I eagerly anticipated this recipe test as I have a serious soft spot for doughnuts, in their many wonderful forms. In the spirit of testing as many different types of doughnut as possible, I opted for a loose interpretation of doughnut (fried dough), testing six recipes from different countries: beignets, crullers, classic American-style glazed doughnuts, jam doughnuts, churros and bomboloni. I spent a joyful day frying six doughs, before working on tweaking my own recipe for a perfect ring doughnut.
The dough
I explored three main dough types for this test: choux, yeasted enriched dough and a fritter-style baking powder leavened dough. The crullers and churros were made with a fairly classic choux pastry (although Melissa Weller’s infused the water with cinnamon for extra depth of flavour). The choux pastry was piped and chilled before being dropped into hot oil – although you could also pipe directly into the oil.
Mark Bittman’s classic glazed doughnut, and London restaurant St John’s renowned jam doughnut (developed by Justin Gellatly), all use an enriched, leavened dough. Yeast is used for leavening, and the dough is hydrated with milk, water or egg (or a combination of all three). The dough is enriched with butter (ranging from 6 to 25 per cent of total flour), and kneaded before a bulk prove, shaping and a second prove.
Finally, although bomboloni can also be made with a yeasted, enriched dough, Ravneet Gill’s ricotta version is a fritter style, which is leavened with baking powder and left to stand for 30 minutes before being dropped, one spoonful at a time, into the hot oil.
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Frying
The most important thing when frying doughnuts is to carefully monitor the temperature of the oil. I found the perfect temperature to be 170 degrees. It’s worth investing in an instant-read thermometer (a sugar thermometer will work too). If the oil is too hot, the doughnuts will fry too quickly on the outside, but remain raw on the inside. If the oil is too cool, the doughnuts will absorb the oil as they cook and take much longer, leaving them pale and greasy. It’s easiest to regulate this in a deep-fryer, but you can also do it in a wide saucepan over a medium heat. If the heat rapidly increases, turn off the heat, and you can add a splash more room temperature oil to help bring it back to temperature. It’s also worth noting that when you add the doughnuts to the oil, they will bring the temperature down, so check the temperature regularly as you fry.
Finishing
The jam doughnut, churros and bomboloni were tossed in sugar before being served, and the beignet was dredged with icing sugar. Once the doughnuts have cooled for about 10 minutes, you can toss them in sugar and serve them right away. If you’re putting any type of filling in your doughnut, though (jam, crème pâtissière and so on), it’s best to let them cool to room temperature before filling.
If you are glazing your doughnuts (as with the cruller and classic glazed doughnut), let them cool to room temperature first. If you want the glaze to enrobe the entire doughnut, keep the consistency of the glaze fairly loose, and dip the whole doughnut before setting it on a rack over a baking tray to set.
Recipe: Beth O’Brien’s glazed ring doughnuts
Sources
Beignets: kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-beignets-recipe; Crullers: epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/french-crullers-51157200; Classic glazed doughnut: cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017065-classic-glazed-doughnuts; St John jam doughnut: theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/mar/17/st-john-bakery-doughnut-recipe; Churros: A Good Bake, Melissa Weller; Ricotta bomboloni: Sugar, I Love You, Ravneet Gill
