Prep Time: 30 min
Total Time: 150 min
Yield: 16
I’m forever grateful to whoever first dipped a cream-filled doughnut into caramel.
These doughnuts are perfectly pillowy, with a lightly sweet pastry cream and a crunchy caramel coating. If you’re new to yeast recipes, don’t worry—just make sure your yeast is fresh. If the dough hasn’t doubled in size after an hour, give it more time.
For perfect pastry cream, whisk continuously and work quickly to avoid burning. If it does burn, don’t scrape the bottom—strain the cream through a fine mesh once thickened. Also, be very careful with the hot caramel.
Serve these doughnuts fresh on the same day for the best experience.
The Dough
550 grams all-purpose flour
300 grams warm milk (divided)
60 grams Granulated sugar
60 grams unsalted butter (cold, cut in cubes)
1 egg+2 egg yolks
2 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
Pastry Cream
1 cup milk
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
pinch of salt
1/4 vanilla bean or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
Brûlée
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
The Dough
In a small bowl mix together 50 grams of warm milk with active dry yeast. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
In a bowl of a stand mixer, add flour, egg and yolks, rest of the warm milk and yeast mixture. With a dough hook attachment, knead the dough for 2-3 minutes. Add sugar and salt and knead for 5 minutes until dough form. Add the butter cubes slowly one at a time into the dough and keep the mixer running. Knead for 6-8 minutes until the dough is soft and elastic.
Cover the bowl with a towel. Let it rise in a slightly warm place for 1 hour until double in size.
Pastry Cream
In the meantime that dough rise, make the pastry cream. heat up the milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring it to simmer.
In a bowl, whisk sugar, corn starch, salt and egg yolks together until color turns light.
Add the hot milk to the yolk mixture very slowly and whisk at the same time. Do it very slowly or the yolks turns to scramble.
Pass the mixture through a sifter back to the saucepan. Keep whisking it over medium heat until starts bubbling and thickened. Take it off the heat and whisk in the butter.
Cover the custard with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic directly against the surface of the custard to avoid a skin forming. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until completely cooled.
Doughnut
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll the dough out to about 1/2 thick.
Use a round cookie cutter and cut the dough with it. Cover the doughnuts with a towel and let them rise for another 30 minutes.
Heat the oil in a skillet or large pot to 350F. Carefully place the round doughs into the hot oil, working in batches. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side or until gold brown.
Remove the doughnuts and place them on a paper towel.
Fill and Brûlée:
Fill a piping bag with pastry cream. Fill each doughnut from the side with pastry cream.
In a small saucepan add sugar and water, bring it to boil. Once the mixture starts boiling, reduce the heat to medium. Give the pan a gentle swirl occasionally, until it turns golden. Take the pan off the heat and swirl the pan until the color deepens slightly.
Work very carefully and deep top of each doughnut into the caramel. Then place the doughnut aside and let it cool.
Repeat with the remaining donuts. If you find the caramel in the saucepan is getting too stiff, return it to the heat. Swirling it, until it warms up and becomes less viscous.
Enjoy doughnuts with coffee or tea.
