Boston cream doughnuts

Delicious doughnuts filled with pastry cream and topped with a chocolate glaze, popular all over the world. They were undoubtedly inspired by Boston cream pie. Traditionally, pastry cream is used to fill these doughnuts (you can use my homemade éclair pastry cream), but in this recipe I have opted for a lighter pastry cream. Boston cream doughnuts are delicious and I highly recommend them!

Ingredients for 16 large doughnuts.

Ingredients for the yeasted dough:

• 650 g strong white bread flour
• 2 large eggs
• 115 g butter, melted
• 80 g caster sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 2 tbsp vodka or 1 tbsp pure alcohol (spirytus)
• 310 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, prepare a starter first). 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 extra flour, even though the dough will be slightly sticky; I recommend kneading it using a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or in a bread machine). Place the kneaded dough in a lightly floured bowl, cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (approximately 1½ hours).

After this time, transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead briefly. Shape the dough by hand – tear off pieces and weigh approximately 80–82 g for each doughnut. Shape into balls, then place on a tea towel or work surface dusted with plain flour. Cover the doughnuts and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (approximately 40 minutes, depending on the ambient temperature; the doughnuts should be nicely puffed up but not over-proved).

Once risen, fry the doughnuts in oil heated to 175°C, for several minutes on each side. The oil should not be too hot, as the doughnuts will brown quickly on the outside while remaining raw inside; if the oil is too cool, the doughnuts will absorb too much fat. After frying, transfer to kitchen paper to drain and cool.

Fill the Boston cream doughnuts with the pastry cream and coat with the chocolate glaze. Once the glaze has set, transfer to a serving plate.

Ingredients for the pastry cream:

• 1 packet of sugar-free vanilla custard powder (a packet intended for 500 ml milk)
• 250 ml milk
• 3 tbsp sugar
• seeds from 1 vanilla pod (optional)
• 250 g mascarpone, chilled

Prepare the custard with 3 tbsp sugar and the vanilla according to the instructions on the packet, using 250 ml milk instead of 500 ml. Bring to the boil and cook briefly, then remove from the heat, transfer to a bowl and cover with cling film, pressing it directly onto the surface of the custard. Leave to cool, then chill in the fridge.

Place the chilled mascarpone in the bowl of a stand mixer and whip briefly (using the whisk attachment). Add the cold custard in three batches, continuing to whisk. The custard will be thick and lumpy at first, but as it is mixed with the mascarpone it will become a smooth, uniform pastry cream.

Ingredients for the chocolate glaze:

• 1¾ cups icing sugar
• ¼ cup cocoa powder
• ¼ cup warm milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and mix with the back of a spoon. If the glaze is too thick, add a little milk; if it is too runny, add more icing sugar and mix again.

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!

Recipe adapted from: cooking.nytimes.com,