Make Bread Ahead doughnuts at home during coronavirus lockdown

10 days into lockdown and if you aren’t growing a sourdough starter, you’ve probably baked a banana bread.

It seems like everyone is taking up baking – and honestly, we don’t blame them. It passes the time and you get some tasty comfort food at the end.

To help, Metro.co.uk has teamed up with Borough Market bakery Bread Ahead to bring you a week of recipes to make at home.

We’ve already had bagels, grissini sticks and yesterday it was cinnamon buns.

But today you’re in for something really special – doughnuts.

Back pre-coronavirus times (remember those!), people would queue around the block to buy one of these pillowy beauties.

So, instead, make a batch at home. Bread Ahead offer lots of different flavours but sometimes you can’t beat some jam in the middle.

Doughnut recipe

Makes 6 doughnuts 

• 170g strong white flour
• 1 medium egg (equivalent to 50g)
• 40g water
• 15g caster sugar
• 5g fresh yeast
• 3g salt
• 40g softened butter 

Bring all of the dough ingredients apart from the butter together in a bowl, tip onto the table, and using the heel of your hand, stretch and tear for eight minutes. 

If using an electric mixer, put all of the dough ingredients apart from the butter into the bowl of your mixer and, with the beater attachment, mix on a medium speed for eight minutes or until the dough starts coming away from the sides and forms a ball. 

Let the dough rest for one minute. If using an electric mixer, take care that it doesn’t overheat – it needs to rest as well as the dough!).

Continue to stretch and tear the dough, adding the butter 25g at a time, until it is all incorporated. Stretch and tear the dough for a further five minutes until it is glossy, smooth and very elastic when pulled. 

If using a mixer, start it up again on a medium speed and slowly add the butter to the dough – about 25g at a time. Once it is all incorporated, mix on high speed for five minutes.

Return your dough to the bowl, cover with cling film and leave to prove until it has doubled in size. Knock back the dough, then re-cover the bowl and put into the fridge to chill overnight. 

The next day, take the dough out of the fridge and cut into 50g pieces (you should get about six). Roll them into smooth, taught, tight buns and place them on a floured baking tray, leaving plenty of room between them as you don’t want them to stick together while they prove.

Cover lightly with cling film and leave for about four hours, or until about doubled in size. 

Get your deep-fat fryer ready or get a heavy-based saucepan and fill it up to the halfway point with sunflower oil (please be extremely careful, as hot oil is very dangerous).

Heat the oil to 180°C. When the oil is heated to the correct temperature, carefully remove the doughnuts from the tray by sliding a floured pastry scraper underneath them, taking care not to deflate them, and put them into the oil. 

Do not overcrowd the fryer – do two-three per batch, depending on the size of your pan. Fry for two minutes on each side until golden brown – they puff up and float.

Remove from the fryer and place on kitchen paper, then toss them in a bowl of caster sugar while still warm. Repeat until all are fried, BUT make sure the oil temperature is correct every time before you fry – if it is too high they will colour too quickly and burn, and will be raw in the middle. 

If it is too low the oil will be absorbed into the doughnut and it will become greasy. Set aside to cool before filling. 

To fill the doughnuts, make a hole in the crease of each one (anywhere around the white line between the top and bottom). Fill a piping bag with your desired filling and pipe into the doughnut until swollen with pride. The doughnuts are best eaten straight away. 

The last recipe will be shared tomorrow – it’s focaccia.

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