You may have noticed by now that many of my Edible Adventures recipes lean towards the savoury side of cooking. This is not, contrary to popular belief, because I’ve quit sugar.
On the contrary, dessert and I continue to be in a fairly steady, slightly codependent, relationship. However, much of my love for sweeties is more than satisfied by the abundance of fresh, ripe, in-season fruit that I find on every trip to the market.
At this time of year though, as citrus and apples reach the end of their tether and summer fruits haven’t quite had a chance to feel the scorch of the Australian sun, it can be fairly slim pickings in the “seasonal” fruit department. You could say, all I get when I look around the fruit bowl is donuts.
“Donuts”, you say? Well what a coincidence! Here’s some I prepared earlier.
In fact, this donut recipe, utilising a choux pastry dough (inspired by the churros I learnt to make at Trupp Cooking School across the road) served me exceedingly well in the Masterchef kitchen. I managed to sneak it past the judges in THREE separate challenges without them noticing that it was the same thing in different shapes. That, I suppose, is the power of deep fried + ooze.
The ooze can be subbed in for any seasonal jam or preserve you have handy, or pick up a delightful little jar of fresh stuff from the pop-up jam store right across from my Blanco kitchen main stage. Or, you can even make your own using the recipe from jam queen Rebecca Sullivan.
Once you make them the first time and see how easy they are to recreate, you might find yourself deferring to them as your go-to “bring a plate” for barbecue season. With a side of fresh berries, of course.
Crispy Jam-filled Donuts
Ingredients:
500ml milk
300g plain flour
200g unsalted butter
4-5 eggs
good pinch of salt
oil for frying
icing sugar (for dusting)
thick seasonal jam (in a squeezy tube)
Methodology:
- Heat milk and butter in a medium saucepan to just before boiling point
- Take the pot off the heat and stir in flour and salt.
- Add one egg at a time into the mixture and whip in with a wooden spoon until glossy. Allow to cool slightly.
- Pour into a piping bag and nip the tip enough to create golf-ball sized shapes.
- Heat oil to 180C
- Start piping aforementioned golf-ball sized shapes and fry until golden.
- Allow to cool slightly, then squeeze jam into the centre.
- Dust with icing sugar and serve.
