I might have a thing for doughnuts. I made 3 kinds of baked doughnuts earlier this summer with grown up flavors like honey lavender and ginger brown butter. (I might have also shown you that I have a ridiculous sweet tooth with those powdered sugar doughnuts).
When we were kids, doughnuts were a special tradition. On the morning of my first day of first grade, the ceiling collapsed in the kitchen. The fan was still spinning while it was sitting on the kitchen table. My dad, the breakfast superhero, couldn’t cook. So, he did what any dad would do. He went out to get doughnuts and started a tradition that lasted until I went away to college.
My favorites? Chocolate snowballs (powdered sugar-covered, chocolate whipped cream filled), Boston Creme and strawberry. Oh and pumpkin or apple spice doughnuts.
For this month’s Gluten Free Ratio Rally (in which we all create a recipe based on a ratio – you can learn more at Shauna’s introductory post), Meg thought we should all make doughnuts or fritters. The timing was perfect. School has just started; the air was cool this morning. And I had a whole bottle of canola oil.
My first two attempts at doughnuts were miserable failures. I tried one where you create a yeast sponge that you let sit overnight (hockey pucks) and another with the ratio that everyone else seemed to find workable (sand).
I sat down and did some math from recipes of chefs I admire (Jamie Oliver, Baked, Alton Brown, etc.). My ratio is radically different from the other ones that you will see. I used no eggs. I used a lower flour to liquid ratio. But I ended up with doughnuts that are like eating clouds. They were good plain (I had to taste to make sure), they were excellent with just the glaze (again, I had to taste them to verify) and they were pretty close to perfection once I filled them with cream and dipped them in the glaze again.
My ratio was 3:2:1:1. Flour:Liquid:Sugar:Fat. Pretty simple. You can scale this recipe down if it is just for 2 or scale it up to feed a small army.
If you are going to buy a flour blend, I made some of these with the Cup4Cup flour from Williams-Sonoma (that bag cost $20! You better believe I will be baking with it). You will have equally fantastic results with Jules’ Nearly Normal Flour. Want to blend your own? There is a break down in the recipe notes on how to do this.
Yeast doughnuts are not for the time-pressed, and I made these a little more complicated than just your basic doughnut. There is time involved (lots of waiting). You don’t have to fill yours, or cook raspberries to make a juice. (I also used the pulp to flavor my yogurt and cooked the leftover juice into a syrup for adding to bubbly water).
Think of the doughnut as a blank canvas with infinite possibilities. And then think of just how worth it a warm straight-from-the-fryer doughnut is. (KrispyKreme did not end up all over the country for nothing! Warm doughnuts are a superb treat).
Before the recipe magic, here are links to all the other participants in this month’s event, hosted by Meg at Gluten-Free Boulangerie
Charissa from Zest Bakery made Picarones (Sweet potato/pumpkin fritters)
Jenn from Jenn Cuisine made Mini raspberry doughnut cakes
Lisa from Gluten Free Canteen made Apple Butter Maple Syrup Donuts, GF
gretchen from kumquat made peach cider doughnuts
Brooke from B & the boy! made Apricot Fritters
Meg from Gluten-Free Boulangerie made Old-fashioned raised doughnuts & cake doughnuts
Rachel from The Crispy Cook made Chocolate Doughnuts with Chocolate Glaze
Caneel from Mama Me Gluten Free Thai Fried Bananas
Jean Layton made Cinnamon Apple FrittersOK
Silvana from Silvana’s Kitchen Vanilla-Glazed Chocolate Chip Doughnuts
Claire from Gluten Freedom made Chocolate Coconut or Cinnamon-Glazed Vanilla Cake Donuts
Jeanette from Jeanette’s Healthy Living made Pumpkin Spice Donuts
Shauna from Gluten-Free Girl & the Chef made Gluten-free yeast doughnuts
Caliegh from Gluten Free(k) made Beetroot Fritters
TR from Nobody Likes Crumbly Cookies made Sweet Pepper Fritters
Pete from No Gluten, No Problem made doughnut holes
Britt from GF in the City made fritters
Tara from A Baking Life made Gluten Free Brioche Doughnuts
Irvin from Eat the Love made Vanilla Doughnuts
| Gluten Free Raspberries & Cream doughnuts |
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- 160 ml milk (I used SoDelicious), warmed
- 35 grams sugar
- 250 grams (2 cups +1 tablespoon) all-purpose gluten free flour*
- 7 grams (1 t) active dry yeast
- 40 grams (2.5 T) butter or EarthBalance
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract if you don’t have the paste)
- Pinch salt
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup raspberry juice**
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 cup [url href=”http://frannycakes.com/recipes/master-recipes-pastry-cream/”]pastry cream[/url]
- 1 cup heavy cream or coconut milk cream
- Measure out your ingredients and prepare a mise en place.
