Soft and delicious doughnuts, a brioche dough very easy to prepare, perfect for making baked brioche, filled doughnuts, and indeed soft doughnuts or doughnut rings, also perfect to fill with a good pastry cream. This is the perfect and definitive recipe to make delicious doughnuts at home with an easy dough without a stand mixer, just need a bowl and a spoon and only when the dough becomes firmer do you finish working by hand, a soft but not sticky dough, suitable for a thousand preparations, a soft milk brioche dough that adapts well to any type of cooking, both fried and baked for those who want lighter leavened products. Let’s see how to prepare soft doughnuts with hand-kneaded dough.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Inexpensive
- Rest time: 4 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 12
- Cooking methods: Frying
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients for soft doughnuts
- 2 cups Manitoba flour
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 medium egg
- 3 tbsps sugar
- 3 tbsps butter
- 1 tsp fresh yeast
- Zest of 1 orange
- Zest of 1 lemon
- to taste vanilla
- 1 pinch salt
- Sunflower seed oil for frying
- Granulated or powdered sugar for sprinkling
Tools
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Grater
- 1 Pastry cutter
- 2 Parchment paper
- 1 Small pot
- 2 Forks
- 1 Spoon
- 1 Pastry board
- 1 Plastic wrap
- 1 Rolling pin
- 1 Paper towels
Preparation steps for soft doughnuts
In a bowl, put the yeast with the lukewarm milk, stir with a spoon, then add the egg, sugar, melted butter, and flavors, vanilla, grated orange, and lemon zest. Stir with the spoon.
Add the Manitoba flour and stir again with the spoon. Take a short break, add the salt, and then gradually the rest of the flour. Finally, knead by hand on a surface until you get a smooth and non-sticky dough.
Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, let rise in a warm corner for about 3-4 hours. I put it in the oven with the light on and a pot of hot water when it’s cold.
Take the risen dough and do 2 series of folds, at least 10 minutes apart.
Reform a dough ball, let it rest a bit, then roll it out with a rolling pin to form a rectangle. Roll out a sheet about 0.4 inches thick.
Use a 4-inch pastry cutter to cut out discs, and use a large tip for a piping bag, with a 0.4 inch opening, to make the hole in the center. As we prepare the doughnuts, place them on a baking sheet on a square of parchment paper.
Use the scraps too, recombine them to form a dough ball, let them rest a bit, and roll out again.
Let rise in a warm place with the pot of water, so it’s humid, for about an hour.
Fry in a small pot with plenty of sunflower seed oil, in hot oil at about 340°F. Let them brown on one side and then the other, then drain on paper towels, and roll them still warm in granulated sugar so it adheres well. If you prefer, they can also be dusted with powdered sugar. Great to enjoy just made, or if you want to eat them the next day, you can quickly reheat them in the microwave, no more than 30 seconds, or in the oven, they will be as soft as freshly made. Store them in a closed container.
