Baked Doughnuts with Double Glaze

Doughnuts/Donuts are ubiquitous in the United States of America and are referred to as a Fried dough confectionery. They are typically either ring shaped or round without a hole and use a variety of toppings and flavourings. The filled doughnuts commonly have fruit preserves, cream, custard or other sweet fillings. The doughnuts are glazed with different types of sugar glazing such as Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry etc.

Though traditionally fried, doughnuts are also Baked for a low fat version. However, the baked ones do not stand the test of Taste compared with the Fried ones.

My tryst with these sinful yummies was while staying in a hostel during college days. A doughnut was bought to satisfy the usual  hunger pangs which would take care of the tummy and the pocket. The chocolate dipped fried piece of goodness  never went wrong!

Last year I attempted some Doughnuts while staying in Allahabad and wasn't very happy with the bready doughy taste. Perhaps the sugar in the dough was less and so even the generous chocolate glaze did not help my taste buds. Though ironically, the same doughnut was thought to be bought from a bakery and was loved by all. 

We Knead to Bake for the month of June was Baked doughnuts and though initially I was apprehensive, I tried 1/4 of the recipe to check the baked cousin. My new doughnut pan also needed a trial and so they were made and glazed generously with Caramel and Chocolate. Personally, I loved this doughnut recipe as the dough had the right amount of sweetness and the doughnuts turned out to be a very yummy treat.

The Half and Half Glaze-Caramel and Dark Chocolate

Recipe source: Adapted from Lara Ferroni’s Book-'Doughnuts'

Ingredients : I used 1/4 of the recipe to yield 4 doughnuts

• 1 tbsp sugar, superfine or powdered
• 1/4 cup warm milk (45C/115F)
• 3/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Cake Flour-1/4 cup all purpose flour+1 tsp cornstarch
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour+ more if required
• 25 gm cold butter, cut into 1 inch cubes

Topping :

Glaze of choice-I used Caramel sauce, Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate

Procedure : 

Put the sugar, milk, yeast and vanilla in a bowl and mix well. 
Add the cake flour and 1/4 cup of all-purpose flour and mix, adding a little more of the flour as necessary till the dough is thick and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Now add the butter pieces one at a time and mix.
Knead till the dough is soft, pliable and elastic but not overly sticky.

Shape the dough into a ball and place in a lightly greased large mixing bowl, turning it to coat well. Cover with a damp muslin cloth/towel and let it rise till double in volume for about an hour.

Punch down the dough and roll out to a thickness of 1/2". Cut out doughnuts using a doughnut cutter or an other round thing eg glass to cut out 3” diameter with 1” diameter holes. I used my doughnut pan. Place the doughnuts and the holes on parchment lined or lightly greased baking sheets, leaving at least 1” space between them.

Let them rise for about 20 minutes or till almost double in size and then bake them at 200C (400F) for about 5 to 10 minutes till they’re done and golden brown. Do not over bake them.

Allow to cool completely.

Topping
Prepare Caramel sauce from the recipe here
Melt some dark and white chocolate separately and add cream to it to make the respective glaze.

Dip one side of the doughnut in the Caramel glaze and the other end in the Dark chocolate glaze.This can get messy so you may place them on a wire rack to set.
I piped some thin lines on the Caramel glaze side top of the doughnuts with dark and white chocolate and made concentric circles with a toothpick on it for the effect. 

Linking this recipe to Bake Fest# 21, brainchild of Vardhini

Happy Doughnut Eating
Amrita