the nutella ones have completely grabbed my attention. Can I have one…now, please?