Ring Doughnuts Food

RING DOUGHNUTS

Steps:

• For the doughnuts, place all the ingredients into a large bowl (except the sunflower oil) with three tablespoons of water.
• Stir with your hands to make a dough.
• Gradually add another another tablespoon of water and massage in the bowl for four minutes.
• Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead well for 10 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• Place into a bowl and leave to rise for 40 minutes, covered with a damp tea towel.
• Tip the dough out, again onto a very lightly floured surface.
• Divide the dough in half.
• With a floured rolling pin, roll out the dough quite thinly to about 1cm/½in thick. Cut into rounds using an 8cm/3¼in straight sided round cutter, then use a 2cm/¾in cutter to cut holes out of the middle.
• Spin each doughnut on your index finger to expand the hole.
• You should be able to cut out about eight doughnuts from this dough. Place all circles onto an oiled baking tray, loosely cover with cling film, not allowing it to touch the top of the doughnuts and leave to rise for 30 minutes.
• Preheat a deep fat fryer, filled with sunflower oil to 180C/350F (Caution: hot oil can be dangerous; do not leave unattended.)
• Drop each doughnut in separately, cooking each side for about a minute or until golden-brown. Remove with a slotted spoon and place onto a plate lined with kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil.
• Leave to cool.
• For the icing, gradually add 25ml/1fl oz of cold water to the icing sugar. It will eventually turn into a thick paste. Stir in the lemon zest.
• When the whole doughnuts have cooled, brush the tops of the doughnuts with the icing. Sprinkle over a little more lemon zest.
• Leave to set on a cooling rack, to cool completely.

DOUGHNUT DOUGH

Steps:

• Put 150g water and all the dough ingredients, apart from the butter, into the bowl of a mixer with a beater paddle. Mix on a medium speed for 8 mins or until the dough starts coming away from the sides and forms a ball. Turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for 1 min.
• Start the mixer up again on a medium speed and slowly add the butter to the dough - about 25g at a time. Once it is all incorporated, mix on high speed for 5 mins until the dough is glossy, smooth and very elastic when pulled.
• Cover the bowl with cling film or a clean tea towel and leave to prove until it has doubled in size. Knock back the dough in the bowl briefly, then re-cover and put in the fridge to chill overnight.
• The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and cut it into 50g pieces (you should get about 20).
• Roll the dough pieces into smooth, tight buns and place them on a floured baking tray, leaving plenty of room between them, as you don't want them to stick together while they prove.
• Cover loosely with cling film and leave for 4 hrs or until doubled in size. Fill your deep-fat fryer or heavy-based saucepan halfway with oil. Heat the oil to 180C.
• When the oil is heated, carefully slide the doughnuts from the tray using a floured pastry scraper. Taking care not to deflate them, put them into the oil. Do 2-3 per batch, depending on the size of your fryer or pan.
• Fry for 2 mins each side until golden brown - they puff up and float, so you may need to gently push them down after about 1 min to help them colour evenly.
• Remove the doughnuts from the fryer and place them on kitchen paper.
• Toss the doughnuts in a bowl of caster sugar while still warm. Repeat the steps until all the doughnuts are fried, but keep checking the oil temperature is correct - if it is too high, they will burn and be raw in the middle; if it is too low, the oil will be absorbed into the doughnuts and they will become greasy. Set aside to cool before filling.
• To fill the doughnuts, make a hole with a small knife in the crease of each one, anywhere around the white line between the fried top and bottom.
• Fill a piping bag with your filling and pipe into the doughnut until nicely swollen - 20-50g is the optimum quantity, depending on the filling; cream will be less, because it is more aerated. After filling, the doughnuts are best eaten straight away, but will keep in an airtight tin.
• FillingsCustard filling: Try out Justin's custard filling and, if you like, add different flavours to the custard as follows...Brown sugar: Replace the caster sugar with half soft dark brown sugar and half light brown sugar. You can add chopped stem ginger to the finished custard, or some hazelnut praline. Finish with half the quantity of cream.Chocolate: Whisk 150g dark (70%) chocolate into the milk. Finish with half the cream.Coffee: Add 4 tbsp of freshly ground strong coffee to the milk.Malt & vanilla: Mix 2 tbsp of powdered malt into the sugar, and 2 tbsp of liquid malt into the milk.Saffron: Add a good pinch of saffron to the milk. Finish with half the quantity of cream.Violet custard: Add 3 tsp of violet extract and 3 tbsp of violet liqueur to the finished custard. Sprinkle sugared violets and crushed Parma Violet sweets over the top of the filled doughnuts.

COCONUT ICED DOUGHNUTS

Steps:

• Weigh the flour, sugar and 1 /2 tsp salt into a large bowl or the bowl of a tabletop mixer. Add the yeast, 100ml warm water, the eggs and the butter or coconut oil, then mix with a wooden spoon until it becomes a smooth, sticky dough.
• Tip the dough onto a work surface and knead for 10 mins or until it feels stretchy and silky - if it sticks to your hands at first, add a little extra flour, but don't be tempted to add too much as this will make the dough heavy. Clean the bowl and oil it lightly, return the dough and turn over until coated in oil. Wrap the bowl in cling film and set aside in a warm place for 2-3 hrs until doubled in size. Alternatively, mix in a tabletop mixer for 5-8 mins until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
• Once the dough has risen, tip it onto the work surface and punch out any air bubbles. Roll it out to a rectangle roughly 2cm thick. Using an 8cm biscuit cutter, stamp out as many circles as you can - you should get 12 if you scrunch up and re-roll the trimmings. Use a smaller biscuit cutter (about 2cm) or a large piping nozzle to stamp out a hole in the middle of each doughnut. Arrange the doughnuts and the doughnut holes over two baking trays, cover with lightly oiled cling film and leave to rise for 1 hr or until almost doubled in size again.
• While the doughnuts rise, make the icing by combining the coconut milk and icing sugar in a bowl. Divide the icing into as many bowls as the number of colours you'd like to use, then add a drop of food colouring to colour each one a vivid shade.
• Half-fill a deep fryer or large pan with oil and heat to 180C. If you don't have a thermometer, check the temperature with a piece of bread - it'll turn golden brown in about 45 secs when the oil is ready.
• When you're ready to fry, have a plate lined with kitchen paper to hand. Drop one or two ring doughnuts and a few doughnut holes into the pan at a time, making sure you don't overcrowd it. Cook the doughnuts for 2-3 mins each side until deep golden brown, then flip over and cook for another 2-3 mins. When the doughnuts are cooked, drain on kitchen paper.
• When all the doughnuts and doughnut holes have been cooked, dip into the coloured icings. Top some of the doughnuts with coconut shavings, if you like. Best served on the day, but will keep for 2 days in a tin.