FRIED DOUGHNUTS WITH CITRUS PASTRY CREAM
Leavened and fried sweets, perfect during Carnival season, for a snack or a buffet with friends, soft and filled with lots of citrus-scented pastry cream.
I’ve wanted to make fried doughnuts for a long time, but between one preparation and another, they were always put aside. Today I finally decided to make them: of course, I used my sourdough but with 1 gram of brewer’s yeast, just like in croissants I always prefer mixed leavening for these preparations.
Mixed leavening is a useful way to have a soft and tasty product but that speeds up the leavening times a bit: the enzymes of the sourdough work gradually to give a product that lasts long, and the brewer’s yeast gives the initial boost to speed up the times.
Let’s see how I made them, following my colleague MAMI CABRAS’s recipe but of course adapting it a bit to my needs.
EMIMETTOAIFORNELLI recommends:
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 8 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 10
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (strong or Manitoba)
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1/3 cup liquid sourdough
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 lemon
- 1/2 tsp dry brewer's yeast (5 g fresh yeast)
- 1/3 cup butter (soft)
- 1 qt vegetable oil
- powdered sugar
Tools
For the successful outcome of the recipe, I recommend these tools (ADV)
- Stand Mixer
Steps
Refresh your sourdough starter as you are used to and let it double (mine takes about 3 hours)
If you want the recipe with only brewer’s yeast you can use the ingredients here
In a stand mixer, pour all the ingredients a little at a time, preferably warm the milk to room temperature and add the butter last.
Cut it into pieces and add it to the mixer a little at a time.
N.B You can also do it with electric whisks with dough hooks or by hand, it will just take a bit of patience and add the liquids a little at a time.
Once the dough forms a ball, leave it at room temperature for an hour (this will give time for the sourdough to activate) and then in the refrigerator overnight. (I always recommend 8 hours)
In the morning, take it out, deflate it, and let it acclimate for a couple of hours.
Then roll it out on a floured surface and proceed with the folds: form a rectangle, starting from the short side, bring it to the center, then fold the upper side over the first flap.
Turn it lengthwise and fold like a book.
Let the dough rest for 30 minutes and then roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 1/2 inch: use a pastry cutter or a cup to cut the doughnuts and place them on a sheet of parchment paper.
Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for another two hours.
Meanwhile, as the doughnuts rest, make the citrus pastry cream, I use my foolproof recipe CITRUS PASTRY CREAM
Once the pastry cream is ready, let it cool with cling film in contact so the unpleasant crust does not form.
It’s time to cook the doughnuts: in a fairly large pot pour the vegetable oil (or your preferred frying oil) and as soon as it reaches temperature you can dip the doughnuts.
To know if the oil is ready, insert a toothpick and if many bubbles form you can continue cooking: cut the parchment paper around each doughnut and dip them head down, so the parchment paper is on top and with tongs remove the paper, wait a couple of minutes and turn.
Once all the ingredients are well cooled it is time to fill with the cream: transfer to a piping bag and with the long spout pierce the doughnuts and fill them.
Two tips:
– if the cold cream has become too hard, microwave it for a minute to make it easier to squeeze out.
– if you don’t have a piping bag, cut the doughnut in half and fill, they’ll be delicious anyway 🙂
A generous sprinkle of powdered sugar and the FRIED DOUGHNUTS WITH CITRUS PASTRY CREAM are ready to be DEVOURED, or if you’re nice, offer them to your neighbors 😉
