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Glazed Vanilla Bean Doughnuts

Servings 6 doughnuts

Ingredients

For the doughnuts:

  • 1 ½ tsp dry active yeast
  • 2 tbsp warm water
  • 3 heaped tsp granulated sugar
  • 120 ml whole fat milk , at room temperature
  • 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract (not essence)
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 30 g unsalted butter
  • 225 g plain flour , plus a little extra for kneading
  • ½ tsp salt
  • vegetable oil , for frying

For the glaze:

  • 100 g icing sugar
  • 1 tbsp whole fat milk
  • pinch salt
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Instructions

  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, whisk together yeast, warm water and one teaspoon of the granulated sugar. Leave to stand until it foams, about 5 minutes.
  • Using the paddle attachment on the mixer, at low speed, mix in the remaining granulated sugar, milk, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, egg yolks and butter.
  • Add the flour and salt and mix for a further 3 minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl and the paddle.
  • Turn out the dough onto a floured work surface and knead by hand, briefly, dusting with flour if you need to.
  • Place in a large bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in volume. Ours took a couple of hours; you can also leave in the fridge to rise more slowly overnight).
  • Turn the dough out onto baking parchment and divide into 6 equal portions.
  • Roll into balls, flatten and cut a whole out from the centre of each one. We used an icing nozzle, as we didn’t have a suitably small cookie cutter. We also combined the dough from the four holes into two small round doughnuts.
  • Cover with a clean cloth and allow to rise for 30 to 45 minutes or until doubled in size.
  • Make the glaze by whisking together the icing sugar, milk, salt and vanilla bean paste.
  • Heat oil to about 180 C and fry doughnuts, in batches, until golden brown – about 2-3 minutes per side. Sever warns against turning too often, as this can result in greasy doughnuts.
  • Transfer to paper towels to drain.
  • Spoon the glaze over the doughnuts whilst they are still warm, so it melts and trickles down the sides.

Notes

Note: Vanilla bean paste is a thick paste full of actual vanilla seeds and is a great alternative to scraping a real vanilla pod. I used Nielsen-Massey’s paste, which I think is excellent. If you can’t find this product, either use the seeds from a quarter of a vanilla pod or an extra teaspoon of extract instead.