Banoffee doughnuts

Love dulce de leche and want to incorporate it into doughnuts? Nothing could be simpler ;). These indulgent banoffee doughnuts are filled with dulce de leche, bananas and whipped cream, inspired by the famous British dessert, banoffee pie. Once fried and cooled, the doughnuts are sliced open and filled with a few extra delicious calories. If it’s Carnival, it’s Carnival ;).

Ingredients for approximately 15 large doughnuts.

Ingredients for the dough:

• 550 g strong white bread flour
• 1 large egg
• 2 egg yolks, from large eggs
• 100 g butter, melted
• 70 g caster sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp rum
• 250 ml lukewarm milk
• 20 g fresh yeast or 10 g dried yeast

Sift the flour and mix with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, first prepare a yeast starter). Add the remaining ingredients and knead, adding the melted butter towards the end. Knead for several minutes until the dough is smooth and soft. Try not to add additional flour, even though the dough will be slightly sticky. I recommend using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or a bread machine. Place the dough in a lightly floured bowl, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size, approximately 1½ hours.

Transfer the risen dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly. Divide into portions weighing approximately 78 g each and shape into smooth balls. Place the doughnuts on a lightly floured tea towel or work surface. Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size, approximately 25–40 minutes, depending on the room temperature. They should be nicely puffed but not overproofed.

Fry the doughnuts in oil heated to 175°C, for several minutes on each side. The oil should not be too hot, otherwise the doughnuts will brown too quickly on the outside while remaining raw inside. If the oil is too cool, they will absorb too much fat. Transfer the fried doughnuts to paper towels to drain.

Ingredients for the banoffee filling:

• 1 can dulce de leche (400 g)
• 2–3 bananas
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 200 ml double cream, chilled
• icing sugar, for dusting

Stir the dulce de leche until smooth. Slice the bananas and toss with the lemon juice. Whip the chilled cream until stiff.

Slice the doughnuts open and fill with dulce de leche, bananas and whipped cream. Dust with icing sugar and transfer to a serving platter.

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

Enjoy!