- In a small bowl combine warm milk, a teaspoon of your sugar, a tablespoon of your flour and your yeast. Let sit for about 15 minutes – the mixture should have produced a decent amount of foam.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the remaining flour, sugar, butter, vanilla and salt.
- Add in the yeast mixer and mix to combine. Once combined, turn the mixer speed to low-medium (mine was on 3) and let the dough “knead” for about 10 minutes.
- Watch the dough, if it is impossibly sticky add a little more flour a teaspoon at a time. (It was a bit humid in my apartment and I ended up adding 2 teaspoons of flour).
- After 10 minutes, place the dough in a greased bowl in a warm spot (my microwave is the warmest spot in my kitchen). Cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel. If you have a spare bowl for your mixer, pop it and the whisk attachment (or any bowl and the beaters for your hand mixer) into the freezer. You need it good and cold to whip the cream.
- Let the dough raise for 45 mins-1 hour. It should have just about doubled in size.
- Roll out the dough to ½” thickness and cut it into small circles (I used a small cup and they were about 2.5” in diameter.) Place them onto a greased baking sheet. Keep re-rolling the dough until you use it all up. (I got 15 mini-doughnuts from this recipe).
- Let them rise for another 45 minutes.
- While the doughnuts are raising, melt the 1 ½ tablespoons butter and combine it with ½ cup raspberry juice and ½ cup powdered sugar. Whisk until smooth. If it is too runny, add more powdered sugar, too stiff add more liquid
- With about 10 minutes of rising time left, heat 1 quart of oil in a big, deep pot (I used my 5 quart dutch oven). You want it to be about 370 degrees.
- Fry the doughnuts for about a minute on each side. You want them to turn a nice golden color.
- Set on a cooling rack.
- Once all the doughnuts are fried and are cool enough to touch, dip them into the glaze. This first dip doesn’t have to be perfect – it just helps the flavor seep into the doughnut.
- Take your bowl and whisk out of the freezer. Beat the heavy cream or non-dairy cream until you have stiff peaks. Add the pastry cream and beat about a minute more, until you have a uniform cream.
- Fit a pastry bag with a narrow plain tip and fill it with the filling (the fancy name for this is diplomat cream).
- Poke holes in the sides of all of your doughnuts with a skewer and then insert the pastry tip in the hole. Squeeze about 1 ½ tablespoons of filling in each doughnut.
- Dip them one more time in the glaze and top with sprinkles (optional).
*If you are not using a pre-blended flour, you can either use [url href=”http://glutenfreegirl.com/gluten-free-holiday-baking-2010/”]Shauna’s All-Purpose Blend[/url] and add 2 teaspoons xantham gum. Whisk well before using.
Or you can make your own with 90 grams (3/4 cup) tapioca starch, 100 grams (1/2 cup) sweet white rice flour, 60 grams (1/2 cup) sorghum flour. Add 2 teaspoons xantham gum and whisk together well to ensure that the gum is spread throughout the flour.
**I made mine by cooking a half pint of raspberries in 2 cups of water with a half cup of sugar for about 30 minutes – you can use store bought or just use milk and vanilla extract
these made me smile! love the pink with the little tiny pearl sprinkles. raspberry! love it.
Raspberries & cream? I don’t think there can be a better doughnut flavor! Beautiful creation for this month’s event 🙂
So, I would call you a doughnut professional if you have made them before, and in such intriguing flAVORS. Bravo on this razberry and cream variety.
I really, really want to try these! Oh, yum … they do look divine! I also had failure with the yeast doughnut attempt and because I was so tired at the time, went on to something else. I’ll be trying them again, though, and I’m so glad to see that you found something that worked!
And BTW, I love the story of your first day of first grade and the tradition that followed. How fun!
Thanks!
I think I just went into a sugar coma just looking at those lovely doughnuts.They are truly awe inspiring.
Love how cute these doughnuts are – looks like they rose really nicely!
Thanks! It only took 3 tries to get it right!
Oh these look so good!! That picture at the top – the texture looks so fluffy and spongy! I love the idea of putting pastry cream in them, too. Can’t wait to try them!
Ohhhhhhhh! Those sound amazing! I may try to make these, cut into long rectangles, fill with cream & top with chocolate frosting! I MISS LONG JOHN CREAM FILLED DESSERT!!! Thanks for sharing!
These look absolutely fabulous. I want to eat clouds! As a kid, Boston Creme was my favorite doughnut flavor, but I think a version filled with diplomat cream would be even better. Great job!
oh my gosh these look like the cutest most sinful little pink clouds! So many gluten free doughnuts and not enough time!
I had to give them away so I didn’t eat them all myself. And now I just want to keep making doughnuts!