Poolish
The poolish adds characteristic flavour to the donuts, but it can be skipped. Simply include the poolish ingredents with their corresponding ingredients in the dough to make a "straight dough".
Ingredients
- 150 g (2/3 cup) water
- 150 g (1 1/4 cups) all purpose flour
- 1 g (1/16 tsp) instant yeast
Steps
- Stir together the ingredients until a paste forms.
- Cover and let rest overnight, 8 - 12 hours. The dough will rise up but should not collapse before using.
Dough
Ingredients
- poolish
- 115 g (1/2 cup) milk
- 75 g (1/3 cup) butter
- 1 (50 g) egg
- 100 g (1/2 cup) sugar
- 7 g (1 tsp) salt
- 300 g (2 1/4 cup) all purpose flour
- 8 g (2 tsp) instant yeast
- shortening for frying
Steps
- Scald milk. Add butter to melt, and cool.
- Beat in eggs, sugar, and salt.
- Stir in poolish, flour and yeast. Knead well until smooth.
- Lightly oil a bowl with twice the volume of the dough. Place dough in bowl and cover.
- Proof in a warm place 2 hours until doubled in bulk.
- Collapse dough, knead briefly to work out large bubbles, and form into a ball. Rest a few minutes until it relaxes.
- Flour a baking sheet or other flat surface well for cut donuts. Set a wire rack over a drip tray for finished donuts.
- Roll dough out 1.5 cm thick and cut donuts. Combine the scraps, rest to relax, and re-roll cut until all the dough is used.
- Place donuts on the floured surface. Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double but still with structure, about 45 minutes.
- Add enough shortening to a pan or fryer to cover the donuts when melted (about 5 cm deep). Heat to 370 °F.
- Carefully remove each donuts from the resting surface so as not to collapse or mis-shape them.
- Gently set in shortening a few at a time, leaving room for expansion, and deep fry until light brown, about 1 minute. Turn over, and fry until second side browns, another 1 minute.
- Remove to the wire rack and let cool while frying the remainder.
Cool and dip in icing, cover on both sides with confectioners' sugar glaze, or roll in sugar.
Variation: Old-Fashioned Raised Donuts
Steps
- Reduce the milk by 1/4 cup and add 1 more egg.
- Replace half the granulated sugar with brown sugar.
- Add 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg with the flour and yeast.
Variation: Filled Donuts
Steps
- When cutting the dough, make rounds 10 cm in diameter, without holes.
- Prepare about 500 g filling. Common choices include Holland Cream, Pastry Cream, or jelly.
- After the dounuts have cooled, fill a pastry bag with the filling and fit with a filling tip. Insert the tip in the side of the donut, penetrating close to the far side. Gradually retreat the tip while squeezing the bag. Allow a generous amount of filling but be careful not to burst the donut.
Storage Instructions
Donuts don't store well, but can be frozen. Freeze the day they are made. Allow to thaw uncovered at room temperature.
