Doughnuts

May 23, 2020

Doughnuts

Doughnuts are those lovely little melt in your mouth bits of fried fermented dough, that little ring of happiness with sprinkles on top.

My heart always sways for the cinnamon sugar coated ones. My daughter on the other hand refuses to believe that doughnuts can exist without being dunked in chocolate. so I dunked hers in cocoa spread and tossed mine in cinnamon.

Finally with not much clue about what day it is and how to keep bringing up exciting stuff on the table, I was able to ensure that lucy ( my sourdough starter) was awakened and then the prep for bread and doughnuts was initiated.

I used my humble yet ever reliable air fryer to cut out some calories from the deep frying. The doughnuts turned out just fine and the proof lies in the crumb for all to see.

Time-

Dough kneading- 20 minutes

Dough proofing- minimum 2 hours if you don't have much time, 4 hours if u can spare some. overnight if ur ok with sourdough donuts

cooking-

air fryer- 5 minutes pre-heat, 10 minutes frying

otg- 20 minutes pre-heat, 20 minutes baking

hot wok- usually frying in hot oil for 5 mins.

Ingredients-

200gms- Whole wheat flour ( I used the Bigbasket royal one, you can go with any of the brands you prefer)

100gms- All purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar to make sure that the starter behaves

Active starter- 1 and 3/4 cup

Dry instant yeast- 2 teaspoons

100gms- curd

50gms- Ghee ( I prefer ghee coz butter and its texture is dicey as of now for me to play along with)

100gms cinnamon sugar ( brown sugar with cinnamon whizzed to powdery consistency)

100ml milk at normal temp.

200ml water to knead the dough

Process-

With the summers in Delhi, Its way more easier to not bother much on the temprature factor for the dough. Bread making requires practice and patience yet I dont yet have thermometer for same so I work with how well the dough looks proofed.

In a bowl whisk the flours together to make sure there is no lump. Make a small space in the middle of the flour pile and put the starter or yeast there. Sprinkle the sugar there which would make the yeast behave better. Add milk, and some water that would help you knead the mixture into a dough. Dont worry if you need more than the prescribed quantity of water. As long as the dough comes up smooth like a babies's bum, your good to go.

Once done, cover the same with cloth and leave it to rise up. The texture of bread you prefer is all the action of yeast and the fermentation it brings along. I usually leave it for 2 hours for the dough to rise, I punch it back and knead it with some dry flour, again put it back for proofing. After 2 more hours the dough is ready.

knead the same, evenly cut it into small pieces and roll into to shape of doughnuts. I dont have a cutter so I use this technique to roll the dough in the shape of donut. works for me.

just round up the dough for a piece, poke a hole in the centre with your finger and move it quickly like hoola hoop.

Air fryer- Set the temp to 200. Preheat for 5 minutes and then pop the rolled dough, another 10 minutes and its done.

Kadhai/Wok- Deep fry to the golden brown color in hot oil.

Oven- if you prefer cake texture donuts then you can bake this dough at 110 degrees in a convection oven which has been preheated at same temp for 20 minutes.

Toppings/Sprinkles- Go nuts literally with any flavour you want ( chocolate being most preferred) I have done mine in cinnamon sugar glaze.