Hey guys, welcome back to Basics with Babish where this week we're taking a
look at donuts, or the best known excuse for eating deep-fried cake for breakfast.
We're gonna whip up a mess of jelly and cream filled doughnuts and take a look
at the lesser-known sour cream donut. Let's get down to the gym... basics, let's get down to basics.
Alright guys, so let's start out by making a standard yeasted doughnut we're
gonna start by blooming our yeast in some milk that we've heated, over heated
to 120 degrees... gonna let it come down to 110. Add 1tsp of sugar as a nice little
snack for our yeast, we're adding 1 packet or two and a quarter teaspoons of
active dry yeast. Then we're gonna measure out our dry ingredients. First up,
350 grams of all-purpose flour, 75 grams of plain old white sugar, and one
teaspoon of table salt that we're going to whisk together using America's
favorite whisk: tiny whisk, before starting to add wet stuff. First off,
three large egg yolks from three large eggs, and our milk and yeast mixture
which as you can see after ten minutes has bloomed into a big hot foamy mess.
We're gently just bringing all this together with a wooden spoon, or you can
do it with your hands, either way. We're mixing it until the dough forms a single
shaggy mass one that we can turn out onto a lightly floured countertop and
knead for no fewer and no greater than eight minutes. After this nice little
single arm workout we should be left with a ball of smooth supple dough. One
that we are going to cover in an oiled Bowl and let rise for about one hour or
until doubled in size this is the perfect time to get started on our
fillings we're going to start with a vanilla creme pat. We're starting by
combining with three large egg yolks, one whole egg, 85 grams of sugar, and maybe
like 30 grams of cornstarch. We're whisking this together using normal
sized whisk until it is smooth and creamy and then we're going to add just
a dab of vanilla paste until we get a smooth ribbony mixture. Into which we are
going to slowly pour two cups of almost boiling milk an emphasis on slowly here
at least for about the first half the milk. This is going to temper the eggs
and prevent them from turning scrambled. The latter half you can add it a
slightly more aggressive pace because the eggs have been tempered. We're then
returning this mixture back to the saucepan, returning that saucepan back to the
stovetop, and returning the heat to medium-low while whisking constantly
until nice and thick. This is gonna take about five minutes and it's gonna look
like it's not working but, trust me it is. We're then transferring our creme fat
into a bowl, giving a little taste, burning our finger because it's hot, and pressing
plastic wrap directly down onto the surface of the pastry cream so as it
does not form a skin. We are then refrigerating this for at least two
or until chilled completely. During which time we are going to deal with our
donut dough. Turning it out onto a lightly floured surface patting it
ineffectually a few times before rolling out to about a half inch thickness. Once
we've got it appropriately then we're using a biscuit cutter dusted with flour
to cut these guys down into donut sized rounds. We are then retrieving these
little guys and placing them on a well floured rimmed baking sheets for a
second and final rise of about 45 minutes. You should of course repurpose
your dough scraps but these are going to yield kind of misshapen donuts so
they're little snacks for the chef. Once you've used up all your dough and
everybody's sitting pretty on the rimmed baking sheet we're going to cover and
let rise for 45 minutes just until they've puffed up a bit. Then when
they're almost ready to go we're going to heat up some vegetable oil in a
cast-iron skillet until it reaches 350 degrees Fahrenheit at which points our
donuts are going for a little swim. They should float immediately and within
about 45 seconds to a minute they're gonna be ready to flip. Another 45
seconds to 1 minute later and they are ready to be removed and drained on a
wire rack. They must then be allowed to cool completely but before they do I'm
gonna coat half of these in sugar what you got to do while they're still warm.
The rest I'm leaving playing for now because next up we got to make a
chocolate glaze. I'm combining 4 ounces of chopped chocolate with a quarter cup
of steaming whole milk, and then I'm going to add a little shot of instant espresso powder,
and a couple tablespoons of cornstarch. We're whisking that to combine and now
that our donuts are cool it's time to fill and frost. Into a tall drinking
glass goes our piping bag that makes it a little bit easier to fill, and then
we're gonna fill it with our vanilla creme pat. Which as you can see has
thickened up considerably in the refrigerator. Then using a paring knife we're making a
little entry point into all of our doughnuts into which our fillings can be
deposited. Once everybody's all chock full of cream it's time to glaze. Simply
dunk the top of the doughnut into our chocolate glaze and let it harden up for
like 20 minutes. Then into our coated doughnuts goes a bit of seedless
raspberry jam, same procedure poke a hole squeeze some stuff into it, and rejoice
because look you just made doughnuts all by yourself. You have broken free of the
stranglehold that big donut has had on the doughnut industry since before you
were born. Now these doughnuts are great they're
classic yeasted doughnuts but, I have a soft spot for sour cream doughnuts which
have more of a crispy, crackled exterior and a moist, dense
interior. We're starting by sifting together 600 grams of cake flour, one and
a half tablespoons of baking powder, and 2 teaspoons of table salt. Simply sift
that together and set aside while we combine 5 egg yolks in the bowl of a
stand mixer, along with 250 grams of plain white sugar, and 2 and 1/2
tablespoons of unsalted butter that we're going to cream together using the
paddle attachment. Then to this mixture, we're adding about half of our dry
ingredients mixing just to combine, before adding 380 grams of sour cream.
We're then beating this mixture together until everybody's well incorporated
before adding the remaining dry ingredients. We're blending that together
using the paddle attachment for 45 seconds to 1 minute making sure to
scrape down the sides of the bowl because we want everybody to thoroughly
get to know each other we don't want any stragglers at this party. This is going
to leave us with a wet sticky dough that we're going to place into a bowl which
we are going to cover and let rest in the fridge until completely chilled,
about an hour. After which you will notice that this dough has become
significantly more workable. So we're turning it out onto a floured surface
and rolling out again to about a half inch thickness. Then we are liberally
dusting our cutter in flour because this is a very sticky dough and for this one
we're using an actual doughnut cutter so this way we get donuts and holes. In
theory that is... We just got to get this guy out of here somehow.
Let's try shaking it violently, see what that does... nothing. In the end you gotta
sort of just gently coax it out of there making sure not to pinch any edges. Rinse
and repeat with the remaining dough and so we have a whole bunch of doughnuts
and holes. All of which are going straight into a 350 degree vat of oil.
They are going to sink it first and then very quickly rise to the top. Once
they're looking nice and golden-brown on one side, go ahead and give them a flip,
and you can see the exterior of these doughnuts are splitting open, that is
what we want. That is the characteristic look of the
sour cream doughnut. We're letting these cool completely on a wire rack making
sure to fry our doughnut holes as well, these are gonna cook a little bit faster
and then while these all cool off it's time to make our glaze. We're starting 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, whisk until
completely combined and no lumps remain. Give it a little taste to make sure that
it's sweet enough, I'm kidding this is just pure sugar, and once our doughnuts
have cooled off completely it's time to drop them in, give them a little fork toss,
and then fish them out, repeating until everybody has a nice,
thin layer of sweet saccharine icing. Then we just gotta let these harden for about
20 minutes before testing our hand-eye coordination. That only took me like five
attempts, I swear, and there you have it simple glazed sour cream donuts. You can
get creative with these try using maple syrup instead of water in the glaze,
frost them, dip them, sprinkle them, whatever you like. Do-nut let anyone tell
you how to doughnut, sorry... I'll see you guys next week at the
bi-weekly livestream where I will be making these doughnuts live here on
YouTube and you can tune in anytime to chat with me, shoot the breeze, or cook
along. I'll see you guys then until then, stay basic.... maybe not. I got to figure out
a good sign off catchphrase. I'll get back to you on that