Doughnuts with Saffron Cream

Directions

• Doughnuts
• In your stand mixer bowl, add bread flour, all purpose flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Combine with a fork.
• Add your dough hook.
• Add melted butter, orange zest, and egg yolks and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.
• Combine milk and water in a small bowl and gradually pour into flour mixture.
• Set the mixer speed to medium-high for approximately 4 minutes, scrape down sides as needed, until dough is smooth.
• Remove dough from bowl and place on a lightly floured work surface.
• Gently knead until the dough is no longer sticky. Add small bits of flour if needed.
• Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place.
• Let the dough rise until doubled in size – this takes 1-4 hours depending on the temperature.
• When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Saffron Cardamom Custard Cream
• Combine egg yolks, sugar, cardamom, cornstarch, and vanilla seeds in a small bowl and whisk into a paste.
• Place milk and saffron in a small saucepan. Heat on low heat until milk is lightly simmering. Turn off heat.
• Slowly pour half of the hot milk into the egg mixture while simultaneously whisking.
• Whisk in the remaining milk mixture.
• Pour the contents back into the saucepan and cook on medium-low heat for 5-10 minutes whisking continuously, until the mixture is thick and smooth.
• Dip a metal spoon into the custard and run your finger across the back. The custard should thickly coat the spoon, and the line you traced should hold its shape without running.
• Remove from heat.
• Whisk in butter, one piece at a time until fully combined and smooth
• Transfer custard to a clean bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Make sure that the plastic is touching the custard all around – to avoid a skin from forming.
• Refrigerate until completely chilled – approximately 4-6 hours.
• Add heavy whipping cream to a bowl and whisk until soft peaks form.
• Add chilled custard and very lightly whisk together until just combined.
• Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Cardamom Sugar
• In a wide bowl, mix cardamom and sugar together. Store in a dry airtight container.
• Shaping Doughnuts
• Cut 18 4-inch/10-cm squares of parchment paper and arrange on 2-3 large baking sheets.
• Tip dough onto work surface, roll into a log and cut the log into 18 pieces. Make sure they’re roughly the same size. Each piece should weigh approximately 1⅔ oz (45 g)
• Shape each piece into a ball and place one per parchment square.
• Cover the baking sheets loosely with oiled plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise and double in size again. This can take up to 4 hours again, based on temperature.
• Frying Doughnuts
• Fill your fryer to the max oil line and heat to 355°F.
• Working in batches of 2–3, carefully lower each doughnut into the oil with its parchment square attached, parchment-side up. The parchment will release as the doughnut fries; remove it from the oil with tongs and discard.
• Fry for 3 minutes, turning over halfway through – until golden brown on both sides.
• As the paper comes off of the dough, use your tongs to pull it out of the oil, and discard.
• Using a slotted spoon, remove the doughnuts out of the oil. Drain on a paper towel briefly.
• Roll in cardamom sugar. You can cheat and eat a couple now, or set aside to cool before piping in custard.
• Using a small knife create a small hole on one side of the doughnut, twisting the knife gently to create a small tunnel through the center of the doughnut.
• Fill a piping bag with the custard and pipe into the doughnuts just before serving. You want to pipe in enough custard until the doughnut is full and a bit of custard is ready to pop out. As Prue would say “You squeeze the bag… when you meet that little bit of resistance, it usually means it’s full.”