Donuts | Basics with Babish

Hey guys, welcome back to Basics with Babish, where this week we're looking at

donuts

, or the more well-known excuse to eat fried pie for breakfast. We're going to make a bunch of jelly and cream filled

donuts

and take a look at the lesser-known sour cream donut. Let's get to the gym... the

basics

, let's get to the

basics

. Alright guys, so let's start by making a standard yeast donut. We'll start by blooming our yeast in some milk that we've heated up, superheated to 120 degrees...we'll let it come down to 110. Add 1 teaspoon of sugar as a little snack for our yeast, we add 1 packet or two and a quarter teaspoons of yeast dry active.

Next we will measure our dry ingredients. First, 350 grams of all-purpose flour, 75 grams of plain white sugar, and a teaspoon of table salt that we're going to beat with America's favorite whisk: a small whisk, before we start adding the wet stuff. Firstly, three large egg yolks from three large eggs and our milk and yeast mixture which, as you can see, after ten minutes has turned into a big hot, foamy dough. We're putting all of this together gently with a wooden spoon, or you can do it with your hands, either way. We mix it until the dough forms a single shaggy mass that we can turn out onto a lightly floured counter and knead for no less or more than eight minutes.

After this nice little one-arm workout, we should be left with a soft, pliable ball of dough. One that we will cover in a greased bowl and let it rest for about an hour or until it doubles in size. This is the perfect time to start with our fillings, we will start with a pat of vanilla cream. We start by combining three large egg yolks, one whole egg, 85 grams of sugar and maybe about 30 grams of cornstarch. We beat this with a regular size whisk until it's smooth and creamy and then we'll add just a little bit of vanilla paste until we get a smooth and uniform mixture.

Into which we are going to slowly pour two cups of almost boiling milk, emphasizing here slowly at least for about the first half of the milk. This will temper the eggs and prevent them from becoming scrambled. To the second half you can add a slightly more aggressive rhythm because the eggs have been tempered. Then we return this mixture to the saucepan, return that saucepan to the stove and return the heat to medium-low while whisking constantly until nice and thick. This will take about five minutes and will seem like it doesn't work, but trust me, it does.

Then we pour the fat from the cream into a bowl, give it a little flavor, burn our finger because it is hot and press the plastic wrap directly on the surface of the pastry cream so that a skin does not form. Then we refrigerate it for at least two or until it is completely cold. Time during which we are going to deal with our donut dough. Place it on a lightly floured surface and punch it unsuccessfully a few times before rolling it out to about half an inch thick. Once we have it properly, we'll use a cookie cutter dusted with flour to cut these guys into donut-sized rounds.

We then retrieve these little guys and place them on a well-floured rimmed baking sheet for a second and final rise of about 45 minutes. Of course, you should reuse leftover dough, but these will produce misshapen donuts, making little snacks for the chef. Once you've used up all the dough and they're all sitting on the rimmed baking sheet, we'll cover them and let them rest for 45 minutes until they've puffed up a bit. Then, when they're almost done, we'll heat some vegetable oil in a cast iron skillet until it reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit, at which point our donuts will baste a little.

They should float immediately and in about 45 seconds to a minute they will be ready to flip. Another 45 seconds to 1 minute later and they are ready to remove and drain on a wire rack. Then you have to let them cool completely, but before they do, I will cover half of them with sugar, which you should do while they are still warm. I'll leave the rest playing for now because next we have to make a chocolate glaze. I'm combining 4 ounces of chopped chocolate with a quarter cup of steaming whole milk, and then I'll add some instant espresso powder and a couple tablespoons of cornstarch.

We're whisking that to combine and now that our donuts are cold it's time to fill and glaze them. Our pastry bag goes in a tall glass, which makes it a little easier to fill, and then we'll fill it with our pat of vanilla cream. As you can see, it has thickened quite a bit in the refrigerator. Then, using a paring knife, we make a small entry point on all of our donuts into which our fillings can be placed. Once everyone is filled with cream, it's time to frost. Simply dip the top of the donut into our chocolate glaze and let it harden for about 20 minutes.

Then put some seeded raspberry jam on our coated donuts, using the same procedure, make a hole, squeeze out some of the stuff and rejoice because, look, you just made donuts yourself. You've freed yourself from the stranglehold that big donuts have had on the donut industry since before you were born. Now these donuts are great, they are classic yeast donuts, but I have a soft spot for sour cream donuts that have a crispier, crunchier exterior and a moist, dense interior. We start by sifting 600 grams of pastry flour, one and a half tablespoons of baking powder and 2 teaspoons of table salt.

Simply sift it and set it aside while we combine 5 egg yolks in the bowl of a mixer, along with 250 grams of plain white sugar and 2 and 1/2 tablespoons of unsalted butter that we are going to cream using the paddle attachment. Then, to this mixture, we added about half of our dry ingredients, mixing just to combine, before adding 380 grams of sour cream. Then we beat this mixture until everything is well incorporated before adding the rest of the dry ingredients. We're mixing that using the paddle attachment for 45 seconds to 1 minute making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl because we want everyone to get to know each other thoroughly, we don't want them to be left behind at this party.

This will leave us with a wet and sticky dough that we are going to place in a bowl which we will cover and let rest in the refrigerator until it is completely cold, approximately one hour. After which you will notice that this dough has become much more manageable. So we turned it out onto a floured surface and rolled it out again until it was about half an inch thick. Then we generously sprinkle our cutter with flour because it is a very sticky dough and for this one we are using a real donut cutter so that this way we get donuts and holes.

In theory, that's... We have to get this guy out of here somehow. Let's try shaking it violently, see what it does... nothing. In the end, you want to gently pull it out of there making sure not to pinch any edges. We rinse and repeat with the rest of the dough and we are left with a lot of donuts and holes. All of which goes directly into a vat of 350 degree oil. First they will sink it and then very quickly rise to the top. Once they look nice and golden brown on one side, go ahead and flip them over, and you can see that the outside of these donuts are opening up, that's what we want.

That's the signature look of the sour cream donut. We'll let them cool completely on a rack making sure to fry the donut holes too, these will cook a little faster and then while they're all cooling it's time to make our glaze. We start by sifting about 400 grams of powdered sugar, to which we are going to add two teaspoons of light corn syrup, and a quarter cup of boiling water, we beat until it is completely combined and there are no lumps. Taste it a little to make sure it's sweet enough, I'm kidding, this is just pure sugar, and once our donuts have cooled completely, it's time to drop them in, fluff them a little with a fork, and then take them out. , repeating until everyone has a thin, thin layer of saccharine-sweet frosting.

Then we just have to let them harden for about 20 minutes before testing our hand-eye coordination. That only took me like five tries, I swear, and there you have it, simple sour cream glazed donuts. You can get creative with these, try using maple syrup instead of water in the frosting, glaze them, dip them, sprinkle them, whatever you want. Don't let anyone tell you how to make donuts, sorry... I'll see you next week on the bi-weekly livestream where I'll be making these donuts live here on YouTube and you can tune in anytime to chat with me. , enjoy the breeze or kitchen.

I'll see you until then, keep it basic...maybe not. I have to find a good logout slogan. I'll get back to you about that.