Lemon Curd Filled Doughnuts

The weather God’s didn’t listen. Woke up to snow on Wednesday morning…

We got about an inch, yet the entire town was at a standstill and it was taking people hours to get anywhere. Absolutely ridiculous, I avoided the news all day because I knew it would make me cross! Exactly what I said would happen, happened: flights were cancelled, roads weren’t gritted. Basically we were completely unprepared, even though it’s winter.

And it certainly is winter, the air is icy! As soon as you walk outside your hands are literally frozen. My hands were numb on the way back from Uni last night. I went shopping today to stock up on more knitwear as this cold weather just makes me want to snuggle up in thick, warm clothes!

Speaking of going shopping, I know I said I’d be avoiding town until Christmas, well I definitely will be now. It actually wasn’t too busy in town, but it took 40 minutes to get out of the car park! Town is 4 miles from my house and it took over an hour to get home!

Definitely becoming a hermit.

A hermit who curls up on the sofa eating doughnuts! These were amazing, I’ve been saying I’ll make doughnuts for ages and I still haven’t used my doughnut tin and made the cake ones, but I have made fried ones now! And I will be again because they were delicious!

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Makes 10

Recipe adapted from Flour Child

Ingredients for the Lemon Curd:

> 1/2 cup lemon juice
> 2tsp lemon zest
> 1/2 cup caster sugar
> 2 eggs
> 1 stick (113g) unsalted butter

Ingredients for the doughnuts:

> One 7g packet of yeast
> 2tbsp warm water
> 3 1/4 cups plain flour, plus extra for dusting
> 1 cup milk
> 1/2 stick (56g) unsalted butter
> 3 egg yolks
> 2 tbsp caster sugar, plus extra for rolling
> Vegetable oil for frying, or a deep fat fryer.

Method:

> Make the lemon curd first as it needs time to chill. Bring a couple of inches of water to the boil in a small saucepan and whilst the water is boiling place the lemon juice, zest, sugar and eggs in a heatproof bowl and whisk.
> Add in the butter.

> Once the water has come to a boil turn it down to a simmer. Attach a candy thermometer to the bowl.
> Place the heatproof bowl on top of the water, making sure it doesn’t touch the bottom of the bowl.
> Whisk continuously until the thermometer reads 160 degrees F. This will take 5-10 minutes. Do not stop whisking until it has reached the correct temperature. The mixture should have thickened as well.
> Once the mixture has reached the correct temperature, remove from the heat. Transfer it to a medium sized bowl.

> Cover the lemon curd with clingfilm, making sure you press the clingfilm onto the top of the curd, this will stop a skin developing. Leave to cool for about an hour before placing in the fridge to chill until you’re ready to use it.
> Now to make the doughnut dough! Place the yeast and warm water in a small glass and mix together. Leave it for about 5 minutes until the mix is foamy.
> Place the flour, milk, butter, egg yolks, sugar and yeast mixture into a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.
> Mix for 2-3 minutes until a soft dough forms. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured bowl.
> Lightly flour the top of the dough.

> Place a clean tea towel on top of the bowl and leave in a warm place to rise for an 1 1/2 hours until doubled in size. I usually heat the oven to around 100 degrees C and then leave it to cool slightly before placing my dough in to rise.
> Once the dough has risen, lightly flour the work top and then turn the dough out onto your work surface.
> Roll the dough into a log about 2-2 1/2 inches in diameter.
> Using a knife or dough scraper, cut the dough into ten 2 inch pieces.

> Line a baking tray. Shape the dough into even rounds, rolling it in your hands or on the worktop, whichever you find easier. I used both hands to turn the dough whilst shaping it.
> Place your doughnuts onto the baking tray.
> Leave to prove for about 30 minutes.
> During this time heat 2 1/2 inches of oil in a deep pan or heat your fat fryer up to 350 degrees F/180 degrees C.
> Place about 1/2 a cup of sugar in a bowl to roll the doughnuts in, you will need to replace the sugar as it gets oily and slumps together after you’ve rolled a few doughnuts.
> Set up a wire rack with kitchen towel underneath it to absorb any dripping oil when the doughnuts are cooling.
> Once the doughnuts are proved they will be wobbly and jelly like.

> I cooked one doughnut at a time so it had plenty of space to float around the oil, but you can cook up to 2 at a time if you’d rather.
> Lower a doughnut into the hot oil with a metal slotted spoon and cook for about 2 minutes until golden. Flip it over and cook for a further 2 minutes until it sounds hollow when you knock on it with a slotted spoon.

> Spoon out your doughnut and let excess oil drip off, place the doughnut into the bowl of sugar and coat both sides. Place the doughnut onto the wire rack to cool completely.
> My first doughnut ever!! 😀

> Repeat until you’ve cooked all of your doughnuts and then leave them on the wire rack to cool for around 30 minutes.

> Take the lemon curd out of the fridge and snip the end off of a piping bag or ziploc bag to make a 1/2 inch hole. I didn’t bother with a nozzle.
> Take a knife and poke through the side of each doughnut until the knife comes out of the other end. Turn the knife both ways to make a hole in the doughnuts. I tried doing this with the curd in a squeezy bottle with a nozzle, but it didn’t work, hardly any filling went in 🙁
> Place some lemon curd in the piping bag and then poke it into one side of the doughnut. Squeeze until lemon curd just starts to come out of the other side of the doughnut.
> Repeat until all doughnuts are filled, you will have some lemon curd leftover.
> Best eaten on the day you’ve made them, but they are good warmed slightly in a microwave for up to 2 days. The sugar coating will dissolve, so you may want to roll them again.
> Store in ziploc bags or an airtight container.