Recipe
* for 12-14 donuts
Ingredients for dough:
400g all purpose flour
180ml warm milk
2 medium eggs at room temperature
50g melted butter
7g dry yeast (approx. 2 teaspoons)
85g of sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Ingredients for lemon curd:
500ml milk
60ml lemon juice
finely grated lemon zest
5 egg yolks
50g corn starch
150g sugar
50g butter
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or vanilla powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric for color
Steps to follow:
(1) Mix the dry yeast with 50ml of warm milk, 1 tablespoon of sugar and 1 tablespoon of flour and leave the composition for 15 minutes at room temperature. You will notice that our mixture will triple in size and will get a lot of bubbles
(2) Put the rest of the warm milk, the rest of the sugar and the eggs on top of the yeast mixture and mix with a whisk. Put the melted butter, salt and vanilla and incorporate them as well. Add the sifted flour and start kneading until you get an elastic dough, somewhere between 5-10 minutes. If you have a stand mixer, do not hesitate to use it, because it will make your work much easier. I used the mixer for kneading for 4-5 minutes at speed 2-3.
At the same time, DO NOT add extra flour. The dough is sticky, but if we add more flour we risk ending up with donuts that will be too dense, instead of being fluffy and light.
After kneading, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave to proof for 2 hours at room temperature. During this time our dough will increase 2.5 times in volume.
(3) Flour the work surface w and using a spatula remove the dough from the bowl. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll each ball into a rectangle, approximately 40x25cm.
Cut the dough into 7 triangles using a pizza knife.
Roll each triangle of dough carefully from the base, forming the croissant shape not too tight.
Form all the croissants and place them on a tray on individual baking papers, keeping a distance between them so that they do not stick together during the proofing. At the same time, make sure that the tip of the triangle is positioned under the croissant, so when we place it in the tray it does not unfold.
Cover with a cotton napkin and leave to proof for 30-45 minutes more.
(4) Heat a non-stick pan with oil. The oil level must be such that it reaches a little above the middle of the donuts when we fry them. After the oil is heated up, fry 3-4 donuts at a time on low to medium heat. Don't turn the heat up too much, because you will get raw donuts in the center and you can burn them on the outside. Fry them for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until they become nicely golden. Take them out on a metal grill or paper towels and let them cool a little.
(5) Prepare the lemon curd. Mix the cornstarch with the sugar in a non-stick bowl, add the egg yolks, the zest and the lemon juice and mix well again with the whisk/spatula. Add the milk and put the whole composition on medium heat, stirring constantly until it reaches the consistency of a pudding. At this point, turn off the heat and add the butter and lemon & vanilla extract.
Transfer the cream into a clean bowl and cover with plastic film directly over the cream, so that it does not form a crust on top. Let the cream cool completely.
After the donuts have cooled, we fill them with lemon cream and dust them with powder sugar.
Happy baking!
Love,
G.
