We Knead to Bake - 6 Baked yeasted Doughnuts

This may be a bit confusing that I posted a bread few days ago and numbered it ‘We knead to Bake 7’ while this has been numbered 6. I had missed a few breads that the members of the group had done. Now I am trying to bake those and post them too.
The first Friday of June has been marked in the US of A as National doughnut Day. The first National doughnut Day dates back to 1938, to raise funds for the Salvation Army. It was that during 1917, the First World War, the Salvation Army volunteers made them for the homesick American soldiers who were then serving in France. They were so popular that later a day had been marked to celebrate them.

 

Aparna had suggested we bake doughnuts in June. I was able to bake them much later and post them only now.

There was a time that to me bread meant only the regular sandwich ones or buns. Even if I were to spot anything other than those, I may not have tried them. Only when we moved to Malaysia and during the initial days of hotel accommodation, I ventured to try the varieties that came in our breakfast bread basket. I was particularly fond of the sugar dusted doughnuts. Later, my friend warned me that they were fried stuff which led me to approach them with caution. 

I have, in my books, a recipe for the fried doughnuts. This month's is not; I cannot claim that these are healthier and such. But they were sure better tasting and stayed soft for a day longer. I set aside a Saturday and my husband and daughter were around to do a few errands. So we baked a few, glazed, jam filled and pops. This is a recipe that I might use often for we liked them much.

Recipe adapted from Lara Ferroni's Doughnuts.

 

Ingredients:

1/4 cup superfine sugar

1 cup warm milk (45C/115F)

3/4 tablespoon instant yeast (or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast)

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 to 3 1/2 cups cake flour (or all-purpose flour) divided, plus more for kneading

100gm butter, cut into 1 inch cubes 

For the topping:

75 to 100 grams butter, melted

1 cup superfine sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon (more or less, depending on your taste), mixed together

And

Glaze of choice - Maple syrup and heavy cream

And 

Jam to be piped in

Method:

I used the processor to knead but you can do this by hand also.

Place sugar, milk, yeast, salt and vanilla in the processor bowl and pulse to mix well. 

Add the cake flour and 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Process this adding a little more of the flour as necessary till the dough is thick and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Add the butter pieces one at a time and process till there no large chunks of butter are left in the bottom of the bowl. 

Now add a little more flour until your have a soft, pliable and elastic dough that is most but not overly sticky.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently until the dough no longer sticks to your hands. 

Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased large mixing bowl. Turn the dough around to coat well with the oil. 

Cover with a damp cloth and leave it rise till double in volume, say for about an hour.

Punch the dough down, roll out to a 1/2" thick somewhat circular disc. 

Cut out doughnuts using a doughnut cutter of 3” diameter and 1” diameter holes.

If you’re making doughnuts to fill with jam, do not cut out the holes.

Place the doughnuts and the holes on parchment lined or lightly greased baking sheets, leaving at least 1” space between them.

Re-roll the scraps and cut out more doughnuts. 

I used the last scraps of dough by pinching off bits, rolling them into balls and baking them as pops.

Let them rise for about 20 minutes or till almost double in size.

Pre heat the oven to 200 Degrees Centigrade.

Bake the doughnuts at 200 C  for about 5 to 10 minutes till they are done and golden brown. Do not over bake them.

Take them out of the oven and immediately brush them with the melted butter and then dip them into the cinnamon sugar mixture. 

For  jam filled the doughnuts, allow them  to cool. 

Place the jam into a piping bag with a writing nozzle/ tip and press into the doughnut from the side and gently press out the jam into the doughnut till it starts oozing out. Jam doughnuts do not need too much jam to fill them.

For glazed doughnuts, let them cool completely.

Prepare the glaze of choice and then dip one side of the doughnut in the glaze and  set.

To make the Maple syrup glaze, I mixed 1 cup of icing sugar with 1/3 cup heavy cream and mixing in enough Maple syrup to achieve a slightly thick mixture that set quickly in a thick glaze.

For some interesting facts about doughnuts check out this post and there you may also find links to other members' posts.