Baked Doughnut – Sweet Tooth Experiments

Jam Cheesecake Baked Doughnuts

For a long long time I have been wanting to make doughnuts but have been a bit put off my the frying step, not being an expert in dough and how to recreate this very common (even worldwide) baking treat making it improved not inferior.

Now there are thousands and thousands of doughnut recipe versions that appear in recipe books and the internet so how do you analyze and investigate to not only find the best one but the best one and make it better.

Step 1. Find the best doughnut dough recipe. This was actually quite interesting as I then became exposed to a few ‘baked’ doughnut recipe versions. This then made me keen to do a fried v baked experiment.

Step 2. To fairly compare which makes the better doughnut fried or baked I ensured the method’s steps were identical (apart from the crucial 3 steps). These steps entailed frying the doughnuts before rolling in the cinnamon sugar or baking in the oven.

The key reviews (friends/family/me in a blind taste test) of the comparison are:

The fried version is much darker in colour and more evenly coloured.
The baked version is slightly bigger for some reason.
Both are extremely spongy and take to the sugar crumb well.

Outcome = the baked version, which was unexpected. Which leads to the questions – If baking doughnuts produce a better results then why do we bake them? Tradition? Also the baked version is so so so much more healthier why would you fry when you can bake? And baking is much easier than frying…

Regardless I still needed to put my twist on this and decided that instead of just a plain jam filling I would turn the doughnut into a ‘cheesecake’ by making a low fat ricotta and jam filling for a more fulfilling and satisfying doughnut.

Just putting it out there, I love this recipe and can guarantee you if I make doughnuts again I will for sure be baking them!

Ingredients:

Oil for frying

Dough:

5g dried yeast
225g flour
½ tsn salt
40g sugar
120ml milk
30g butter
1 egg

Filling:

180g ricotta cheese
75g raspberry jam

Sugar crumb:

190g sugar
1 tsn cinnamon

Method:

Stir the yeast with 40ml of warm water and set aside for 7 minutes or until foamy.
Dust a bench with flour.
Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and make a well in the middle of the bowl.
Place the sugar and cinnamon into a large bowl for dusting later, set side.
In a small bowl microwave the milk until it is luke warm, add the butter, whisk and place in the well.
Add the egg yolk to the well.
Using your hand massage the ingredients together until a sticky dough has formed and the mix is well combine.
Transfer the dough to the pre-floured bench and knead adding flour as you require until the dough is elastic and smooth (approx. 7 minutes).
Transfer the dough to the bowl and cover with cling wrap for 1 – 1 ½ hours or until the dough is doubled in size.
Flour the bench again and transfer the dough to the bench.
Lightly give the dough a little knead then roll the dough out with a rolling pin lightly. to 1.5cm in height.
Using a cookie cutter around 7cm in radius cut out doughnuts.
Place the doughnuts onto a baking tray lined with baking paper and cover with cling wrap for 40-45 minutes of until doubled in size again.
Meanwhile to make the filling beat the cheese and jam until smooth and place in the fridge for later.
Pre-heat the oven to 180c degrees and bake the doughnuts in the oven for 12 minutes until golden brown.
Brush cooked doughnuts with butter then toss in the bowl of sugar&cinnamon.
Place the doughnut onto a cooling rack to completely cool.
Using a long tube piping nozzle pierce each doughnut, ensuring a hole through the doughnuts.
Once the doughnut is cooled spoon the cheese mix into a piping bag fitted with a long tube nozzle.
Pipe each doughnut with the cheese in the pre pierced hole until the doughnut starts to swell slightly, repeat until all doughnuts are filled.

FRYING METHOD (replace steps 15-17 with the below):

15. Heat oil in a saucepan until the temperature hits 170c degrees.
16. Add the doughnuts 3 at a time to the oil and fry for approx. 4 mins, turning the doughnut after a few minutes to ensure the doughnut gets fully cooked and golden.
17. Once completely golden in colour place the doughnut into the sugar&cinnamon bowl, toss and place the doughnut onto a cooling rack to completely cool.