It was March 2013, we were in Melbourne, visiting for the Formula 1 Grand Prix, and we passed a little kiosk that made traditional fresh hot sugared jam donuts. You know the sort, the ones that you can smell from 100m down the road, and the jam oozes out all over your hands…
Well, my cherry babe bought one… I really wanted one… but refrained… and I have not been able to get them out of my mind them ever since, nursing one serious hanker.
There have been a number of attempts to subdue the yearning, but there really is nothing quite like a traditional hot donut. So I had to take things into my own hands and make one (read *more than I can eat in one sitting*).
Seeking out a jam donut recipe was not easy, there are dozens, and I had never made them before, so I wasn’t even sure what a donut dough looked like, let alone one that didn’t resemble a brick.
Then I found this one. It is sensational! Light, fluffy, and really quite easy to make. The lemon zest pushed it over the line from pretty good, to sensationally sensational. The only thing that was missing was my mum’s homemade blackberry jam. Hankering has now abated. Ahhhh… yes please…
Ingredients
1⅔ cups plain flour
2 tbsp caster sugar,
1 tsp salt
1 sachet dried yeast
2 eggs
zest of half a lemon
¼ cup warm water
4½ tbsp softened butter
canola oil for frying
½ cup blackberry jam
½ cup extra castor sugar for coating
1 tbsp cinnamon powder
Method
Place warm water, yeast and castor sugar in a small bowl, stir and set aside for a few minutes to allow yeast to activate. Place flour, eggs, zest and salt into the bowl a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add yeast mixture.
Set on low speed and mix until all of the ingredients are well combined and the texture has elasticity.
Add the butter, small pieces at a time and continue to mix until all of the ingredients are dispersed. Using soft butter helps here. There should be no butter lumps – it may take a few minutes.
After scraping down the sides of the bowl and mounding the dough towards the centre, cover the bowl with cling wrap and set aside in a warm place to rise to about double in size. This will take about 45 minutes.
Scrape the dough out onto a well-floured surface. The dough is quite sticky, so it is not that easy to manage, so flour up your hands as well. Mould the dough into rectangle approximately 12mm thick, and cut donuts using a 6cm cutter. You will get 9-12 donuts depending on how well you have managed to organise your dough.
Line the donuts on a lined baking tray – sprinkled with some flour – cover with cling wrap and set aside to rise again – another 45 minutes.
When donuts have risen, heat the oil. I used a deep fryer set at 170°C, frying a few donuts at a time. The dough can be a little tricky to handle, so handle gently and place into the oil. When they are golden brown, flip them over until the other side is golden brown as well. Remove from the oil and place on some paper towels to drain while you fry the remainder of the donuts.
When all of the donuts are cooked. Place the extra castor sugar and cinnamon in a dish and toss donuts in the mixture until coated.
Place the jam in a piping bag and squeeze a little jam into the side of each donut.
Voila! Now make yourself a cup of coffee and sit down and enjoy these little beauties!
Hope you enjoy this jam donut recipe!
This story is written by Petra Frieser – Pebbles + Pomegranate Seeds
