Malasada Donuts
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 45 minutes plus 2 hours resting/cooling time
Cooking time: 1 hour
Makes 18 Donuts
- 1/3 cup/80ml/2.8fl oz water
- 1/3 cup/65g/2.3oz sugar
- 1 tablespoon instant dried yeast
- 540g/19oz flour
- 1 cup/250ml/8.8fl oz hot milk
- 80g/3ozs butter, melted
- 2 eggs, large at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Crème Patissiere
- 2 cups/500ml/16.9flozs. milk
- 90g/3ozs. sugar
- 30g/1oz. cornflour
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
To Fill and Roll
- 1 cup/200g/7ozs. sugar
- 400g/14ozs jam (guava jam, passion fruit curd)
Step 1 - Heat the water to 37C/98.6F and add sugar and sprinkle with yeast and stir. Cover and allow to become frothy (between 5-10 minutes). Add the flour and stir and then add the hot milk, butter, eggs, vanilla and salt and knead until elastic. It will be quite a sticky dough. Place in a very large bowl (it will swell up high) and cover and allow to rise for 1-1.5 hours or until triple in size.
Step 2 - While it is rising, make the crème patissiere. Heat the milk in a saucepan until almost boiling. Meanwhile whisk the sugar, cornflour, eggs, egg yolks and vanilla in a medium sized bowl. When the milk is hot enough, add around a third of the milk to the egg mixture to temper it whisking while you add it. Then place the tempered egg and milk mix back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk and return to a low heat. Stir to make sure that it comes together evenly and it should take under 5 minutes to get a thick custard. Place in a bowl and place cling film on top touching the surface so that a skin doesn't form and cool completely.
Step 3 - Punch down the dough when it is ready and flour a surface and roll the dough out until an inch thick. Cut out rounds with a 6cm/2.4 inch cutter placing them apart about an inch and allow to rise for 30 minutes.
Step 4 - Heat oil to 180C/350F in a large pot and add three donuts at a time to the oil and cook for 3-4 minutes total turning over halfway. Keep checking the oil temperature and adjust it up and down to keep it at 180C/350F. Place on a double paper towel lined tray and allow to rest for a few minutes before rolling in the extra sugar.
Step 5 - Place your fillings in a piping bag and using a small, sharp knife cut into the side of a donut and pipe the filling in. I put some jam, then the custard and then some jam again so that you can see from a glance what the filling is. Serve while warm!
Personal Note
I made these for a party at my friend Valentina's. 18 donuts was too much for Mr NQN and I to eat. The pressure was on for this party and it was all self inflicted. You see the party guests were the same people that I served up my biggest food disaster ever to just a few weeks prior with the runny custard tart aka #custardgate. I was worried that they'd think that I couldn't cook. I mean what sort of food blogger can't make custard? It's like not being able to boil an egg.
After the custard incident I swore that I wouldn't test recipes on people but you know my life is pretty much about testing recipes and that resolution swiftly went out the window. However this time I was going to actually eat a donut before serving it - a donut is much easier to sample discreetly than a whole tart.
I was so elated when I bit into the malasada! These are possibly my favourite donut recipe ever. I've made plenty of different types of donuts but these are something special. They're so light and perfectly sweet without being too much. And I felt relieved and happy to be able to take these to the party.
That night I explained that I was nervous about bringing food to someone at the party because I was so mortified about #Custardgate. Either they were being very polite or they had forgotten because they didn't really know what I was talking about. Or possibly I thought that I was the centre of the universe and that I was in fact not! LOL.
Of course if you can't have a party due to these crazy times, I can also recommend dropping off a little box of these malasadas at a friend's door. These donuts will brighten up anyone's day and make them feel like the centre of the universe.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you prefer plain donuts or filled ones? What filling would you make? Are you a perfectionist? Do you ever fall into the trap of feeling like you're the centre of the universe?